L2 multiple nominal feature agreement in German: the acquisition of grammatical gender in a formal environment

Abstract

This work reports on accuracy in grammatical gender marking by Italian adults learning German in a formal environment. It aims at investigating whether adult speakers of a [+gender] language who are acquiring a [+gender] L2 language can master a complex gender agreement system given the crucial role played either by other morphosyntactic features in the L2 nominal inflection. Moreover, it explores the role that L2 input (formal instruction; access to the L2 outside classroom activities) may (not) have in this particular domain of language acquisition. Findings indicate that L1 transfer – the fact that [gender] is morphologically realized in both languages although the Italian system is not congruent to the German one – and formal instruction do not play a crucial role in the population investigated for this study. Overall, results show that acquiring lexical gender seems to be possible from early on, whereas mastering more complex agreement configurations where multiple morphosyntactic factors interact on gender marking on nominal elements is problematic even if the category gender is present in the L1.