Property-by-property transfer in L3 Italian

Abstract

According to the (Westergaard et al., 2017), linguistic structure is the chief factor which conditions transfer on a basis in . The present study examined the predictions of this model in the L2 and L3 acquisition of by - and -speaking L2 and L3 learners. The structures of interest were and animate specific direct objects. Crucially, dative experiencer psych verbs from the piacere/gustar “like” class are similar in Italian and Spanish in that they cannot be passivized; these same verbs have nominative experiencers and can be passivized in English. Italian and English both lack (DOM), which is instantiated in Spanish, meaning that objects which are both animate and specific are morphologically marked. In this way, the language selected for transfer could be precisely identified. Results, overall, from a written found that the L3 groups transferred from distinct previously acquired languages, either their L1 or L2 ( and ), to different extents for the two main properties tested, supporting the validity of the and as a post theoretical model of L3 interlanguage development.