Abstract
Somali is not a Pro-drop language, yet nine of 20 essays (45%) written by college-bound Somali students contain subject ellipsis errors. Negative transfer from their L1 is suspected because in Somali, the second verb of compound and complex sentences lacks an overt grammatical subject. However, a verb without a subject is a serious grammatical mistake in academic writing in English. We investigate the issue and provide tips on how teachers can help their Somali students overcome this syntactic challenge.
Recommended Citation
Gadieva, Dina and Koffi, Ettien
(2025)
"AN ANALYSIS OF SUBJECT ELLIPSIS ERRORS IN SOMALI L2 WRITING,"
Linguistic Portfolios: Vol. 14, Article 7.
Available at:
https://repository.stcloudstate.edu/stcloud_ling/vol14/iss1/7
