This special issue presents results from comparative research into the principles constraininglearner varieties (interlanguages) in use. The contributors analyze the oral production of complexverbal tasks (descriptions, instructions, narratives, retellings) in L2 Dutch, English, French,German, and Italian, concentrating on the way information from different semantic domains isorganized across utterances (referential movement) and on a major aspect of the interactionbetween utterance-level and discourse-level constraints, namely, scope phenomena. We hope theresults presented here will provide insights into the structural and communicative factorspushing, or hampering, L2 acquisition and will further our understanding of how the organizingprinciples interact at different levels of discourse production, be it in L1 or L2.

Based on their longitudinal analysis of the acquisition of Dutch, English, French, andGerman, Klein and Perdue (1997) described a “basic learner variety” as validcross-linguistically and comprising a limited number of shared syntactic patterns interacting withtwo types of constraints: (a) semantic—the NP whose referent has highest control comesfirst, and (b) pragmatic—the focus expression is in final position. These authorshypothesized that “the topic-focus structure also plays an important role in some otherrespects. . . . Thus, negation and (other) scope particles occur at the topic-focus boundary”(p. 318). This poses the problem of the interaction between the core organizational principles ofthe basic variety and optional items such as negative particles and scope particles, whichsemantically affect the whole or part of the utterance in which they occur. In this article, we testthe validity of these authors' hypothesis for the acquisition of the additive scope particlealso (and its translation equivalents). Our analysis is based on the European ScienceFoundation (ESF) data originally used to define the basic variety, but we also included somemore advanced learner data from the same database. In doing so, we refer to the analyses ofDimroth and Klein (1996), which concern the interaction between scope particles and the part ofthe utterance they affect, and we make a distinction between maximal scope—that whichis potentially affected by the particle—and the actual scope of a particle in relation to anutterance in a given discourse context.

This paper describes the process of acquisition in learner varieties with respect to referenceand referential movement in the domain of modality. The findings are based on data from thelongitudinal ESF and P-MoLL projects and on cross-sectional data of Italian learners of German,as well as German and Italian native speech. The theoretical framework is provided by Klein andvon Stutterheim's (e.g., 1987) “quaestio model” and their concept ofreferential movement. The concept of modality is based on Dietrich's (1992) theory ofmodality. The present findings show that, in instructional discourse, the German native speakersprefer implicit, contextual-based modal means when referring to maintained topic information inthe domain of modality, whereas in the learner varieties at least three main stages can beobserved: a phase of formulaic speech and pragmatic mode, a phase of high explicitness, and aphase of approach toward implicit reference based on (target) principles of referential movement.With the help of a new category—subquaestio—I show how, with respect to thechange of modal means, the use of explicit modal marking in German native speech generallyarises from specific local difficulties. In contrast, the use of explicit modal reference in learnervarieties remains to a large extent unaffected by whether the modal marking depends on theoverall text quaestio or on local problems.

This paper focuses on the acquisition of linguistic devices used for discourse cohesion inChinese and French. Particular attention is paid to how two types of learners (child L1[Chinese, French] and adult L2 [Chinese learning French]) acquire thelinguistic means for marking topics, in particular French dislocation,and itsdiscourse-pragmatic functions. Data consist of narratives based on picture sequences, producedin absence of mutual knowledge. Previous studies in L2 acquisition have shown that, at earlystages, adult learners' utterances and texts are organized along semantic and pragmaticprinciples, rather than along structural ones. These principles play a preponderant role in Chineseas well. French shares this tendency with Chinese, insofar as particular utterancepatterns—dislocations—mark topic and antitopic. Results show that Frenchchildren have to acquire the discourse functions related to dislocations. Postbasic-variety adultlearners readily use French dislocations to mark—appropriately—a variety ofdiscourse-pragmatic functions. However, the adult learners quite often use forms that deviatefrom the dislocated form found in target language French. This is all the more interesting becausethe chosen forms, though not usable without a certain context in standard French, do occur incolloquial French and are clearly functionally related to the target forms.

Acquisition of negation in Italian as a second language (L2) is investigated on the basis ofthe longitudinal data of five learners with different first languages (L1s) in the framework of afunctional approach focusing on the semantic and pragmatic principles governing theorganization of learner varieties and the process of their complexification. Negation develops in acumulative process in four successive stages. New constructions entering into interlanguage (IL)at each stage effect reduction in frequency of use of previous constructions that specialize forspecial functions, such as constituent negation. The acquisition process provides insight intosome of the mechanisms involved in the processing and filtering of grammatical elements fromthe input and into strategies employed by the learners to integrate the expression of the scope ofnegation into the syntactic organization of their variety. The results contribute to a betterunderstanding of the acquisition processes of negation in L2s, allowing the comparison of thedevelopment of a relatively straightforward target with an invariable preverbal particle, Italian,with the better investigated development of the complex patterns of English and German.

The present cross-linguistic study deals with the relevance of principles of informationorganization in adult second language acquisition. It looks at typological features of informationstructure that allow speakers to organize and shape the flow of information when carrying outcomplex tasks, such as giving a description, and pinpoints factors that lead to the selection oflinguistic form. At the focus of our attention are means used in reference introduction, such asexistential and locational constructions, the morphosyntactic forms of expressions applied inreference maintenance, and word order. The cross-linguistic comparison shows that the optionsfound in the expression of these functions in German, English, and Romance languages (French,Italian, and Spanish) follow distinct patterns in that the linguistic means used reflect unifyingprinciples of a typological nature. These principles are perspective driven and are associated withpatterns of grammaticization. Structures in language that reflect core principles in informationorganization may be difficult to acquire because learners have to recognize clusters ofform-function relations that range over different domains. The nature of the analyses required isdescribed for learners of German with English and Spanish as their source languages. Theinterlanguages (ILs) of these speakers show a high degree of compatibility with German informal syntactic terms and are near native in many respects, but the levels at which the IL andtarget language diverge can be linked to fundamental principles of organization underlyinginformation structure. Although the stage of acquisition is advanced, the languages still retaincore principles in information structure typical of those found for English and Romancelanguages.