Child second language acquisition of tense-aspect morphology : a bi-directional study of English and Italian
The present thesis reports on the acquisition of tense-aspect morphology in three L1 Italian children learning L2 English and three L1 English children learning L2 Italian. The children, aged between seven and nine years, were observed in their home environment for a period of six months at approximately two-week intervals. The tense-aspects forms considered are the simple past and the progressive for English, the <i>passato prossimo </i>(i.e. present perfect) and the <i>imperfetto </i>(i.e. imperfect) for Italian. A typological analysis of these forms indicates that their interaction with lexical aspectual classes creates prototypical links. Thus, the simple past and the <i>passato prossimo</i> are prototypically linked to telic predicates, the progressive is prototypically linked to activities and <i>imperfetto</i> to statives. These prototypical links are substantiated acquisitionally by L1 and L2 studies. They are also confirmed by findings from the present study, indicating that these prototypical links are transferable. The typological similarity between the progressive and the <i>imperfetto</i>, both belonging to the imperfective area, results in a bi-directional effect of transfer. The progressive
Rocca, Sonia
Child second language acquisition of tense-aspect morphology : a bi-directional study of English and Italian. The present thesis reports on the acquisition of tense-aspect morphology in three L1 Italian children learning L2 English and three L1 English children learning L2 Italian. The children, aged between seven and nine years, were observed in their home environment for a period of six months at approximately two-week intervals. The tense-aspects forms considered are the simple past and the progressive for English, the <i>passato prossimo </i>(i.e. present perfect) and the <i>imperfetto </i>(i.e. imperfect) for Italian. A typological analysis of these forms indicates that their interaction with lexical aspectual classes creates prototypical links. Thus, the simple past and the <i>passato prossimo</i> are prototypically linked to telic predicates, the progressive is prototypically linked to activities and <i>imperfetto</i> to statives. These prototypical links are substantiated acquisitionally by L1 and L2 studies. They are also confirmed by findings from the present study, indicating that these prototypical links are transferable. The typological similarity between the progressive and the <i>imperfetto</i>, both belonging to the imperfective area, results in a bi-directional effect of transfer. The progressive
child second_language acquisition tense aspect morphology directional study english_italian present report acquisition tense aspect morphology italian child_learn english english child_learn italian child_age observe home environment period approximately week interval tense aspects form consider simple past progressive english present perfect imperfect italian typological_analysis form indicate interaction lexical aspectual class create prototypical link thus simple past link telic predicate progressive link activity prototypical link substantiate study also confirm finding_present study indicate prototypical link typological similarity progressive belong imperfective area directional effect transfer progressive