Insights into the lexicon-syntax interface in Italian learners English. A generative framework for a corpus-based analysis

The main research issues of the study are grounded in two productive strands in the fields of formal linguistics and L2 acquisition: the role of Universal Grammar (UG) in interlanguage and the role of computer methodologies in empirical studies based on the analysis of language data. Corpus data elicited from a group of Italian EFL learners have been incorporated in a generative grammar framework to analyse the lexicon syntax interface in the process of foreign language acquisition. The first part of the book deals with the main concepts of those theories concerning second language learning which have paid particular attention to the acquisition of syntax and lexicon and to the fundamentals of syntactic theory. In the second part of the book a sample of data from the University of Salerno Learner Corpus (UNISALC) is examined, paying particular attention to the structure of the Noun Phrase (NP) and the Prepositional Phrase (PP) recurring in learners interlanguage.