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Zuzana Toth
Tense and Aspect in Italian Interlanguage

Sprache im Kontext
Language in Context
Edited by
Monika Dannerer, Jürgen Spitzmüller and Eva Vetter
Advisory Board
Marietta Calderón Tichy (Salzburg), Rudolf de Cillia (Vienna),
Ursula Doleschal (Klagenfurt), Helmut Gruber (Vienna),
Barbara Hinger (Graz), Ulrike Jessner (Innsbruck),
Sabine Lehner (Vienna), Benedikt Lutz (Krems), Heike Ortner (Innsbruck),
Hermine Penz (Graz), Marie-Luise Pitzl (Vienna), Claudia Posch (Innsbruck),
Martin Stegu (Vienna), Ruth Wodak (Lancaster and Vienna)
Volume 45

Zuzana Toth
Tense and Aspect in
Italian Interlanguage

ISBN 978-3-11-062496-0
e-ISBN (PDF) 978-3-11-062649-0
e-ISBN (EPUB) 978-3-11-062518-9
ISSN 0948-1354
Library of Congress Control Number: 2020945811
Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie;
detailed bibliographic data are available on the Internet at http://dnb.dnb.de.
© 2020 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Printing and binding:CPI books GmbH, Leck
♾ Printed on acid-free paper
Printed in Germany
www.degruyter.com

|
A Maria Pia

Acknowledgments | VII
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110626490-202
Acknowledgments
I would like to express my profound gratitude to Eva Vetter and Maria G. Lo Duca
for their scientific guidance, patience in reading and providing insightful feed-
back throughout the course of this study; and to the researchers of INVALSI,
whose scientific support was invaluable. I am also deeply grateful to Eva Wiberg,
Fabiana Rosi and to the two anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments
on an earlier version of this work.
I am most grateful to Robert Hambrook, whose meticulous comments were an
enormous help to me, and to the lectors of Italian language at Institute of Ro-
mance languages at the University of Vienna, who enabled the collection of data
necessary for the present study, particularly Silvia Dalla Pietà, Benedetta
Giordano, Stefano Lucchi, Mario Rossi, Alberto Sana. A lot of thanks to all the
students who agreed to participate in this study.
Special thanks to the native speaker informants who helped me with the analysis
of the data, particularly to Rino Bosso, Giuseppe Branciforti, Thomas Callegaro,
Giulia Dal Ferro, Giovanna Lazzarin, Elisa Pini, Anna Sandrini and Ester Schmitt;
and to Elisabeth Stanciu and Albina Töws for their patience and help during the
final editing.
I would also like to thank the colleagues and scholars who supported and in-
spired me throughout the years, especially György Domokos, Elena Duso, Mojmír
Malovecký, Antonella Mastrogiovanni, Alessia Mattei, Mária Medveczká, Daniela
Notarbartolo, Maria Cristina Peccianti, Julia Renner, Roberto Ricci and Alberto
Sobrero; my wonderful family and Michael Schmitz for their patience and emo-
tional support.

X | Contents
4.2.1 The effect of lexical aspect on morphological marking of
predicates 
| 74
4.2.2 The lexical aspect hypothesis 
| 76
4.2.3 The conjunct influence of lexical aspect and discourse
grounding 
| 80
4.2.4 The distributional bias hypothesis 
| 81
4.2.5 Distribution of prototypical combinations in the
interlanguage 
| 82
4.2.6 The default tense hypothesis 
| 83
4.3 A comprehensive model of the acquisition of temporal-aspectual
distinctions 
| 85
4.4 Transfer of knowledge of tense and aspect 
| 86
4.5 Summary 
| 88
5 The acquisition of tense and aspect in Italian 
| 91
5.1 Mode of language learning: tutored versus untutored
learners 
| 92
5.2 Lexical aspect as a triggering factor in tense/aspect
acquisition 
| 96
5.3 The role of lexical aspect across acquisition stages 
| 101
5.4 The semantic value of past tense forms across acquisition
stages 
| 103
5.5 The effect of L1 on tense/aspect acquisition 
| 105
5.6 Summary 
| 110
6 Methodology 
| 111
6.1 Research questions 
| 113
6.2 Participants 
| 114
6.3 Methods of data collection 
| 115
6.4 Methods of data analysis 
| 118
6.4.1 Coding for grounding 
| 121
6.4.2 Coding problematic cases 
| 124
6.4.3 Obligatory occasion analysis 
| 125
6.4.4 Frequency analysis 
| 129
6.4.5 Coding for lexical aspect 
| 130
6.4.6 The number of lexical aspectual categories 
| 131
6.4.7 Within-category and across- category analysis 
| 133
6.4.8 Operational tests to determine lexical aspect 
| 134
6.4.9 Representation of lexical aspect in the interlanguage 
| 136

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110626490-001
1 Introduction
The expression of temporal relations is of central importance in communication:
“[t]he ability to talk about time is a fundamental trait of human communication,
and all languages we know of have developed means to express time” (Klein
2009a: 35).
Given the centrality of this conceptual domain, there is a great deal of re-
search concerning the expression of time in different languages (e.g., Bertinetto
1986, 1991; Klein and Li 2009; Haßler 2016) and the acquisition of temporal ex-
pressions in both native and non-native languages (e.g., Andersen and Shirai
1996; Andersen 2002; Giacalone Ramat 2003b; Salaberry and Ayoun 2005). Con-
sider how a non-native speaker of Italian concludes the story of Little Red Riding
Hood in (1):
(1) Alla fine è arrivato il cacciaguida e ucideva il lupo.
In this sentence, which could be translated as In the end, the hunter arrived and
killed the wolf, temporal information seems to be conveyed by a variety of linguis-
tic devices, such as the temporal adverbial alla fine ‘ in the end’, the morphologi-
cal marking of tense and aspect, and the lexical aspectual characteristics of the
two predicates (arrivare ‘to arrive’ and uccidere ‘to kill’). Despite the presence of
these linguistic devices, the sentence is formulated in a way that leaves the reader
uncertain about the temporal characterisation of the two events. A closer look at
how the different means of temporal expression work together may explain why.
In its traditional understanding, tense is a deictic category, concerned with
the location of situations on the time axis, while grammatical aspect concerns the
internal temporal structuring of a situation, presenting it as temporarily un-
bounded or within its temporal boundaries ( see Klein 2009b: 39–42). Similar to
grammatical aspect, lexical aspect is also concerned with the internal temporal
constituency of a situation; however, it is encoded on the lexical level. These lev-
els of temporal and aspectual representation interact with discourse grounding
principles (Dry 1983; Hopper 1979). In narrative discourse, temporally bounded
events typically mark the foreground, i.e. the main story line, presenting a series
of events in chronological order, while temporally unbounded events are likely
to form the background, presenting supporting material such as descriptions,
events that chronologically overlap with the main story line, etc.
In example (1), both predicates are marked with past tense morphology, sug-
gesting that both events are located in the past or, in Reichenbach’s (1947) terms,

2 | Introduction

before the moment of speech. The linguistic context induces a sequential inter-
pretation, i.e. at the end of the story the hunter arrived and killed the wolf. The
morphological marking on the first verb is consistent with such interpretation: it
carries perfective morphology, suggesting that the event of arriving concludes
before the next event starts. However, the second verb carries imperfective mark-
ing, which makes us wonder whether the event of killing the wolf was completed
or was interrupted by another event. In Bertinetto’s (1986: 347) terms, the right
boundary of the time span occupied by the event is opened up and no reference
is made to its completeness or conclusion. If sentence (1) was uttered in a conver-
sation, the interlocutor would possibly react with a question such as And then
what happened? (Bertinetto 1986: 353). As the concluding sentence of a written
narrative, (1) leaves a sense of incompleteness in the reader. However, was it the
intention of the learner to leave the story incomplete? Or, on the contrary, is
his/her use of tense and aspect marking different from the target language norm?
In the latter case, what are the reasons for such differences? Does his/her native
language – or other languages he/she has learned – play a role in this? Similar
questions and considerations, emerging from the observation of how verbal mor-
phology is used by non-native speakers of It alian, inspired the present study.
Since the linguistic encoding of time may be particularly relevant when tell-
ing stories, an activity that is part of our everyday life (Lo Duca 2003), the main
research question guiding the present study was: How do non-native speakers
encode time when telling a story in Italian?
1.1 Tense and aspect in narrative texts
Narrative texts are particularly well-suited to observe th e expression of temporal
and aspectual meanings in different languages. In Italian, tense and grammatical
aspect are marked morphologically and interact with both the lexical aspectual
properties of the predicates and the principles of narrative discourse grounding.
In other words, telic predicates (e.g., to kill the wolf), which imply an inherent
endpoint on the lexical level, are highly likely to be marked with perfective mor-
phology and to be part of the narrative foreground. On the other hand, atelic pred-
icates (e.g., to love), which convey temporal unboundedness on the lexical level,
are semantically congruent with imperfective marking and tend to occur in the
background of narratives.
How the development of this complex system of temporal and aspectual
meanings unfolds has long been a captivating question for language acquisition
research. Over the years, two influential hypotheses have been formulated: the
Lexical Aspect Hypothesis (Andersen and Shirai 1994, 1996) and the Discourse

