From ‘il’ to ‘uno’: A Developmental Scale for Acquisition of Italian Article in L2

Abstract

This study investigates the developmental trajectory of article acquisition in adolescent learners of Italian as a second language (L2), based on a corpus of written production from 208 students representing 35 different L1 backgrounds. Drawing on markedness theory (Jakobson, 1968; Eckman, 1985) and frequency-based approaches (Ellis, 2002), the analysis examines whether learners initially acquire unmarked and high-frequency forms and how morphophonological complexity influences accuracy and emergence. This study employs a quantitative, time series analysis (Xu, 2023) to investigate whether a developmental trajectory of article emergence and stabilization can be empirically observed over time. Learners’ productions were timestamped and processed, enabling the construction of longitudinal frequency matrices and the application of rolling averages. The stabilization of each article form was operationalized, allowing the reconstruction of an acquisition sequence. Findings support a frequency- and markedness-driven developmental hierarchy of Italian article acquisition shaped by both frequency-driven and phonological constraints. More marked forms tend to stabilize later and are often avoided in favor of less marked alternatives. Definite articles il, la, i, le, and indefinite un are among the earliest to stabilize and are frequently overused across all L1 groups, with a notable preference for feminine forms. Statistical analyses, including ANOVA and post hoc tests, confirmed significant variation in article use over time and between L1 groups.