Postmodifying Clauses Written by Students, Who Are Dutch: A Longitudinal Corpus-Based Study About Adnominal Participle Clauses and Relative Clauses.

Abstract

The aim of this thesis is to see how advanced Dutch students of English use adnominal participle clauses and relative clauses in their works. It analyzes data from the LONGDALE corpus to identify how the students’ use of these postmodifying structures develops over the course of their bachelor program. The study, furthermore, pays special attention to a possible trade-off between the use of adnominal participle clauses and relative clauses. Relevant background knowledge and an analysis of previous research are provided. The results are compared to results found in previous research to check for possible traces of transfer. This study also explores the concept of interlanguage. The results suggest that, although these students are very advanced learners of English, they are still interlanguage speakers who are possibly influenced by transfer.