Tense and aspect in narrative texts | 3

Hypothesis (Bardovi-Harlig 1994a). The first claims that the development of
tense/aspect marking is driven by semantic affinities between morphological and
lexical aspect, in the sense that semantically congruent combinations of lexical
aspect and verbal morphology are acquired before non- prototypical combina-
tions. For instance, learners start marking perfectivity on telic predicates because
the implication of an inherent endpoint on the lexical level is consistent with the
temporal boundedness conveyed by perfective morphology. The second hypoth-
esis emphasises the influence of discourse grounding principles, claiming that
learners start using verbal morphology to distinguish foreground from back-
ground in their narratives. For instance, they start using perfective morphology
to mark sequentially ordered events in the foreground. Both hypotheses predict
that the initial phases of language acquisition are characterised by the prevalence
of prototypical combinations of different levels of temporal and aspectual repre-
sentation, while non-prototypical combinations appear with more advanced pro-
ficiency.
However, the use of verbal morphology in sentence (1) does not seem to be
consistent with any of these hypotheses. The sentence contains two telic predi-
cates: one marked with perfective morphology (a prototypical combination), an-
other marked with imperfective morphology (a non-prototypical combination).
The use of a non-prototypical combination can hardly be interpreted as a sign of
advanced proficiency, because it occurs in the narrative foreground, where per-
fective morphology would be expected. The reason for this use of imperfective
morphology may be that the learner does not have a complete awareness of the
aspectual value of Italian tense forms, as suggested by several studies on the ac-
quisition of Romance languages (e.g., Giacalone Ramat and Rastelli 2013;
McManus 2013; Salaberry 2011). The incomplete representation of the aspectual
value of tense forms may be connected to the prominence of temporal distinc-
tions in both the learner’s L1, German, and the target language (see Bertinetto et
al. 2015; Wiberg, 1996), as well as to cross-linguistic variation.
In contrast to Italian, the learner’s first language, German, does not display
systematic aspect marking on a morphological level (Hentschel and Vogel 2009).
The aspectual characterisation of a situation is based on the lexical aspectual
properties of a predicate and on contextual information. F or instance, telic situa-
tions and chronologically ordered events are likely to be interpreted as perfective,
while atelic situations often trigger imperfective interpretation (Bohnemeyer and
Swift 2004).
Such cross-linguistic differences in the expression of temporal and aspectual
information may explain the use of both perfective and imperfective morphology
in example (1). The learner, who is a native speaker of German, may be trying to

4 | Introduction

convey sequentiality on the lexical level, by using telic predicates. In order to
mark aspect morphologically, he/she will need to map aspectual meanings onto
Italian tense forms. This may be a challenging task, as suggested by several
studies on the acquisition of Romance languages (e.g., McManus 2013; Giacalone
Ramat 2002; Rosi 2009a, 2010, Salaberry 2011), especially in contrast to Spanish
speakers, who can rely on the form-meaning associations present in their first
language and are able to mark aspect morphologically starting from early
acquisition stages (Rosi 2009a, 2009b, 2010).
However, what happens if a learner with German as his/her first language
has a good knowledge of Spanish, or another Romance language with a similar
tense and aspect system? Are learners able to transfer knowledge about temporal
and aspectual distinctions from other non-native languages when learning a new
language? These questions will also be considered in the present study which,
however, focuses on the identification of general tendencies in tense-aspect
acquisition, rather than individual variation.
1.2 The present study
The present study aims to examine the development of tense and aspect marking
in the interlanguage of students learning Italian at an Austrian university, on the
basis of the analysis of narrative texts they have written. Almost all participants
are native speakers of German and speak at least one other language, in addition
to Italian.
As a first step, the study identifies proficiency levels on the basis of whether
the use of perfective and imperfective verb forms is appropriate with regard to the
discourse functions of the clauses. As a second step, the proficiency levels are
described by analysing the distribution of past tense morphology in the fore-
ground and the background of the narratives, and the relationship between such
distribution and the lexical aspectual value of predicates. Thus, the interlan-
guage tense- aspect system is examined from a multilevel perspective, by taking
into account morphological aspect marking, the lexical aspectual value of predi-
cates and the discourse function of clauses.
These analyses may provide a deeper understanding of the development of
tense and aspect marking in language acquisition against the background of the
Lexical Aspect Hypothesis (Andersen and Shirai 1994, 1996) and the Discourse
Hypothesis (Bardovi-Harlig 1994a).
Consistent with the pattern found in studies on the acquisition of Romance
languages by L1 German speakers (e.s., Rosi 2009a; McManus 2013), the data re-
flect a developmental pattern from tense marking to aspect marking, with the

The present study | 5

progressive incorporation of discourse grounding principles. In the low profi-
ciency narratives, perfective and imperfective tense forms are used with under-
specified aspectual meaning, regardless of discourse grounding principles and
the lexical aspectual value of predicates. For instance, in some cases learners use
imperfective morphology to mark sequentially ordered events, as in (1); in other
cases, they use perfective morphology in contexts suggesting temporal unbound-
edness, where imperfective morphology is expected. Thus, the function of past
tense morphology seems to be the location of events on the time axis, rather than
the expression of aspectual meanings. Consistent with the observations made by
Salaberry (2003), the selection of past tense forms seems to be influenced by text
type: impersonal narratives are particularly likely to be written with imperfective
marking across levels of grounding and lexical aspectual classes.
The first consistent signs of morphological aspect marking emerge in the in-
termediate proficiency texts, where learners show preference for perfective mark-
ing in the foreground of their narratives, especially on telic predicates, in both
personal and impersonal narratives. Lexical aspect seems to be a key feature in
the selection of verbal morphology, meaning that telic predicates tend to be
marked with perfective morphology, while atelic predicates, especially states, are
mostly marked with imperfective morphology. While telic predicates with perfec-
tive marking tend to appear in the foreground, the strong association between
stativity and imperfective morphology tends to override discourse grounding
principles, i.e. states with imperfective marking are not only present in the back-
ground but also in the foreground. This pattern suggests that grounding is a more
challenging level of aspectual representation than lexical aspect and the function
of imperfective morphology is more difficult to capture than the function of per-
fective morphology.
The upper-intermediate proficiency texts show the incorporation of dis-
course grounding principles into the interlanguage tense-aspect system, mean-
ing that the tendency to use tense forms regardless of discourse grounding prin-
ciples shows a significant decrease. This pattern is particularly evident in the
foreground of narratives, while it is less clear in the background, which contains
a larger variety of tense forms, used with a variable degree of appropriateness.
High proficiency narratives are characterised by the most extensive presence
of prototypical combinations in both foreground and background, and the less
prominent influence of text type. This result, which is also noted in some of the
more recent studies on the acquisition of tense and aspect in Romance languages
(e.g., McManus 2013; Salaberry 2011), questions the developmental component of
both the Lexical Aspect Hypothesis and the Discourse Hypothesis, and suggests
that the reliance on semantic prototypes may increase rather than decrease with

