The Role of Linguistic Typology, Target Language Proficiency and Prototypes in Learning Aspectual Contrasts in Italian as Additional Language

Francesco Vallerossa

doi:10.3390/languages6040184

Abstract

The study examines how prototypes and typological relationships between the L1, the L2 and the target language (TL) interact with TL proficiency in learning Italian as additional language. Low-proficiency and high-proficiency undergraduate learners of Italian (N = 25) with Swedish as L1 performed an oral retelling story test, aiming to elicit the Italian aspectual contrast perfective-imperfective. Their tense selection was analyzed considering the predicates’ lexical aspect and the learners’ knowledge of a Romance L2, or lack thereof. The findings show that the typological proximity between the L2 and the TL exerts a differential role depending on TL proficiency. Initially, it is beneficial for accelerating the overall emergence of the imperfetto as an aspectual marker. However, the prototype factor and, more specifically, the predicates’ dynamicity influences the selection of past inflectional morphology. At more advanced stages, knowledge of a Romance language helps learners move beyond prototypical associations with the passato prossimo, but it does not seem to influence the use of the imperfetto among high-proficiency learners. These results are discussed in the light of research on the second and additional language learning of aspectual contrasts in Romance languages.

Highlights

Previous research on the second language acquisition of the Romance contrast between perfective and imperfective aspect has found several important factors that play a role when learning how to express tempo-aspectual (TA) morphology (Bardovi-Harlig and ComajoanColomé 2020)
The selection of TA morphology is not always straightforward, a rule of thumb for understanding the results is that the perfective context in the narrative should trigger the passato prossimo while the imperfective habitual context should elicit the selection of the imperfetto
The present study addressed potential differences in how L1 Swedish speakers learning Italian at different proficiency levels express TA morphology depending on whether or not they have knowledge of a Romance L2, i.e., the typology factor, and on the inherent lexical aspect of the predicates, i.e., the prototype factor

Summary

Introduction

Previous research on the second language acquisition of the Romance contrast between perfective and imperfective aspect has found several important factors that play a role when learning how to express tempo-aspectual (TA) morphology (Bardovi-Harlig and ComajoanColomé 2020). A second important factor is the typology factor, namely whether there is transfer in the realm of aspect due to typological relationships of proximity and distance between previously known languages (both the L1 and L2) and the target language (TL) (for the influence of the L1 in L2 acquisition see Collins 2002; Izquierdo and Collins 2008; for the influence of the L2s in additional language learning see Diaubalick et al 2020; Eibensteiner 2019; Foote 2009; Salaberry 2005; Vallerossa et al Forthcoming) These two factors interact with a third factor, which is TL proficiency, but their impact varies at different acquisition stages (McManus 2011, 2015; Salaberry 2008). The influence of TL proficiency was not investigated in these studies on the acquisition of aspect, research on multilingual transfer found that L2 influences are strongest during the initial stages of acquisition of an Ln while they decline with increased TL proficiency (Bardel and Lindqvist 2007; Sánchez and Bardel 2017; Williams and Hammarberg 2009)

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Conclusion