Espen Johan Klævik-Pettersen

Head of Department Department of Foreign Languages and Translation

Email: espen.klavik-pettersen@uia.no
Phone: +47 38 14 20 59
Mobile phone: +47 95 14 01 33
Office: E1071A (Universitetsveien 25, 4630 Kristiansand, Norway)

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Areas of responsibility

Hi! My name is Espen and I come from Senja in Troms. I have a PhD in historical syntax (Old French and Late Latin) from the University of Oslo (2019). I also hold Bachelor's degrees in French, German, Latin and Political Science from the University of Tromsø. My main field of interest is diachrony (the evolution of languages through time) and the syntax of the Romance languages, but I also take interest in older Indo-European languages such as Latin, Ancient Greek, and Sanskrit.

Teaching

In the fall term, I teach the courses FR 121, FR 123, as well as FR-126 (French didactics). In the spring term, I teach the courses FR-122, FR-124, and FR-400 (French didactics).

Research

Academic interests

Modern and older stages of the Romance languages in general (including Latin) and French in particular, syntax, word order, diachrony. Secondary interest: Indo-European studies, Ancient Greek, Sanskrit.

Research groups

Klævik-Pettersen, Espen Johan (2025). On the probable non-existence of "bottlenecks" in V2-languages. Open Germanic Linguistics. ISSN 2750-5588. p. 49–73. doi: 10.5281/ZENODO.17077186. Full text in Research Archive Show summary
This paper addresses the question of how to account for the restricted left periphery of verb-second (V2) languages. The locality constraint known in the literature as the “bottleneck” is critically reviewed, and theoretical and empirical arguments against this hypothesis are presented. Reviewing the basic empirical generalisations regarding so-called “relaxed” (Old Romance) and “strict” (Modern Germanic V2 languages, it is argued that the bottleneck hypothesis does not make any predictions for the former, and that there is direct counterevidence against the latter in the form of the Contrastive Left-Dislocation construction. The paper also discusses two different approaches to verb-second that do not involve “bottlenecks”.
Klævik-Pettersen, Espen Johan & Wullum, Ida Marie (2024). L’omission de que chez les apprenants norvégiens de français langue étrangère. In Nilsen, Catrine Bang; Helland, Hans Petter; Stenkløv, Nelly Marie Patricia Foucher & Larrivée, Pierre (Ed.), Complexité et transfert: Le cas des apprenants scandinaves du français L2/L3. Presses Universitaires de Caen. ISSN 9782381852263. p. 123–146. Full text in Research Archive Show summary
Il est communément admis que, lors de l’acquisition d’une langue étrangère, l’apprenant s’appuie de façon consciente ou inconsciente sur une langue préalablement acquise, soit sa langue maternelle (L1) soit une autre langue étrangère (L2), dans le processus de construction de la grammaire de la langue cible. Par conséquent, des effets de transfert peuvent avoir lieu. Le transfert, dont une définition sera donnée dans la section 2.1, peut toucher tous les domaines de la compétence linguistique, comme de nombreuses études l’ont déjà montré (voir les nombreuses contributions dans Yu & Odlin 2016). Dans cet article, nous nous proposons de joindre à ce domaine de recherche florissant une étude de corpus sur l’omission du mot que par des apprenants norvégiens de français langue étrangère (désormais aussi FLE).
Cournane, Ailís & Klævik-Pettersen, Espen Johan (2023). The role of the conservative learner in the rise and fall of verb-second. Journal of Historical Syntax. 7(6-19), p. 1–48. doi: 10.18148/hs/2023.v7i6-19.160. Full text in Research Archive Show summary
This paper argues that the diachronic rise and fall of verb-second grammars is tied to the conservative nature of child structure projection and movement postulation, within a Minimalist syntax. For the rise of V2, we propose that children bundle features on a single head in the left periphery, only unbundling (adding projections) with unequivocal input evidence. For the loss of V2, we appeal to the theory that children avoid verb movements, only postulating additional movements with unequivocal input evidence. Interim grammars along the developmental path – with bundled left peripheries or less-moved Vs relative to the input grammars – prescribe latent diachronic pathways available to actuate into community grammars. We assess our predictions for child interim grammars against the acquisition literature and find data consistent with both fewer projections and less movement in child language, relative to adult input grammars. We appeal to changes in the learning context, namely bilingualism in language contact, as the external impetus for the actuation of change, in both our V2 case studies (Rise: Old French, Loss: Germanic Urban Vernaculars). In language contact situations we suggest children are more likely to continue to use interim grammars for longer periods among their peer-groups, inviting innovative syntax to catch-on (or actuate) among young speakers in those speech communities.
Klævik-Pettersen, Espen Johan (2022). Full V2, no V2, residual V2: Exploring variation through phases. Isogloss. Open Journal of Romance Linguistics. 8(3), p. 1–25. doi: 10.5565/rev/isogloss.199. Full text in Research Archive
Klævik-Pettersen, Espen Johan (2021). V2, phases, et périphérie gauche : remarques sur la topicalisation en français et en norvégien. Oslo Studies in Language (OSLa). 12(1), p. 87–104. Full text in Research Archive
Klævik-Pettersen, Espen Johan & Callegari, Elena (2020). Les sujets disloqués en trévisan : étude pragmatique. Scolia. ISSN 1253-9708. doi: 10.4000/scolia.1321. Full text in Research Archive
Klævik-Pettersen, Espen Johan (2019). What is Germanic and what is not about old French V2. Linguistic Variation. ISSN 2211-6834. 19(1), p. 141–198. doi: 10.1075/lv.00011.kla. Full text in Research Archive