6 | Introduction

proficiency. The reason for this development may be that before gaining sensitiv-
ity to the semantic affinities between lexical aspect, morphological aspect and
discourse grounding, learners may need to develop their representation of the
lexical aspectual value of Italian predicates and to map aspectual meanings onto
Italian tense form. As suggested by several studies (see Ayoun & Salaberry 2005;
McManus 2013) the importance of these two preconditions may be overlooked by
both the Lexical Aspect Hypothesis and the Discourse Hypothesis.
Since all participants in the present study learn Italian as a third language, it
seems reasonable to ask to what extent they are able to exploit their knowledge
about the tense aspect distinction in other languages when trying to disentangle
the tense-aspect system of Italian. However, the data do not allow drawing uni-
vocal conclusions concerning the possibility of transferring conceptual represen-
tation of aspectual distinctions from other languages. This question, together
with the replication of the presented cross- sectional data in a longitudinal de-
sign, requires further research.
1.3 Structure of the present study
Following this introduction, the second chapter examines some of the key con-
cepts and main approaches to language acquisition research, distinguishing be-
tween cognitively- oriented and sociocultural approaches. Chapter 3 offers a the-
oretical introduction to the linguistic phenomena examined in the present study,
such as tense and aspect marking in Italian, and its complex interplay with the
lexical aspectual properties of predicates and the principles of discourse ground-
ing. The following chapters are dedicated to empirical studies on the acquisition
of tense and aspect in Romance languages in general (chapter 4), and more spe-
cifically in Italian (c hapter 5). These two chapters shed light on common patterns
identified in a wide range of studies, despite their methodological heterogeneity,
and some new questions emerging from their outcomes. In fact, as already noted,
while most of these studies conclude that lexical aspect and/or discourse ground-
ing affect morphological marking in the interlanguage, there is little agreement
on how the effect of these factors changes during the acquisition process. The
main questions originating from this observation, presented in chapter 6, con-
cern the identification of proficiency levels observable in the acquisition of
tense/aspect marking in Italian; and the extent to which the development of
tense/aspect marking is influenced by the principles of discourse grounding and
the lexical aspectual value of predicates throughout the acquisition process.
Chapter 6 also describes the methodological approaches used for data collection
and analysis, and is followed by three chapters presenting the results of the

Structure of the present study | 7

analyses conducted by using analytical techniques such as the coding of clauses
for grounding and obligatory occasion analysis, carried out in order to identify
proficiency levels (chapter 7); frequency analysis, performed in order to describe
the distribution of verbal morphology in the foreground and background of nar-
ratives grouped into proficiency levels (chapter 8); coding of predicates for lexical
aspect, carried out in order to examine the relationship between morphological
aspect marking, lexical aspect and the distribution of verb forms across levels of
discourse grounding (chapter 9). Chapter 10 is dedicated to the discussion of the
main findings from the presented analyses, against the background of current
research on language acquisition and the expression of tense and aspect, exam-
ined in the first five chapters.

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110626490-002
2 Key concepts of language acquisition research
Language acquisition is “a widespread, highly complex, uniquely human, cogni-
tive process” (Doughty and Long 2003: 5). The importance of this process in hu-
man experience stimulated great research interest in various disciplines such as
psychology, cognitive sciences, neurosciences, linguistics, to name just a few.
Research on language acquisition covers a wide range of phenomena, such as the
acquisition of first, second and third languages, sign language acquisition, the
acquisition of heritage languages, and the connection between language acqui-
sition and various linguistic and extra-linguistic factors such as identity, motiva-
tion, typological distance between languages, mode of language learning, etc.
This chapter focuses on concepts of language acquisition research that are
pertinent to the present study. On the basis of the research questions, the meth-
odology of data collection and analysis, the study can be located in the field of
second language acquisition research. However, some of its implications may be
applicable to further research on third language acquisition. The next sections
focus on these two research fields, with the aim of locating the present study in
the current theoretical discussion on second and third language acquisition.
2.1 Second language and third language
The term second language “can refer to any language learned after learning the
L1 [first language], regardless of whether it is the second, third, fourth, or fifth
language” (Gass and Selinker 2008: 7 [emphasis in original]). This definition in-
troduces a two-level distinction between the first or native language, acquired in
early infancy, and additional languages. It implies a dichotomous distinction,
based on a chronological criterion, where all non-native languages are given the
same status because they follow the native language chronologically. Thus, as
pointed out by Hammarberg (2009: 1), the concept of second language covers
“non-native languages generally”, without taking into account the complexity of
learners’ linguistic backgrounds.
In contrast, studies within the field of third language acquisition differentiate
learners according to the complexity of their linguistic repertoire. It is argued
that, in the presence of more than two languages, the relationship between first,
second and third language(s) may have a significant influence on the acquisition
process. As pointed out by Hammarberg (2014: 7), “being already bi- or multilin-
gual creates a different basis for acquiring a further language as compared to ac-
quiring an NNL [non-native language] for the first time”. Several studies (e.g.,

Second Language Acquisition | 9

Cenoz and Jessner 2000; Jessner 2008, 2014) have shown that the acquisition of
a third language involves a more complex process than second language acqui-
sition, because “[t]he development of the third system is dependent on the acqui-
sition of the first two systems […]” (Jessner 2008: 272). Thus, within the field of
third language acquisition, the two-level distinction, characteristic for second
language acquisition studies, is replaced by a three-level distinction (Hammar-
berg 2014: 8), in order to differentiate between the native language, the first non-
native language, and additional languages. According to this conception, third
language can be defined as “(a) the chronologically third language […], or (b) the
next language encountered after the simultaneous acquisition of two languages
in early infancy […], or (c) any non-native language currently being acquired by
a speaker who is already familiar with one or more other non-native languages
[…]” (Hammarberg 2014: 3).
From the above definitions of second- and third language emerges that the
acquisition of Italian, usually taking place after the acquisition of one or more
first and second languages, can be studied from both a second language and a
third language perspective. The difference between the two approaches goes far
beyond the terminological disparity. Sections 2.2 and 2.3 illustrate some of the
methodological and theoretical orientations of the two research areas, focusing
on the aspects directly pertinent to the present study.
2.2 Second Language Acquisition
Second language acquisition (SLA) is a research field that focuses on the learner
and the learning process, by investigating “how learners create a new language
system with only limited exposure to a second language” and “what is learned of
a second language and what is not learned” (Gass and Selinker 2008: 1). Several
scholars working in this field (e.g., Ellis 1997; Gass and Selinker 2008) agree that
contemporary SLA has its roots in two publications from the 1960s and 1970s.
Corder’s (1967) paper on the significance of learner’s error introduced a new con-
ceptualisation of non- target- like linguistic behaviour as evidence for “transi-
tional competence”, resulting from learning in progress and language pro-
cessing, and therefore a necessary step in the acquisition process. Corder’s
conceptualisation of error was connected to the idea of language acquisition
based on a “built-in syllabus”, that guides the development of a new linguistic
system. Longitudinal analysis of errors was proposed as a tool to examine such
development. This conceptualisation of error had a significant impact on lan-
guage acquisition research, by changing the attitude toward errors (Van Patten
and Williams 2015: 22). While behaviourism treated error as a lack of learning, in

10 | Key concepts of language acquisition research

Corder’s analysis, it was considered as evidence of language acquisition and an
important research tool.
Such a conceptual change led to the publication of another seminal work
from early SLA, Selinker’s (1972) paper introducing the construct of interlan-
guage (IL). IL was defined as an autonomous linguistic system, different from
both the learner’s L1 and the target language (TL), but linked to both, and worth
studying for its inherent characteristics and development. This construct has
been central to the field of SLA and exerted a significant influence on both theory
development and hypothesis testing. Interlanguage analyses implied focusing on
the learner and the learning process, by examining the role of different factors in
IL development, such as universal grammar, the role of the first language, socie-
tal context, etc.
Following Corder’s and Selinker’s work, early SLA research was character-
ised by a cognitively-oriented view on language acquisition. As pointed out by
Ellis (2015: 182), a cognitive view on the acquisition process suggests that lan-
guage acquisition takes place “inside the learner’s head through the operation of
specific cognitive mechanisms that govern how learners process the data availa-
ble to them”. Consequently, empirical research aimed to identify cognitive mech-
anisms involved in the acquisition process, and to reconstruct the process in
terms of acquisition sequences, that is “developmental stages in the acquisition
in a single grammatical domain” (Hulstijn et al. 2015: 1–2).
2.2.1 Empirical studies on acquisition sequences
Hulstijn et al. (2015: 2) point out that one of the established findings in SLA “con-
cerns the more or less fixed order in which learners acquire the morphosyntactic
structures of their L2”. Empirical studies on acquisition sequences were carried
out within the framework of Processability Theory (e.g., Pienemann 1998, 2005)
and within the functionalist framework of the European Science Foundation pro-
ject (Klein and Perdue 1992). Both theoretical frameworks focus on IL develop-
ment seen as a fundamentally predictable process, governed by cognitive princi-
ples and constraints.
2.2.2 Processability Theory
Pienemann’s Processability Theory (PT) is based on the following principles: the
incremental nature of language generation, the hierarchy of processing

