How well can non-native length contrasts for vowels and for consonants be perceived and is one type more difficult than the other? Three listener groups (native Italian and German as well as advanced German learners of Italian) performed a speeded same-different task involving vocalic and consonantal length contrasts as well as segmental contrasts…

The present article addresses the following question: what variables condition syntactic transfer? Evidence is provided in support of the position that third language (L3) transfer is selective, whereby, at least under certain conditions, it is driven by the typological proximity of the target L3 measured against the other previously acquired…

This study investigates transfer at the third-language (L3) initial state, testing between the following possibilities: (1) the first language (L1) transfer hypothesis (an L1 effect for all adult acquisition), (2) the second language (L2) transfer hypothesis, where the L2 blocks L1 transfer (often referred to in the recent literature as the "L2…

This experimental study investigates the acquisition of Italian accusative and dative clitics by English adult speakers. These pronouns are non-existent in English. Results from a grammaticality judgement task show that Italian accusative and dative clitics develop slowly but gradually in Italian second language (L2) grammars. Interestingly, the…

This study presents data from an experiment on the interpretation of intrasentential anaphora in Italian by native Italian speakers and by English speakers who have learned Italian as adults and have reached a near-native level of proficiency in this language. The two groups of speakers were presented with complex sentences consisting of a main…

Tests the typological plausibility of Processability Theory, a theory of processability of grammatical structures that formally predicts which structures can be processed by the learner at a given level of development. Tests the theory for two typologically different languages--Italian and Japanese (Author/VWL)

Incompleteness of competence--lack of command of certain second-language (L2) aspects--and divergence--interlanguage representations of L2 properties different from native representations--are distinct states of grammatical competence, as seen in French and English speakers of Italian (L2). Discussion argues that competence differences reflect…

The study investigates the relationship between input, UG (Universal Grammar) parameter values, and the native language in the acquisition of a purely semantic property that is superficially unrelated to its syntactic trigger, The Bare Noun/Proper Name parameter (Longobardi, 1991; 1994; 1996; 2001; 2005). On the one hand, English and Italian bare…

This article assesses 1 individual's level of recall for Italian vocabulary learned 10 years previously using the keyword method. Without any revision, the subject remembered 35 percent of the test words with spelling fully correct and over 50 percent with only minor spelling errors. The effectiveness of the keyword method of vocabulary…

Analyzes data on the acquisition of German by Italian and Spanish speakers. Findings reveal that children learning a first language and adults learning a second language build up syntactic structure in much the same manner, and propose that the weak continuity approach of language acquisition accounts for all instances of syntactic acquisition.…