La morfologia nominale nell’italiano L2 di minori stranieri non accompagnati: analfabetismo, acquisizione, didattica

Il contributo esplora la possibilità di tracciare specificità nel processo di acquisizione della morfologia nominale nell’italiano L2 di apprendenti privi di competenze di scrittura in lingua madre e debolmente o per nulla scolarizzati al loro arrivo in Italia, rispetto al generale progredire delle varietà di apprendimento, così come quest’ultimo viene descritto nella letteratura di riferimento. L’indagine si avvale di un corpus di italiano L2 realizzato nell’ambito dei corsi di lingua e di alfabetizzazione della Scuola di Lingua italiana per Stranieri dell’Università di Palermo

The development of verbal strategies in L2 Italian of low/non-literate adult learners

I present the results of a research conducted in Palermo, Italy (the 'gateway to Europe' in the new migrations crossing the Mediterranean Sea) between 2017 and 2019.A conspicuous feature in new migrations is widespread illiteracy and low schooling rates, especially in the case of migrants coming from sub-Saharan Africa or Bangladesh. This research focused on the acquisition of verbal morphosyntax in adult learners with limited or no literacy in a language of origin upon arrival on Italian shores

Non-target do-constructions in the L2 Italian of adult migrants

In the recent migration towards Europe, adults’ low-/non-literacy/schooling is a significant factor. Moreover, migrants experience social marginalisation and, hence, they are low-exposed to the target language. Whether these sociolinguistic variables produce differences in L2 acquisition still needs to be verified, since research on migrants’ L2s (in particular morphosyntax) is still peripheral. This lack of attention not only deprived second language acquisition of the social relevance that characterised its beginnings (Young-Scholten 2013), but is also problematic at the theoretical level, as working with convenience samples undermines the reliability of the research results (Tarone et al. 2009). Against this background, a longitudinal data collection was conducted at the Palermo University (Italy, 2018-2019) which involved the recording and transcription of 20 West African migrants’ speech. Data analysis, conducted in Klein/Perdue’s (1997) functionalist framework, brought to light non-target constructions involving overgeneralisation of items learners are in the process of acquiring (e.g. auxiliaries), to cover the functional spaces of other forms not yet acquired. The attention is focus on a do-construction that so far has escaped the attention of the specialists: io fare:INF cucinare:INF ‘I do cook’. I propose that fare ‘do’ expresses ‘activity’/‘verbiness’ instead of the lacking target morphosyntax. Similar constructions were observed in L2 Dutch and English (Starren 2001; Vainikka et al. 2017). This specific pattern would remain unnoticed by analysing only language classes or, in general, highly educated learners

The development of L2 Italian morphosyntax in adult learners with limited literacy

Low literacy and schooling rates are a significant factor among adults in the recent migration towards Europe. Furthermore, migrants experience social marginalisation and spatial segregation in the new countries and, hence, they are low-exposed to the target language. Research on interlanguages development in such sociolinguistic contexts is still peripheral. Within the little existing research, there is consensus that adult learners with none/limited literacy acquire L2 linguistic competence more slowly compared with educated adults, but there are divided views on the relationship between L1(s) literacy and L2 acquisition (Tarone et al. 2009; Vainikka et al. 2017; Young-Scholten and Strom 2006). Slow acquisition, in fact, may result from limited literacy or from other factors deriving from literacy, e.g. low exposure to the target language and no access to written texts. Whether and how these sociolinguistic variables influence L2 acquisition (and, if so, what their respective impact is) still need to be verified. Against this background, a longitudinal study was carried out at the University of Palermo, Italy, in 2017-2019, involving 20 adult migrants from sub-Saharan Africa and Bangladesh. Half of them had little/no literacy prior to arrival. The data collected over 13 months, through interviews and narrative tasks, were analysed from a functionalist perspective inspired by the basic variety model (Klein and Perdue 1997; Giacalone Ramat 2003). Data analysis, focused on the acquisition of L2 tense, aspect and modality, brought to light a general low development of the participants’ interlanguages, which barely reach the early stages of the post-basic continuum. This results from the common scenario of very low exposure to the target language, while learners’ degree of literacy does not appear to play a role, as literate and low/non-literate learners follow the same path of morphosyntax acquisition. However, literacy acts in a subtler way, favouring the development of specific morphosyntactic sub-patterns. This involves the analytical phase that precedes the morphological encoding of verbal categories in the transition from basic to post-basic varieties. At this stage, grammatical and lexical information are encoded separately, possibly by means of non-target constructions in which they are distributed among the diverse constituents (Benazzo 2003; Benazzo and Starren 2007; Starren 2001). Some of these have already been described for L2 Italian, e.g. auxiliary constructions (non è:be.3SG credere:INF ‘he does not believe’, Bernini 2003). Others have escaped the attention of specialists, e.g. the light verb construction (fare:INF mangiare:INF ‘I eat’). Non-target constructions are temporary grammaticalisation strategies to cover the functional space of forms (bound morphemes) not yet acquired. Non-target constructions especially occur in learners with limited literacy, while literate learners use them in a more sporadic and transient way. This can be interpreted as an effect of reduced exposure to the input as a consequence of limited literacy. As learners with limited literacy are exposed exclusively to oral input, they struggle in identifying bound morphemes in the input, due to the low salience, redundancy and frequent reduction phenomena these formatives undergo in spontaneous speech. This leads them to favour and maintain “heavier” constructions, made of material more easily perceived in the input

