Article In:
International Journal of Learner Corpus Research: Online-First Articles

Intensification in written L2 Italian

Insights from the multilingual region of South Tyrol

 | Eurac Research Bolzano | Università per Stranieri di Perugia
ORCID logo | Eurac Research Bolzano
 | Eurac Research Bolzano | Free University of Bolzano
The present study compares the use of adjective intensification in written L2 Italian production in South Tyrolean upper secondary schools with that of young Italian native speakers. By relying on a Diasystematic Construction Grammar approach, it explores the role of learners’ L1s, L2 proficiency levels and their linguistic environments as potential variables affecting the use and choice of different intensifying constructions. Results show that a dominant German-speaking linguistic environment is a significant predictor of learners’ preferences for a syntactic over a morphological intensification type. Unexpectedly, however, learners of Italian also make heavy use of the intensifying suffix — issimo, an unfamiliar construction in German. Results also show a difference in the diversity of intensification types used by learners compared to native speakers. Learners are limited to the most frequent types and make a very limited use of maximizers, which seem to be a “blind spot”.
Keywords: L2 Italian, adjective intensification, young learners, multilingualism, construction grammar
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Background
    • 2.1Multilingualism and language use in South Tyrol
    • 2.2Adjective intensification in L2 learners
    • 2.3Intensification in Italian
    • 2.4Diasystematic construction grammar
    • 2.5Learning an additional language in DCxG
  • 3.The present study
    • 3.1Data and method
    • 3.2Analysis and results
      • 3.2.1Descriptive statistics
      • 3.2.2Syntactic vs. morphological intensification
      • 3.2.3Intensification types
  • 4.Discussion
  • 5.Conclusions
  • Data availability statement
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
This content is being prepared for publication; it may be subject to changes.
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