This study investigates the development of complexity in nominal phrases in adult learners of Swedish. A somewhat similar development as that of Bulté's learners of English is shown in our data by Swedish learners. A measure of the morphology of the phrase is tested and compared to Bulté's word measure.
Within CAF-research, it is more common to measure complexity in clauses than in phrases, which is evident in studies of L2-Swedish, where there is no research on the structural complexity of the phrase and how it develops over time. Second language development of nominal phrases in L2 Swedish has so far mainly been about definiteness. We will present a study in which we investigate the development of complexity in nominal phrases in adult Swedish learners. Our data are taken from the ASU corpus at "Språkbanken" and consist of ten learners on a preparation course for university studies. Complexity is analyzed at four data points, based on the three measures mentioned in Bulté's thesis on development of complexity in SLA (2013). Bulté's study of second language learners of English shows that the complexity of the nominal phrase increases at the group level, but that it varies widely at the individual level. A similar development is shown in our data by learners of Swedish, at least at the group level. Since English and Swedish differ in the morphology of the noun phrase, the question of whether the measures need to be supplemented is raised. The double definiteness in Swedish, for instance, is not captured in Bulté's measures. We will therefore also present a measure based on the number of morphemes instead of words and compare it to Bulté's word measure. Bulté, Bram (2013). The development of complexity in second language acquisition. A dynamic systems approach. Dissertation, Vrije Universiteit Brussel.
