V2 is not difficult to all learners in all contexts: a cross-sectional study of L2 Danish

Abstract In a cross-sectional study of L2 Danish, we examined the production of correct verb-second (V2) word order. We tested the effect of (1) the learners’ language background, (2) test level and (3) the length of the sentence constituents. The texts were written by 217 students (3 test levels (A2-B1), 52 different L1s). Interrogative clauses had high accuracy, but 25% of the 491 declarative sentences with non-initial subjects had incorrect V3 word order. Our study shows that V2 is not difficult for all learners. Learners whose L1 is a V2 language had a significantly higher share of correct V2 word order, and they never overused V2. For non-V2 learners, the share of correct V2 significantly increased with proficiency level. For constituent length, accuracy decreased significantly with the length of the first constituent and for subjects consisting of multiple words.