Second Language Acquisition | 11

resources, and the exchange of grammatical information between sentence com-
ponents. These principles can be exemplified by examining the generation of a
sentence such as A child gives a cat to the mother. This requires the lemma “child”
to be activated, which is categorised as a noun. The lemma calls the noun phrase
procedure, and an indefinite article is attached to create a noun phrase (NP). At
this point, the relationship between the NP and the rest of the message has to be
established, and a syntactic function has to be assigned to the NP, in this case the
function of subject. Since the NP has to be attached to a higher node, the S-pro-
cedure is activated, which stores the diacritic features deposited in the NP, i.e.
the values for person and number. Meanwhile, the associated lemmata are acti-
vated, and the next conceptual fragment is carried out.
The incremental nature of language generation has an important implication
for language learning. PT assumes that “processing devices will be acquired in
their sequence of activation in the production process” (Pienemann 2005: 13).
For instance, as illustrated in the above example, the S-procedure, that is the as-
signment of a syntactic function to a higher node, is the fourth procedure to be
activated in the production process. This implies that during the first three stages
of language acquisition, this procedure is not available, and learners have to use
a simplified procedure to build sentences. Thus, one of the key concepts intro-
duced by this theory is that the development of morphosyntactic structures in the
IL is “determined by the incremental development of processing resources” (Di
Biase 2007: 5).
PT was originally applied to the development of L2 German and L2 English.
Di Biase (2007) applied PT to Italian, a language with very rich morphology, in-
volving complex form-function relations. On one side, the same function may be
fulfilled by several morphemes; while on the other side, the same morpheme may
have a range of meanings. This is in contrast with the one-to-one principle (An-
dersen 1984), that is the learner’s tendency to associate one form with one mean-
ing, and is therefore likely to cause challenges in the acquisition process.
Di Biase (2007: 26–27) exemplified the complexity of form-function relations
on plural marking in Italian. This function can be carried out by four different
word-ending morphemes: -i, -e, -a, and the zero morpheme, according to the
word-ending vowel of the singular form. However, the morpheme -e does not only
mark plural for words ending in -a in the singular form (e.g., mamma/mamme),
but it also marks the singular of words ending in -e, which may be both masculine
(e.g., pesce) and feminine (e.g., opinione). On the other hand, the morpheme -i
consistently marks the plural, and represents a one-form/one-meaning associa-
tion (except for a limited number of words ending in -i in the singular form, e.g.,
crisi). In fact, the morpheme -i is the first plural marker to enter the IL. The whole

12 | Key concepts of language acquisition research

paradigm of plural marking is acquired at a slower pace. Di Biase notes that rich
morphology is problematic for the PT, because the theory only predicts the emer-
gence of a morphosyntactic feature (e.g., plural marking with -i), which does not
necessarily coincide with the full mastery of that feature (e.g., the acquisition of
the whole plural paradigm). As pointed out by Di Biase (2007: 10–11) “Once a
stage has emerged, PT appears to have no further business to resolve but to look
at the emergence of the next stage. The reality of languages such as Italian […] is
that there is a lot of further ground to cover within the same stage”. The same has
been observed by Di Biase and Bettoni (2015: 120), who add that “teasing out dif-
ferent factors allowing to progress from emergence to full mastery of the whole
system is one of the directions in which future research can go”.
PT presents further limitations when it comes to the semantic function of
morphosyntactic structures in the interlanguage. For instance, if a learner pro-
nounces a grammatically well-formed sentence, such as the above cited A child
gives a cat to the mother, it may indicate that the processing devices up to the
level of S-procedure have been acquired. However, this morphosyntactically
well-formed sentence may be used in a context, where past tense marking is re-
quired. The use of the present tense in such a context would suggest that the
function of expressing temporality has not been mapped into the IL verbal mor-
phology. This eventuality is not taken into account by PT, because it does not
cover the development of form-function mapping in the IL. In fact, as pointed out
by Di Biase (2007: 27), “In essence, the relationship between morphological forms
and their functions exhibits different degrees of complexity. This adds another
dimension to the learning task which is separate and different from the task on
which PT is focused, namely the exchange of grammatical information and the
use of diacritic features”.
2.2.3 Functionally-oriented studies
The relationship between morphosyntactic structures and their function in the IL
is the object of investigation in studies embedded in a functionalist framework.
The functionalist view focuses on form-meaning relations established for pur-
poses of communication. Since L2 learners are already familiar with the concepts
underlying expressive devices in their previously learned language(s), their task
is to map those onto target language forms. This theoretical framework implies
an emphasis “on the expression of semantic concepts” (Bardovi-Harlig 2000: 21),
and the investigation of “how different forms are used to express different func-
tions, in other words, how form and function relate to one another” (Gass and

Second Language Acquisition | 13

Selinker 2008: 206). Mapping meanings into forms may be a relatively straight-
forward process, when the first language and the target language display similar
form-meaning associations. The acquisition may be more challenging when
form-meaning relations in L2 differ from those in L1. In fact, despite their focus
on universal patterns emerging from the IL, functionally-oriented studies often
take into account the learner’s L1.
Given their focus on form-meaning relations, functionally-oriented studies
follow two approaches: meaning-oriented and form-oriented. As pointed out by
Bardovi-Harlig (2000: 11), both approaches “take an interlanguage perspective,
describing the interlanguage as a system independent of the target language”.
Meaning-oriented studies (e.g., Bardovi- Harlig 1994b) focus on a semantic cate-
gory, for instance the expression of relative anteriority, and investigate its emer-
gence in a predefined semantic environment. This approach is often applied in
the investigation of untutored language acquisition, where inflectional morphol-
ogy enters the interlanguage at a slow pace, and semantic categories conveyed
morphologically in the TL may be expressed lexically or pragmatically in the IL
(Klein and Perdue 1997). Thus, a meaning- oriented study “will investigate differ-
ent types of linguistic devices, which not only cross grammatical categories, but
which mix grammatical devices with pragmatic ones” (Bardovi-Harlig 2000: 11).
Form-oriented studies (e.g., Bardovi-Harlig 2000: 126–184), on the other
hand, focus on a particular form (e.g., Past Simple in English) and follow its dis-
tribution in the IL, in order to examine when it is used by the learner, and its
function in the IL. This approach is often chosen in studies investigating tutored
language acquisition, where inflectional morphology appears early, but forms do
not always fulfil the target language function. For instance, in a study reported
by Bardovi-Harlig (2000: 353–396) on the acquisition of tense and aspect in L2
English, several learners displayed a good knowledge of verbal morphology, but
showed unsystematic form-meaning associations in free production tasks.
Extensive research has been conducted within the functionally-oriented
framework by the European Science Foundation (ESF) project. This longitudinal
research examined the untutored acquisition of five target languages, namely
English, German, Dutch, French and Swedish. Participants were acquiring the
target language through interaction with the social environment and spoke one
of the following first languages: Punjabi, Italian, Turkish, Arabic, Spanish, Finn-
ish (Perdue and Klein 1992: 5). The selection of participants made it possible to
confront speakers with different L1s learning the same TL, and, conversely,
speakers with the same L1 learning different TLs. The research focused on the
identification of universal patterns emerging from the IL, that display “regulari-
ties which are independent of individual language pairings” (Klein and Perdue

