So far, we have been looking into two structures involving the syntax–morphology interface: English nominal plural marking and English regular past tense marking. One structure relating to the syntax–semantics interface has also been discussed: English past tense marking. The examination of these target structures has not indicated any L3–L2 reverse transfer at the receptive level, but possible traces of interaction between L3 French and L2 English at the productive level. This chapter will continue the investigation of the possibility of L3–L2 reverse transfer by examining another structure on the syntax–semantics interface, namely placement of frequency adverbs. Despite the fact that adverbs are mostly optional and therefore adjoined constituents in English, their positions in a sentence are subject to various semantic and syntactic concerns. For example, their position relative to other constituents in a sentence will determine different meanings. There are also interesting crosslinguistic differences (e.g. French vs English) regarding their different positions relative to other constituents in a sentence. These semantic and syntactic features and differences relating to adverbs have important acquisitional implications.

The following hypotheses about adverb placement were made in light of the overall research question and hypotheses of the project:

• • Hypothesis 1 (relating to research concern (1) and the possibility of reverse transfer involving an L3). Under the influence of their L3 French, the CEF participants will judge and identify English adverb placement marking less accurately and will produce more ungrammatical adverb structures than their CE peers.

• • Hypothesis 2 (relating to research concern (2) and the possible vulnerability of English adverb placement as highlighted in L2A studies and the IH). Under the influence of L1 Cantonese, the CEF participants, like their CE peers, will judge and identify English adverb placement less accurately and will produce fewer grammatical English adverb structures than the native controls.

As in the earlier chapters, there is first a brief comparison of adverb placement in English, Cantonese and French.