Various studies have indicated during the past decade that language transfer in L3 may not only stem from L1 but from L2 as well, and that it might sometimes even be stronger from L2, depending on certain factors that facilitate or inhibit transfer. This phenomenon of L2 as the main transfer source in L3 has often been referred to as the ”L2 status factor” (Hammarberg, 2001). The L2 status factor hypothesis expects that the priorly acquired language which scores the highest in several transfer factors will adopt the role of ”external supplier language” (Hammarberg, 2001), i.e. it will be the main source of transfer providing L3 with linguistic features. Namely, the factors that have hitherto been proposed to condition transfer are: typology, psychotypology, proficiency, and psychoaffective factors. The aim of this investigation is to compare the transfer that two groups might exhibit with regard to the English existential expletive pronoun (there), in order to account to whether transfer in L3 might be stronger from L2 than from L1 in this syntactic context. One group consists of subjects with different L1s, L2 Swedish and L3 English; the other is formed by L1 Swedish and L2 English speakers. The informants are aged 13-14, speak the L1s and Swedish (nearly) fluently and English at a basic/intermediate level. Basing the study on the L2 status factor hypothesis, and taking several transfer factors into consideration when analyzing the collected written data, the results are discussed both from a general perspective (from aggregate group scores) and from a micro-perspective (by tracing individual differences). The results obtained suggest that transfer in L3 appears to be stronger from L2 than from L1 when evaluating the aggregate group scores, but only in some cases (and not in most) when examining the individuals separately.

The study reported in this thesis investigates the source language of lexical transfer in multilingual learners using a mixed methods approach. Previous research has shown that the source language of crosslinguistic influence can be related to factors such as proficiency, recency/exposure, psychotypology, the L2 status, and item-specific transferability. The present study employed a mixed methods approach in order to best serve the particularities of each of the five factors under investigation. Multinomial logistic regression was emloyed to test the predictive power of the first four factors, thereby addressing the issue of confounding variables found in previous studies. A more exploratory qualitative analysis was used to investigate item-specific transferability due to the lack of prior empirical studies focusing on this aspect. Both oral and written data were collected, offering an analysis of modal differences in direct comparison. The results show a significant effect of proficiency and exposure, but inconsistent patterns for psychotypology. Most importantly, in this study of lexical transfer, a significant L1 status effect was found, rather than an L2 status effect. In addition, the statistical model predicted the source language of transfer better in the spoken than in the written mode. Finally, learners were found to assess, as well as actively improve, an item’s transferability in relation to target language norms and constraints. All of these findings contribute to our understanding of lexical organization, activation, and access in the multilingual mind.

<p>A great deal of the research on cross-linguistic phonetic influence demonstrates that a speaker’s knowledge of their first language (L1) significantly affects their ability to perceive and produce sounds in any other language. While current studies show that cross-linguistic transfer occurs at the L3 level, some research suggests that properties of both L1 and L2 are present in the production of L3 (Ionin, Montrul & Santos, 2011). Many studies have addressed perception, production and factors that influence foreign speech in Second Language Acquisition (SLA) (Watkins, Rauber & Baptista, 2009). As the number of multilingual individuals rises, so does the need for studies that investigate not only SLA but also that of additional languages (i.e., Third Language Acquisition). This dissertation examines how cross-linguistic influence (CLI) occurs among English, Spanish, and Brazilian Portuguese (BP), examining instances of vowel reduction, an aspect of phonological production. English and BP are assumed as vowel reducing languages, whereas Spanish displays negligible vowel reduction in comparison. The vowel productions in L3 BP of two multilingual groups, L1English-L2Spanish-L3BP (ESP) and L1 Spanish-L2 English-BP (SEP) were investigated in two tasks: a paragraph reading task (PRT) and a carrier phrase task (CPT). The study sought to determine whether i) a native speaker of a vowel reducing L1 and a non-vowel reducing L2 displays more or less vowel reduction in a vowel reducing L3 than a native speaker of a non-vowel reducing L1 and vowel reducing L2 and ii) how length of exposure to an L3 affects phonological production. Three fixed effects were considered: duration ratio, intensity ratio and height (F1). The goal was to ascertain whether the Typological Primacy Model (TPM) (Rothman 2011, 2015) or the L2 Status Factor Model (Bardel & Falk 2007, 2012; Hammarberg, 2001) would be a better predictor for how vowel reduction would occur in the L3. Results for duration ratio and vowel height showed no significant difference between groups ESP and SEP. Results for intensity ratio suggest L2 Status as a better predictor, as group SEP displayed more phonological transfer than the ESP group. A hybrid approach to L3 acquisition models is proposed. </p>