14 | Key concepts of language acquisition research

1997: 309). On the other hand, it also aimed to identify patterns connected to L1
influence, and therefore valid only for a certain linguistic combination. Thus, the
two major variables taken into account were the target language, and the influ-
ence of the first language (Perdue and Klein 1992: 4).
This extensive body of research investigated the IL conceived as a linguistic
system in its own right, as a manifestation of the human language capacity. In
order to emphasise its status as a language, the studies refer to the linguistic sys-
tem developed by language learners as a learner variety. Furthermore, they claim
that observing the development of learner varieties reveals “how the human lan-
guage capacity functions and which principles determine the acquisition pro-
cess” (Klein and Perdue 1997: 307 ).
Research conducted within the ESF project showed that learners follow three
acquisition stages, which correspond to three different learner varieties, charac-
terised by a progressive reorganisation of features, which brings the system
“closer to the balance characteristic of the target language” (Perdue and Klein
1992: 2). The first stage, called pre-basic variety, is characterised by the preva-
lence of pragmatic means of expression. For instance, in the absence of inflec-
tional morphology, learners may rely on the principle of chronological order to
convey temporality. During the next stage, learners develop the basic variety
(BV), characterised as a “well- structured, efficient and simple form of language”,
which represents the essential properties of human language capacity (Klein and
Perdue 1997: 301). Although inflectional morphology is not present in BV, utter-
ances are structured according to the valency of a verb occurring in a morpholog-
ically unmarked form. This variety displays only a “small set of organisation prin-
ciples”, but their interaction makes the system versatile enough to encode a large
variety of meanings (Klein and Perdue 1997: 332). For instance, in order to com-
pensate for the absence of verbal morphology, learners convey temporal and as-
pectual meanings by using a variety of adverbials and boundary markers. These
linguistic devices, in combination with the lexical aspectual value of predicates,
convey a variety of temporal and aspectual meanings (Klein and Perdue 1997:
320). Inflectional morphology enters the IL during the third stage, called the post-
basic variety, which leads to a profound reorganisation of the system. In fact, the
development of the post- basic varieties is hardly predictable and is heavily influ-
enced by the target language input (Klein 2000: 19).
Several studies on the acquisition of tense and aspect in Romance languages
are embedded in the functionalist framework and focus on the development of
form-function associations in the IL. These studies will be described in detail in
chapters 4 and 5.

Variability of the learning process | 15

2.3 Variability of the learning process
The above described studies conducted within the field of SLA suggest that the
acquisition process unfolds in predictable developmental stages. However, as
pointed out by Ellis (2015), the traditional view on SLA, based on the predictabil-
ity of the acquisition process, has been challenged by several alternative pro-
posals. For instance, SLA studies that adopted Vygotsky’s (1987) Sociocultural
Theory of Mind (SCT) emphasise the variability of linguistic development across
learners, and the role of instruction in the learning process. Furthermore, studies
embedded in the framework of dynamic or Complex System Theory (CST) present
language acquisition as a complex process, characterised by the absence of
straightforward cause-effect relationships, and limited predictability of emergent
properties (Dörnyei 2014).
The SCT conceptualises learning as a mediated developmental process that
results from participation in social situations. A key construct of this theory, the
Zone of Proximal Development, represents a model of development. It refers to
the difference between an individual’s current level of development and his or
her developmental potential, achievable through assisted performance. The idea
behind this construct is that “what an individual is capable of with mediation at
one point in time, he or she will be able to do without mediation at a future point
in time” (Lantolf et al. 2015: 214). Thus, instruction guides development and may
modify expected acquisition patterns. This is in contrast with Pienemann’s
Teachability Hypothesis (1984), which claims that, due to cognitive constraints
influencing developmental readiness, instruction cannot alter the developmental
sequences predicted by PT. However, the SCT perspective emphasises the role of
mediation, which may override cognitive constraints. Contrary to PT, it claims
that learning is “mediated through social interaction and thus not governed by
developmental readiness on the part of the learner” (Ellis 2015: 203).
The limited predictability of the learning process is also emphasised by stud-
ies embedded in the complex system framework. This approach views the inter-
language as a self-organising, complex system, emerging from the interaction of
multiple factors, related to the learner, the linguistic input and the learning envi-
ronment (De Bot 2008; Larsen- Freeman 2013). As a complex process, IL develop-
ment is characterised by the lack of “straightforward linear cause-effect relation-
ships” because “the system’s behavioural outcome depends ON THE OVERALL
CONSTELLATION OF THE SYSTEM COMPONENTS – how all the relevant factors
work together” (Dörnyei 2014: 82 [emphasis in original]). This theoretical frame-
work allows for the understanding of non-linear patterns observable in SLA, es-
pecially in longitudinal studies, focusing on individuals, rather than groups of
learners. While traditional SLA studies tend to treat variability as noise, or to

16 | Key concepts of language acquisition research

ascribe variability to the influence of external factors (De Bot 2008: 173), CST
treats variability as an inherent characteristic of the acquisition process, and a
source of information.
Due to its focus on variability, the complexity framework may provide “im-
portant insights into the developmental dynamics that are traditionally ignored”
(Verspoor et al. 2008: 229). For instance, Verspoor et al. (2008) reanalysed the
data from a study conducted by Cancino et al. (1978), which aimed to identify
universal stages in L2 acquisition of English negative sentences. Cancino et al.
(1987) found that learners went through a predicable sequence of acquisition
stages, even though they followed different learning paths. Reanalysing the data,
Verspoor et al. drew attention to the high degree of intra-subject and inter- subject
variation. Investigating this variation allowed for a deeper understanding of the
process. For instance, it showed that differences in learners’ initial conditions,
e.g., the variety of linguistic strategies used to express negation at the beginning
of the study, influenced the whole acquisition process. Learners who already
used a variety of strategies at the beginning of the observation were able to make
quick progress towards target-like strategies. Conversely, those who had limited
resources at the beginning, showed a slow development with possible fossilisa-
tion.
To summarise, the complexity framework provides the means to examine the
interaction of multiple factors and treat variability as a characteristic feature of
IL. This makes it possible to “discover developmental patterns that otherwise
would remain hidden” (Verspoor et al. 2008: 229) and to account for non-linearity
attested in SLA research (Larsen-Freeman 2013: 367). In order to emphasise the
different views on the acquisition process, studies embedded in the complexity
framework refer to the learning process as Second Language Development (SLD),
instead of the more traditional SLA.
Variability versus idealisation
Traditional SLA studies focus on the predictability of the learning process, while
SLD studies focus on its inherent variability. Although they seem to represent an-
tithetical approaches, they may be treated as complementary rather than exclu-
sionary. As pointed out by Ellis (2015: 200), the acquisition sequences predicted
by SLA present an idealisation of IL development and do not need to account for
all the characteristics of this development. The view that acquisition unfolds in
predictable stages does not exclude the presence of variation within developmen-
tal stages. Consistent with the SLD approach, SLA studies acknowledge that

Variability of the learning process | 17

horizontal variation may serve as a “precursor of vertical variation” (Ellis 2015:
185). In fact, in order to take IL variation into account, SLA studies underwent a
progressive de-idealisation. In the 1970s, studies investigating the order of acqui-
sition (e.g., Dulay and Burt 1973) involved a high degree of idealisation, given
that they operationalised acquisition in terms of target-like accuracy. They fo-
cused on instances when a linguistic variable was performed in a target-like man-
ner and did not account for the inherent variability of IL. Acquisition sequence
studies (e.g., Cancino et al. 1978) lowered the degree of idealisation, describing
acquisition stages in terms of linguistic resources used by learners to perform a
linguistic variable, independently of their appropriateness with respect to the TL
norm. Non- target- like structures were equally included in the characterisation of
acquisition stages.
Form-function mapping studies (e.g., Giacalone Ramat 2003b) further re-
duced the degree of idealisation. They acknowledged that the function of IL forms
does not necessarily coincide with the function of corresponding forms in the tar-
get language, in the sense that form may precede function. According to Ellis
(2015), usage- based approaches represent the least idealised account of L2 devel-
opment. These studies (e.g., N. Ellis 2003, 2013) claim that learners extract fre-
quent patterns from the input and learn them as formulaic chunks. As proficiency
develops, chunks become a model for the creative construction of utterances. Us-
age-based studies are embedded in the complexity framework and treat variabil-
ity as a central characteristic of IL.
To summarise, studies conducted on IL development can be divided into two
types, according to their theoretical orientation and their conceptualisation of IL
development. Cognitively-oriented studies focus on the predictability of IL devel-
opment, based on cognitive mechanisms that govern language processing and
acquisition. Attention is focused on the identification and characterisation of ac-
quisition stages, on generalisable patterns emerging from IL development re-
gardless of the influence of language-external and language-internal factors.
Conversely, socially-oriented studies and those carried out within the complexity
framework emphasise the inherent variability of the learning process, due to the
interaction of multiple factors that influence acquisition, and its socially con-
structed character. As pointed out by Larsen-Freeman (2013: 372), research from
both areas may contribute to understanding “how to acknowledge the unique-
ness of the individual learner and yet at the same time relate the uniqueness to
more general patterns of behaviour and disposition among learners”.

