Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to present the results of the analysis of the lexicalization of motion events in Italian L2 by a group of learners having English, German and Spanish as their first language. The typology of lexicalization of motion events has been refined in the last two decades after the original Talmy’s (1985) bipartite typology, which distinguishes between two major types of languages, satellite-framed languages and verb-framed languages, but has proved to be too rigid with respect to empirical data. The present analysis was carried on following Wälchli’s (2001) typology, which, in an indirect way, highlights the role of word classes in the lexicalization patterns of spatial relations, pointing to the possibility of expressing the semantic component of a motion event at the clause level, and not only in verbal roots. In the light of recent studies (Beavers et al., 2010; Bernini, 2010, among others) we want to emphasize, in second language acquisition research, the importance of the interaction between semantics and pragmatics in determining learners’ choices among alternatives constructions: the type of lexicalization depends on the lexical and on the grammatical resources available in a given interlanguage stage. Following Sampaio et al. (2003) we claim that typology should be applied not to languages but to construction types.