Effects of English L2 on Norwegian L1. Issue 3 (6th June 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Sunde, Anne Mette; Kristoffersen, Martin
• Is Part Of: Nordic journal of linguistics. Volume 41:Issue 3(2018:Sep.)
• Page Start: 275
• Page End: 307
• Publication Date: 2018-06-06
• Subjects: Acceptability judgements, -- borrowing, -- calquing, -- English influence, -- Norwegian; 410.5
• DOI: 10.1017/S0332586518000070
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0332-5865

Abstract

Abstract : English outweighs other languages as a source for linguistic borrowing in present-day Norwegian. Most of the research on this topic has considered direct lexical loans, yet observations indicate that English is increasingly burrowing its way below the lexical surface of Norwegian – evident in the rising number of calques. This study investigates how a selection of recently observed multiword calques from English are evaluated by native Norwegian speakers. This is examined through acceptability judgements among young bilingual Norwegians ( n = 83, mean age 18), and among two control groups comprising 10 bilingual adults (mean age 55) and 16 minimally bilingual seniors (mean age 75), respectively. A translation test was included to compare the judgements against production data. Based on our overall findings, we suggest that increased calquing is a sign of heightened proficiency in and exposure to the English language.