18 | Key concepts of language acquisition research

2.4 Third language acquisition
Third Language Acquisition (TLA) studies are characterised by a holistic
approach to the learner’s linguistic repertoire. They take into account all the
languages forming the individual’s linguistic background and treat them as part
of a multilingual system, where individual languages are not seen as autonomous
entities, but as interdependent language systems (Jessner 2008: 273). The focus
on multilingual systems rather than autonomous languages is one of the
properties that distinguishes TLA from SLA studies. The latter field often displays
a monolingual bias, meaning that it focuses on one language defined as “second”
with respect to a “unitary and singular ‘first’ as a predecessor” (Block 2014: 54).
Thus, SLA studies tend to adopt an additive view of linguistic competence, and
treat IL development as separate from the L1, culminating in the complete
command of two separate languages, that is a “dual monolingual competence”
(Block 2014: 55). When focusing on languages acquired after the first non-native
language, SLA studies tend to disregard the effect of prior non-native languages
on the acquisition process, and to take into account only the L1 from the learners’
linguistic backgrounds (Hammarberg 2009: 1). Thus, from an SLA perspective,
multilingual learners tend to be treated as monolinguals, influenced by one
linguistic system, their L1, which interacts with the linguistic systems being
acquired. This approach is based on the assumption that the role of previously
learned non-native languages in the acquisition process is not significant
(Hammarberg 2001: 22).
TLA studies, on the contrary, emphasise the presence of qualitative differ-
ences between the acquisition of the first non-native language and additional
languages (Jessner 2008: 270). When acquiring the first non-native language, the
learner develops “a metasystem that is based on a bilingual norm” (Jessner et al.
2016: 160). Given the presence of a bilingual norm, L3 acquisition is more com-
plex than L2 acquisition, because multiple languages are involved in the acquisi-
tion process. Multilingual learners may be influenced both by their L1 and the
other previously acquired languages. For instance, linguistic transfer may in-
volve their L2, instead of their L1, especially when L2 and L3 are typologically
related (Jessner 2008: 271). Cross- linguistic influence may take place not only be-
tween L1 and L2, but also between L1 and L3, or L2 and L3. Furthermore, learning
an L3 may lead to the attrition of L1 or L2. Thus, the emergent language system
can be seen “as a whole, rather than as an interaction between separate language
components” (Cook 2003: 11). The multilingual speaker is therefore considered
“a speaker of three or more languages with unique linguistic configurations, of-
ten depending on individual history” (De Angelis and Selinker 2001: 45).

Third language acquisition | 19

The complexity of L3 acquisition is related to the contact between several lan-
guages, which “causes a complete metamorphosis of all the (language) systems
involved” (Jessner et al. 2016: 159). Due to its complexity, the investigation of a
multilingual system requires a theoretical framework that captures its non-line-
arity and variability. Herdina and Jessner (2002) identify the dynamic or complex
system theory as the appropriate theoretical framework for investigating such a
complex development and propose the Dynamic Model of Multilingualism
(DMM). According to this model, “multilingual proficiency is defined as the dy-
namic interaction among the various psycholinguistic systems (LS
1, LS2, LS3, LSn)
in which the individual languages (L1, L2, L3, Ln) are embedded, cross-linguistic
interaction, and what is called the M(ultilingualism) factor” (Jessner 2008: 275).
In this definition, cross- linguistic interaction is used as an umbrella term, refer-
ring to phenomena such as transfer, interference, code-switching, borrowing,
and the cognitive effects of multilingual development. The M-factor is an emer-
gent property of the multilingual system, and one of its key components is met-
alinguistic awareness. Multilingual learners display an enhanced metalinguistic
awareness, which may have a positive effect on further language acquisition, es-
pecially in the case of typologically related languages. This is not the case in mon-
olingual L2 acquisition, where speakers make reference to a monolingual norm
(Herdina and Jessner 2002).
Given the complexity of multilingual systems, TLA studies do not conceptu-
alise linguistic development in terms of approaching native speaker norm. In-
stead, they focus on cognitive development, and phenomena related to cross-lin-
guistic interaction and metalinguistic awareness, such as the role of supporter
languages as a compensatory strategy (e.g., Hammarberg 2001; Jessner 2006); in-
terlanguage transfer (e.g., De Angelis and Selinker 2001); the influence of multi-
lingual education on multilingual awareness (e.g., Hofer 2015); and the use of
multilingual pedagogical practices in the classroom (e.g., Jessner et al. 2016), to
name just a few. The studies show that contact between multiple languages, and
explicit reflection on cross-linguistic differences and similarities foster multilin-
gual awareness and promote language acquisition. Thus, in addition to linguistic
skills, multilingual learners develop cognitive skills that should be taken into ac-
count when defining linguistic competence.
To summarise, a fundamental difference between SLA and TLA seems to lie
in their approach to complexity in language acquisition. SLA focuses on common
patterns emerging from the acquisition process, putting its complexity and vari-
ability in the background. Conversely, TLA focuses on the complexity and
uniqueness of multilingual systems. As pointed out by Hammarberg (2009: 6),
the perspective to be chosen is related to the object of inquiry: “Clearly there are

20 | Key concepts of language acquisition research

many topics within the established field of SLA where the complexity of the
learner’s language background is not a crucial aspect, and there is no need to
oppose the conventional use of ‘L2’ in such cases. The notion of L3 is available
when multilingualism is in focus”.
2.5 The acquisition of Italian from TLA and SLA perspectives
Italian is not usually the first non-native language in the learner’s linguistic rep-
ertoire. In instructional settings, it is typically introduced after several years of
exposure to L2 English, and, in some cases, to another Romance language
(French or Spanish). L2 English is also likely to be present in the linguistic reper-
toire of untutored learners. Consequently, the acquisition process can be exam-
ined from both an SLA and a TLA perspective.
Studies investigating Italian from a third language perspective emphasise its
potential in the development of multilingual communication in the form of re-
ceptive multilingualism (Vetter 2012) and/or inter-comprehension (Bär 2006; Vet-
ter 2011) in Romance languages. The concept underlying multilingual communi-
cation is congruent with the recommendations contained in a key document of
European language policy, the Common European Framework of Reference for
Languages (2001), which encourages the development of a plurilingual compe-
tence “to which all knowledge and experience of language contributes and in
which languages interrelate and interact” (Council of Europe 2001: 4). Thus, con-
gruent with the TLA perspective, CEFR represents a holistic view on plurilingual
competence, which includes the individual’s linguistic knowledge as a whole. As
pointed out by Vetter (2012: 352) “The entire language repertoire available to in-
dividuals is contained in this single multilingual and plurilingual competence”.
From this point of view, the main scope of language learning is the development
of a “linguistic repertory, in which all linguistic abilities have a place” (Council
of Europe 2001: 5), rather than fostering the coexistence of several isolated lan-
guages. This conceptualisation of linguistic competence implies that partial skills
such as receptive multilingualism are “of special significance for expanding plu-
rilingual and cultural competences, while near nativeness in individual lan-
guages is less central” (Vetter 2012: 352). Bär (2006) points out that the develop-
ment of partial skills in L3 Italian may exert a consolidation effect on linguistic
skills in other Romance languages such as French or Spanish and exemplifies this
with the development of reading skills in L3 Italian. Bär’s study shows that, when
confronted with unstructured written input in L3 Italian, students are able to ap-
ply their knowledge of other Romance languages and develop hypotheses by
means of cross-linguistic comparisons. This process involves revision and