Emerging Constructions in the L2 Italian Spoken by Low Literate Migrants

The emergence of autonomous interlanguage constructions is widely recognised in the literature on L2 Italian. These constructions involve the overgeneralisation of functional forms learners are in the process of acquiring, e.g., siamo in siamo mangiare ‘be:1PL eat:INF’ (target Italian: mangiamo ‘eat:1PL’); facciamo in facciamo cucinare ‘do:1PL cook:INF’ (target Italian: cuciniamo ‘cook:1PL’); per in piaciare per uscire fuori ‘like:INF for go:INF out’ (target Italian: mi piace uscire fuori ‘to.me like:3SG go:INF out’. ‘Be’/‘do’ forms are assigned a morphosyntactic function to convey temporal/aspectual/person information instead of inflecting the verb, while per ‘for’ is a generic subordinating marker. Based on new corpus data, I claim that such constructions may correlate with a learners’ degree of first language (L1) literacy. In detail, and consistent with, both literate and non-literate learners overgeneralise functional forms while working on the newly acquired morphosyntax; this shows that the non-literates are perfectly able to subconsciously identify functional forms in the input. Non-literates, however, show a stronger tendency than literates to select lexical-syntactic sub-patterns

THE SEMANTIC NETWORK OF THE LATIN PREPOSITION PER: A DIACHRONIC INVESTIGATION

The article proposes a corpus-based analysis of the semantics of the Latin preposition per ‘through’ from the 3rd century BCE to the 4th century CE. Based on the insights of Cognitive Grammar, it will be argued that the diachronic shifts occurred within the semantic network of the preposition can be explained in the light of its basic spatial content. Starting from the original spatial meaning, the whole semantic network of per develops in diachrony along a continuum from spatial to abstract values via metonymical shifts. We will discuss these paths of development, focusing attention on the causal roles and on the feature of Animacy

Literacy and literacy practices : Plurilingual connected migrants and emerging literacy

Recent migration towards Europe is characterized by the massive presence of adults whose educational paths have been interrupted and who are thus developing literacy for the first time in a new language. A literacy test elaborated at the University of Palermo, Italy, showed that, on a sample of 774 migrants, about 30 percent could not read and/or write short words. This test assessed the learners’ abilities to read and write, whether in the Roman alphabet or in other writing systems, and whether in Italian or in other languages of learners’ repertoires. These learners with emergent literacy mostly came from sub-Saharan Africa, an area characterized by diverse forms of multilingualism, and are representatives of “connected migrants” due to the centrality of digital communication practices in their migration experience; hence, the importance of research on such communication practices. This study examined the multilingual writing on Facebook of 10 migrants in Italy with emergent literacy. Findings demonstrate that these learners engage in multilingual practices which enhance their literacy competence by adopting strategies reflecting the general process of acquisition in naturalistic contexts. However, emerging writing on Facebook does not reflect participants’ interlanguage and literacy levels elicited through the test

The semantic network of the Latin preposition per : a diachronic investigation

Proponiamo qui i risultati di uno studio corpus-based sugli slittamenti diacronici osservabili nel network semantico della preposizione per in latino. Sulla base della Cognitive Grammar, descriviamo la semantica di per situandola lungo un continuum che procede dal concreto all’astratto, a partire da un contenuto schematico originario; discutiamo, quindi, i percorsi attraverso i quali i nuovi significati astratti emergono attraverso slittamenti metonimici, focalizzando la nostra attenzione sui ruoli causali e sulla caratteristica di animatezza.We present here the results of a corpus-based study on the diachronic shifts observed in the semantic network of the preposition per in Latin. On the basis of Cognitive Grammar, we describe the semantics of per by situating it along a continuum that proceeds from the concrete to the abstract, starting from an original schematic content; we then discuss the pathways through which new abstract meanings emerge through metonymic slips, focusing on the causal roles of the metonymic meanings of per. metonymic shifts, focusing our attention on the causal roles and the animacy feature. the characteristic of animacy

Approximation through suffixation:-ḍḍu/-a in Sicilian

This article investigates the use of the Sicilian suffix -ḍḍu/-afor the expression of ap-proximation. On the basis of a survey of a corpus of ethnotexts and the outputs of a translation questionnaire, we propose that approximation is a core value in the semantic network of the suffix, expressing a certain distance fromthe default values conveyed by the base. In terms of prototypi-cality, this distance may occur from the categorial centre (internal approximation): the suffix mod-ifies the semantics of the base but does not alter the categorial status of the referent. Alternatively, the suffix may impact on categorial membership tout court (external approximation), questioning the categorial properties of the base. Based on this classification, the semantic cores of the suffix are represented in a map showing the connections between the various meanings identified in the corpus