ABSTRACT
This chapter describes viewpoint aspect and its acquisition in a second language. It provides a description of this linguistic category and its position in the language system at the interface between morphosyntax, semantics and pragmatics with crosslinguistic considerations. It surveys the most relevant theoretical accounts of viewpoint aspect and explains how they have been applied by researchers working on Second Language Acquisition (SLA). The chapter critically surveys the most relevant studies on second language acquisition to date, examining their relation to other studies on language development (first language acquisition, bilingualism, heritage acquisition) and the methodological approaches used to investigate the acquisition of viewpoint aspect in a second language. The chapter closes with some considerations for further research.
