The syntax-semantic interface in auxiliary selection. Experimental data from L2 and FL German Speakers of Italian.

The aim of this work is to analyse auxiliary selection in Italian as a Second Language (L2) and as a Foreign Language (FL) in native speakers of German, within the theoretical framework of Generative Grammar, with special attention to the variables related to the learning of an L2 and an FL in a comparative perspective between German and Italian. The data were collected by means of an original experiment based on metalinguistic judgements on a psychometric scale and semi-guided productions from indications associated with original graphic representations. It will be shown that the factors influencing the linguistic phenomenon under scrutiny are closely linked to the relationship between argument roles and syntactic functions, the semantic notion of Subject ‘control’ and the explicit formal realisation of transitivity. Episodes of variation and uncertainty, on the other hand, are due to interferences relating to grammatical properties and phenomena which are specific to the native language, such as the lexical distinction of certain polysemous verbs in the target language or the role of semantic categories such as Action (the so-called Akzionzart) in the realisation of the verb or specific adjunct phrases.