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Klævik-Pettersen, Espen Johan (2026). Ballots and Borders: France and the EU in the age of populism. Full text in Research Archive
Klævik-Pettersen, Espen Johan (2025). Frankrike er i opprør – igjen - fvn.no. Full text in Research Archive Show summary
Folk tar til gatene og protesterer mot politikere – som står på sitt. Frankrike har nemlig kompromissløse ytterpartier både til høyre, venstre og i sentrum.
Klævik-Pettersen, Espen Johan (2025). Hva er historisk lingvistikk? In Nossum, Rolf Tomas (Eds.), Agder Vitenskapsakademis årbok 2024. Agder Vitenskapsakademi. ISSN 9788269402803. Full text in Research Archive
Klævik-Pettersen, Espen Johan (2024). Macron spiller høyt for å holde ytre høyre utenfor makten. Full text in Research Archive
Klævik-Pettersen, Espen Johan (2024). Nå er fransk politikk like splittet som resten av landet. Full text in Research Archive
Klævik-Pettersen, Espen Johan (2024). Ytre høyre vinner makt i Frankrike og Europa. Full text in Research Archive
Erdmann, Susan Lynn; Klævik-Pettersen, Espen Johan; Garshol, Lenka; Hasund, Ingrid Kristine & Päplow, Thorsten Manfred (2024). Editorial. Nordic Journal of Language Teaching and Learning (NJLTL). 12(1). doi: 10.46364/njltl.v12i1.1449. Full text in Research Archive
Klævik-Pettersen, Espen Johan (2024). Une approche simple pour un français complexe: Comment enseigner les constructions participiales à travers l'anglais. Full text in Research Archive
Klævik-Pettersen, Espen Johan (2024). Frankrike uten regjering og uten budsjett. Full text in Research Archive
Klævik-Pettersen, Espen Johan; Drange, Eli-Marie D.; Hope, Tim & Doetjes, Gerke (2024). Fransk forsvinner fra ungdomsskolen i Agder. Full text in Research Archive
Birkeland, Nils Rune; Selås, Magnhild; Gunleifsen, Elin; Drange, Eli-Marie D.; Garshol, Lenka & Klævik-Pettersen, Espen Johan [Show all 26 contributors for this article] (2024). 12 argument for å halde på framandspråka i ungdomsskulen. Khrono. doi: https:/www.khrono.no/12-argument-for-a-halde-pa-framandspraka-i-ungdomsskulen/907087. Full text in Research Archive
Klævik-Pettersen, Espen Johan (2023). Hva er "la Françafrique", og hvorfor snakker så mange mennesker i Afrika fransk? Full text in Research Archive
Klævik-Pettersen, Espen Johan (2023). Deriving V2 and V3 without bottlenecks: Evidence from Modern Germanic and Old Romance. Full text in Research Archive
Klævik-Pettersen, Espen Johan (2023). Sam Wolfe, Syntactic Change in French. Journal of French Language Studies. ISSN 0959-2695. doi: 10.1017/S0959269523000017. Full text in Research Archive
Klævik-Pettersen, Espen Johan (2023). No V-to-Force, no Bottlenecks: Two ways to derive V2. Full text in Research Archive
Klævik-Pettersen, Espen Johan (2023). Verb movement and phasehood in French clausal syntax. Full text in Research Archive
Klævik-Pettersen, Espen Johan (2023). The coarse structure of the left periphery : Towards a new model of the clause. Full text in Research Archive
Klævik-Pettersen, Espen Johan & Wullum, Ida Marie (2022). L'omission de que chez les apprenants norvégiens de français langue étrangère. Full text in Research Archive
Klævik-Pettersen, Espen Johan; Stenkløv, Nelly Marie Patricia Foucher; Skagen, Margery Vibe; Fodstad, Lars August; Paulsen, Martin & Guldal, Tale Margrethe (2022). Uventet og uforståelig kutt i fransk-norsk samarbeid. Full text in Research Archive
Klævik-Pettersen, Espen Johan (2022). Verb movement and phasehood in French clausal syntax. Full text in Research Archive
Cournane, Ailís & Klævik-Pettersen, Espen Johan (2021). The role of the conservative learner in the rise and fall of verb-second. Full text in Research Archive
Klævik-Pettersen, Espen Johan (2021). Norsk og fransk politikk : Likheter og forskjeller. Full text in Research Archive
Klævik-Pettersen, Espen Johan (2021). Full V2, Residual V2, no V2 : Exploring Variation through Phases. Full text in Research Archive
Klævik-Pettersen, Espen Johan (2018). One head, many features: Why `strict' V2 languages defy (strong) cartography. Full text in Research Archive
Klævik-Pettersen, Espen Johan (2018). Why we still don't have a theory of V2 that (really) works. Full text in Research Archive
Klævik-Pettersen, Espen Johan (2017). Late Latin word order: a precursor of Old Romance verb-second? Full text in Research Archive
Klævik-Pettersen, Espen Johan (2017). Latin and Old Romance: When information structure becomes syntax. Full text in Research Archive
Klævik-Pettersen, Espen Johan (2017). L'ordre des mots en latin tardif. Full text in Research Archive
Klævik-Pettersen, Espen Johan (2019). Inversion, V-to-C, and verb-second: An investigation into the syntax and word order of Old French and Late Latin. Universitetet i Oslo. Full text in Research Archive

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Published Apr. 16, 2024 11:04 AM - Last modified May 14, 2024 2:58 PM