Manner in L2 German: evidence from motion event encoding

This study investigates the encoding of Manner in ablative and adlative boundary-crossing motion events in German, comparing the oral productions of native speakers of German and Spanish with those of Spanish-speaking learners at proficiency levels B1, B2, and C1. The findings reveal that the rhetorical style of Spanish and the typological contrasts between German and Spanish are reflected in the learners’ interlanguage. Although learners show increasing use of Manner verbs with higher proficiency, the overall analysis of Manner expression indicates significant differences between the German control group and the experimental group. The results underscore the need to integrate tasks in German as a Foreign Language (DaF) instruction that account for the role of context in Manner encoding and promote the development of typological awareness. They further emphasize the importance of addressing second-tier verbs and constructions such as kommen + Partizip II in classroom practice, to provide a more comprehensive representation of motion lexicalization patterns in the target language.