V2 in non-subject-initial main clauses in Latin American Norwegian: Results from a narration task

Abstract

This paper presents an investigation of the verb second (V2) rule in Norwegian heritage language in Latin America (LatAmNo). Using a narrative retelling task with segments from the Chaplin film Modern Times, data was collected from 19 LatAmNo speakers from Argentina, Ecuador and Chile, and 10 homeland Norwegian speakers as a control group. The study focuses on non-subject-initial, declarative main clauses; the results show that LatAmNo speakers generally retain V2 despite some variation, in line with previous studies of Scandinavian heritage languages. LatAmNo speakers also exhibit a lower proportion of non-subject-initial declaratives than homeland speakers. This is similar to what has been observed in North American Norwegian (NAmNo); however, in LatAmNo, the lower proportion of non-subject-initial declaratives cannot be straightforwardly explained by cross-linguistic influence, in contrast to what has been proposed for NAmNo (Westergaard et al. 2023).