An analysis of subject ellipsis errors in Somali students’ essays

Dina Gadieva, Ettien Koffi SLIFE

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. A verb without a subject is a serious grammatical mistake in academic writing. We investigate the issue and provide tips on how teachers can help their Somali students overcome this syntactic challenge.

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