The acquisition of Italian from TLA and SLA perspectives | 21

consolidation of declarative and procedural knowledge about Romance lan-
guages and enables learners to exploit their multilingual competence.
Studies conducted from an SLA perspective are based on interlanguage anal-
yses, and focus on the predictability of developmental patterns, by taking into
account the influence of the learner’s L1 and the mode of language acquisition.
The most extensive research on Italian SLA was carried out within the Pavia Pro-
ject, embedded in a functionally-oriented framework (Giacalone Ramat 2003b).
Thus, the idea behind these studies is that L2 learners, already familiar with a
series of semantic categories from their L1, need to map those semantic categories
into target language forms. For this reason , the studies have investigated the de-
velopment of form-meaning relations in the IL.
A closer look at the studies conducted within the Pavia Project reveals that
they mainly focus on untutored acquisition of Italian by residents with migration
backgrounds, adopting both form- oriented and meaning-oriented approaches.
The principal developmental patterns are congruent with the findings of the Eu-
ropean Science Foundation project, in the sense that untutored learners of Italian
follow the acquisition stages identified by Klein and Perdue (1992), confirming
their universal character. As pointed out by Banfi and Bernini (2003: 85–89), the
first stage of acquisition (pre-basic variety) is characterised by the prevalence of
pragmatic means in the organisation of utterances, and a strong reliance on the
communicative context. This stage is followed by the basic variety, where the ut-
terances are composed of a verb in a basic form and its arguments. The basic va-
riety is characterised by the prevalence of lexical means, which are also used to
convey information encoded by inflectional morphology in the target language,
such as temporality, aspectuality and modality. Inflectional morphology enters
the IL at the third acquisition stage, the post- basic variety.
Italian SLA has been further investigated within the project PRIN 2003. These
studies, published in a collective volume edited by Bernini, Spreafico and Valen-
tini (2008), focus on the acquisition of lexical and textual competence adopting
an SLA perspective. To give a few examples, Giuliano (2008) investigates the ac-
quisition of discourse cohesion elements in descriptive discourse and shows that
the use of discourse strategies is influenced by L1 patterns, even in advanced ac-
quisition stages. Chini (2008) investigates referent introduction and tracking in a
film-retelling task, comparing two groups of L2 Italian learners, one with L1 Span-
ish and another with L1 German. The results show that, consistent with Giuliano’s
observations, the acquisition of textual competence is significantly influenced by
a learner’s L1. Allora and Marello (2008) note that the acquisition of Italian adjec-
tives is influenced both by the L1 and the presence of other Romance languages
in the learners’ repertoire. Jezek and Rastellli (2008) investigate the correlation

22 | Key concepts of language acquisition research

between the selection of auxiliary verbs in the compound verb forms, and the se-
mantic-aspectual properties of intransitive verbs, testing the hypothesis of unac-
cusative hierarchy advanced by Sorace (1995: 158). Bernini (2008) examines the
untutored acquisition of verb- framed and satellite-framed motion verbs by learn-
ers with both Indo-European and non- Indo-European L1. The study conducted
by Lo Duca e Duso (2008) concerns the morpho- lexical level, and investigates the
acquisition of word-formation rules by L1 Spanish learners. Rosi (2008) investi-
gates the influence of lexical aspect and discourse grounding on the acquisition
of Italian tense/aspect morphology. Thus, the studies collected in the volume ed-
ited by Bernini et al. (2008) focus on interlanguage development conceived as a
progressive acquisition of native-like competences, while taking into account the
effect of the L1 on the acquisition process. A similar tendency is observable in
several studies dedicated to the acquisition of Italian tense/aspect morphology
(e.g., Duso 2002; Rocca 2002, 2005; Rosi 2009a, 2009b, 2011), presented in more
detail in Chapter 5. These studies systematically take into account factors such as
the learner’s first language and the effect of instruction, maintaining the focus on
universal tendencies and predictability of IL development.
2.6 Summary
This chapter has examined language acquisition research conducted on non- na-
tive languages, in order to locate the present study within the current theoretical
discussion. Studies on non-native languages are classified into two major fields,
SLA and TLA, according to their approach to the learner’s linguistic repertoire
and their conceptualisation of the acquisition process. Studies conducted within
the field of SLA treat languages as autonomous entities and conceptualise the
acquisition process as IL development characterised by a progressive conver-
gence towards native-speaker norm. This process unfolds in more or less predict-
able acquisition stages, connected to cognitive strategies and constraints. Thus,
SLA studies focus on the predictability of IL development, taking into account the
influence of factors such as the learner’s L1 and mode of acquisition. TLA studies,
on the contrary, adopt a holistic view on linguistic competence, seen as an indi-
vidual system emerging from the constant interaction of all the languages present
in a learner’s linguistic repertoire. Due to its multifactorial character, the devel-
opment of a multilingual competence displays high variability and limited pre-
dictability, directing attention to the dynamic interaction of languages, rather
than the search for linearity in the development of a single language.

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110626490-003
3 Tense, aspect and grounding
“The experience of time is fundamental to human cognition and action. There-
fore, all languages we know of have developed a rich repertoire of means to en-
code time” (Klein 2009b: 39). One of the linguistic means for encoding temporal
relations in Romance languages is verbal morphology, characterised by formal
richness and complexity of form-meaning relations. For instance, Italian simple
verb forms merge the categories tense, aspect and mood into a single morpheme,
followed by a morpheme expressing person and number. The structure of a sim-
ple verb form can be delineated as in (1), where TV stands for a semantically
empty thematic vowel followed by the two groups of features (Di Biase 2007: 39):
(1) STEM + TV + (T/A/M) + P/N
As pointed out by Di Biase (2007: 39), it is impossible to tease out tense from as-
pect and mood; or person from number, since both groups of features are merged
into a single marker.
The relationship between form and meaning is equally complex in the com-
pound verb forms, which contain an auxiliary verb carrying both groups of fea-
tures (T/A/M and P/N), and a past participle which bears the lexical information
(Andorno 2003: 72).
The present study focuses on the expression of temporal relations conveyed
by tense and aspect within the indicative paradigm, without taking into account
the complex domain of mood and modality
1
. Both tense and aspect convey tem-
poral relations, although in a different manner. Tense is a deictic category, which
refers to the location of a situation
2
on the time axis with respect to the deictic
centre of the discourse, referred to as moment of speech, because it coincides with
the moment when an utterance is produced (Reichenbach 1947). With reference
to this moment, an event may be simultaneous, anterior or posterior. Thus, the
moment of speech provides a temporal anchor and events are seen as present,
past or future with respect to this anchor. Thus, verbal morphology allows for a
relative location of events on the time axis. Lexical means such as temporal
||
1 Given that modality is not investigated in the present study, the modal value of past tense
forms within the indicative paradigm (e.g., the modal uses of Imperfetto) will not be taken into
account.
2 Following Comrie (1976: 13) “situation” will be used as an umbrella term, referring to pro-
cesses, events or states conveyed by verbs.

24 | Tense, aspect and grounding

adverbials and connectives allow for a more accurate location of events and, as
Klein (2009b: 41) notes, one might wonder “whether tense and aspect are not
completely superfluous in view of what temporal adverbials allow us to do”.
However, adverbials are referentially bounded and underlie several restrictions
in their use, while grammatical morphemes can be attached to virtually any verb
and are therefore more efficient.
In contrast to tense, aspect is not a deictic category and it is not concerned
with the location of events in time. As pointed out by Haßler (2016: 181): “Der
Aspekt unterscheidet sich von der benachbarten Kategorie Tempus dadurch,
dass ihm keine deiktische Qualität zukommt, er also kein Verhältnis einer be-
trachteten Zeit zur Sprechaktzeit ausdrückt”. Aspect refers to the “internal tem-
poral constituency” of events (Comrie 1976: 3) and it characterises them along the
dimension of completeness and boundedness. An event may be viewed as a sin-
gle unanalysable whole, set within its temporal boundaries; or as unbounded,
focusing on its internal structure, without referring to its temporal boundaries
(Comrie 1976: 16). These two ways of visualisation correspond to the perfective
and imperfective aspect. In Romance languages, the perfective/imperfective dis-
tinction is encoded by verbal morphology and is therefore referred to as gram-
matical aspect or viewpoint aspect. The latter expression, proposed by Smith
(1991), emphasises that verbal morphology is chosen by the speaker in order to
express his/her view on the event. In the present study, the term grammatical
aspect will be adopted in order to stress that this type of distinction is encoded in
verbal morphology, in contrast to lexical aspect or actionality, encoded in the
lexical semantics of the verb phrase. As pointed out by Bertinetto and Delfitto
(2000: 190) “While the notions of temporal reference and [grammatical] aspect
(although ultimately of a semantic nature) are primarily anchored to the inflec-
tional specifications available in each language, actionality is essentially rooted
in the lexicon”.
According to their lexical aspectual characteristics, verbs can be classified
along dimensions such as dynamicity, telicity and punctuality (Vendler 1957).
Lexical aspect is a universal category and, in languages that mark aspect mor-
phologically, it enters into a complex interaction with verbal morphology. For in-
stance, telic and punctual predicates are more likely to be visualised as bounded
thereby inflected with perfective morphology, while atelic predicates are seman-
tically congruent with unboundedness expressed by imperfective marking on the
morphological level. In fact, the content-related homogeneity of lexical aspect
and grammatical aspect led to their integration into a single category of aspectu-
ality in the onomasiological model developed by Dessì Schmid (2014). In this
model, lexical aspect and grammatical aspect are considered as two poles of a

