Acquiring motion verbs in a second language: The case of Italian L2

Abstract

The contribution is devoted to the lexicalization strategies of intransitive motion events in the acquisition of Italian as a second language. According to the theoretical framework of lexical typology here adopted, different lexicalization strategies of the components of the conceptual structure of spatial localization events found to occur in different languages have been subsumed under the types of V-framed and S-framed languages. In V-framed languages the Path component is expressed within the verb root, as in Italian uscire; in S-framed languages it is expressed by another element in the clause, originally called the satellite, as in German ausgehen (Talmy 1991 e 2000b). However, straightforward attribution to a definite type may be challenged, as illustrated by Italian. The data considered consist of audiorecorded narratives of the Frog Story (Mayer 1969) produced by twelve tutored advanced German/Dutch and English learners of Italian L2. The analysis focuses first on the lexical types expressing intransitive motion events found in the data. In a second step, the means used by the learners for the expression of the Path of motion are analyzed: The locus of the expression can be the verbal root, an adverbial phrase or an adnominal phrase, as proposed in Walchli (2001). Further data on motion verbs from a Tigrinya learner, whose acquisition of Italian has been observed longitudinally, will be considered. In their choice of lexicalization strategies learners appear to be sensitive to the ambiguous typological position of Italian, where both V-framed and S-framed patterns are allowed, as well as to the patterns found in their L1s.