The acquisition of the aspectual contrast perfective/imperfective in Italian as a second language has been investigated considering both the inherent semantics of verb predicates, i.e. telic and atelic, and the discursive functions conveyed by tenses, i.e. foreground and background contexts (Giacalone Ramat 1990; Rosi 2008). These studies indicate a first acquisition of perfective morphology associated to telic predicates in foreground contexts whereas a subsequent emergence of imperfective morphology appears with atelic predicates in background contexts. The frameworks connected to this developmental pattern are generally referred to as Lexical Aspect Hypothesis (LAH) and Discourse Hypothesis (DH) respectively, the former solely considering the semantics of verb predicates and the latter also integrating the discursive functions in the acquisition of tense-aspect (TA) categories (Andersen 1993; Bardovi-Harlig 2000).
Although the influence of other factors, such as input-frequency and the role of the first language, has been investigated in Romance languages, a comprehensive analysis of the acquisition of TA morphology in Italian in lacking.
The present complitation thesis aims to provide an in-depth understanding of the phenomenon in Italian by examining it from different angles, drawing on LAH and DH, and integrating them with frequency-based grammar (Ellis 2013). The common thread in the three papers included in the project is the study of Italian as a third language (L3) in Swedish formal contexts of instruction - both upper secondary school and university. In addition, both the perspective of the learner and that of the input provided by the instructor are regarded as equally indispensable for capturing the complex dynamics of the development of this additional language.
In the first study, an analysis based on LAH and DH is conducted on InterIta, a corpus of 71 transcribed interviews from 25 Swedish university learners of Italian at different proficiency levels. The aim is to investigate whether and how the theories can be used as explanation models for the development of TA morphology.
The second study examines the type of linguistic input conveyed by teachers from upper secondary school and university. Drawing on frequency-based grammar, the study shifts the attention from the output produced by the learners to the linguistic input presented to them, emphasizing its relevance in a formal environment. Recordings of instructors' talk during classes are thus analyzed in terms of frequency, i.e. how often TA morphology occurs, and distribution, i.e. what predicates are associated to TA morphology and in what discursive function.
Finally, the third study aims to analyze the use of TA morpholgoy among advanced learners. Although research on the ultimate attainment in the aspectual domain has been conducted in other Romance languages, the counterpart in Italian remains under researched, especially considering the influence of previous languages.
Lund: Lund University , 2019. p. 31-31
EuroSLA 29 - The 29th Conference of the European Second Language Association, Lund, Sweden, Aug. 28-31, 2019