Tense and temporality | 25

continuum of aspectual meaning, rather than two distinct categories. In contrast,
Weinrich (2001 [1964]) suggests that aspect is not a relevant category for the de-
scription of Romance languages because aspectual phenomena are restricted to
the sentence level and micro- syntax, and cannot account for text level phenom-
ena. However, when analysing discourse grounding, Weinrich implicitly takes
into account aspectual phenomena. In fact, discourse grounding interacts with
both verbal morphology and lexical aspect, in the sense that foregrounded events
are likely to be telic and marked with perfective morphology; while back-
grounded events are often atelic and marked with imperfect morphology (Rein-
hart 1984). As pointed out by Haßler (2016: 190), aspect in Romance languages is
a multilevel phenomenon and its exclusion from the analysis may hamper our
understanding of how events can be visualised in these languages: “[die] Aus-
klammerung des Aspekts als grammatischer Kategorie lässt sich für die romani-
schen Sprachen auf morphologischer Ebene rechtfertigen, wird jedoch dem
Funktionieren dieser Sprachen beim Ausdruck von Situationen in ihrer Ganzheit-
lichkeit und in ihrem Verlauf nicht gerecht”.
To sum up, tense and aspect in Romance languages convey temporal rela-
tions. Tense is a deictic category, which locates a situation on the timeline with
reference to the moment of speech
3
; while grammatical aspect is involved in view-
ing a situation as temporarily unbounded or within its temporal boundaries.
Thus, the difference between tense and grammatical aspect can be seen as one
between “situation- external time” and “situation-internal time” (Comrie 1976: 5).
Similar to grammatical aspect, lexical aspect is also concerned with the internal
temporal structuring of a situation; however, it is encoded on the lexical level. In
the present chapter, we examine the categories of tense, grammatical aspect and
lexical aspect separately, before analysing their complex interaction observable
at both sentence and text level.
3.1 Tense and temporality
As pointed out by Haßler (2016: 24–27), time is a real-world phenomenon that
exists independently of its linguistic representation involving a variety of linguis-
tic means such as verbal morphology, temporal adverbials, and discourse princi-
ples, which are pertinent to the functional-semantic category of temporality.
Tense is the grammatical expression of temporality and conveys the speaker’s
mental representation of temporal relations (Haßler 2016: 14).
||
3 The temporal reference of anaphoric tenses will be addressed in section 3.1.1.

26 | Tense, aspect and grounding

According to its traditional definition, elaborated by Reichenbach (1947),
tense allows for the location of events on the time axis in relation to the deictic
centre of the discourse; the speech act. This deictic centre is referred to as point
of speech (S), while the position of an event on the time axis is referred to as point
of event (E). Thus, the concepts of anteriority, posteriority and simultaneity make
reference to the location of E with respect to S, which constitutes a deictic anchor:
“quando emettiamo un messaggio, noi fissiamo anche (esplicitamente o implici-
tamente) un punto di ancoraggio rispetto al quale possiamo calcolare un prima o
un dopo” (Bertinetto 1986: 23). For instance, the past tense used in (2) locates E
before S, while its location is further clarified by the adverbial a mezzogiorno ‘at
noon’.
(2) Giovanni uscì a mezzogiorno.
Some tenses cannot be located on the time axis with respect to the deictic centre,
but require an additional temporal anchoring. For instance, the pluperfect, being
a relative (or anaphoric) tense, is not located with reference to the deictic centre,
but expresses anteriority with respect to a secondary reference point. If sentence
(3) was produced in a conversation, the interlocutor would automatically look for
an implicit anchoring in the past and locate the event [uscire a mezzogiorno] be-
fore that moment (from Bertinetto 1986: 46–47):
(3) Giovanni era uscito a mezzogiorno.
In (4), the additional temporal anchoring is conveyed linguistically by the situa-
tion [essere le due del pomeriggio], located in the past with respect to the deictic
centre. This situation serves as a point of reference (R) and the event [uscire a
mezzogiorno] is presented as anterior to R.
(4) Erano ormai le due del pomeriggio; Giovanni era uscito a mezzogiorno.
In other words, the temporal relation expressed by anaphoric tenses “does not
concern one event, but two events, whose positions are determined with respect
to the point of speech” (Reichenbach 1947: 287). The possibility of establishing
secondary reference points on the time axis may lead to the emergence of highly
complex temporal relations . As pointed out by Haßler (2016: 89)“Die Verkettung
sekundärer Referenzpunkte und Orientierung auf diese hat theoretisch keine

Tense and temporality | 27

Grenzen, es ist jedoch unschwer einzusehen, dass daraus hochkomplexe Sys-
teme entstehen können”.
Thanks to its capacity for explaining complex temporal relations, Reichen-
bach’s (1947) three-place model has been very influential in the analysis of tem-
poral reference in different languages. However, the model presents some disad-
vantages pointed out by Klein (1994, 2009b), who claims that the analysis suffers
from the fact that “point of reference” is not univocally defined and the model
fails to capture temporal relations expressed in sentences such as (5) to (7) (from
Klein 2009b: 45– 46).
(5) Eva is cheerful.
(6) Eva was cheerful.
(7) Eva’s cat was dead.
According to Reichenbach’s model, in (5) E and S are simultaneous, while in both
(6) and (7), E is located before S. However, Klein (2009b: 45– 46) argues that this
interpretation does not take into account the fact that (6) may still be valid, while
(7) is certainly valid at the moment of speech. For this reason, Klein (2009b: 46)
proposes distinguishing between topic time, which corresponds to the “time
about which something is asserted (or asked)” and situation time, defined as “the
time at which the situation obtains or occurs”. In both (6) and (7) the topic time
is a sub-interval of the situation time, hence it can be located in the past, even if
the situation is still valid at the moment when the sentence is uttered. The intro-
duction of the concepts of topic time and situation time allows for a re- elabora-
tion of the traditional definition of both tense and grammatical aspect, in terms
of relationship between time intervals.
Bertinetto (1986: 27–28), who adopts Reichenbach’s perspective on temporal
relations, notes that tenses do not establish a univocal temporal reference and
are likely to modify their default meaning. In some cases the location of events
on the time axis is based on pragmatic principles. For instance, both (8) and (9)
(from Bertinetto 1986: 27–28) contain a present tense, and the interpretation of
simultaneity in (8) and sequentiality in (9) is based on pragmatic factors.
(8) Quando dormo bene, russo fragorosamente.
(9) Quando dormo bene, lavoro meglio.

28 | Tense, aspect and grounding

The examples from (5) to (9) suggest that in some cases it is difficult to establish
a relationship between tense and representation of time. Bertinetto (1986: 29) and
Haßler (2016: 90) point out that each tense has a prototypical meaning and, apart
from that meaning, it may express a range of slightly different meanings. Shifts
in meaning may be caused by the interaction between verbal morphology and
lexical aspect. This may be the case in the examples (5), (6) and (7) reported by
Klein (2009b), where the validity of the situation at the moment of speech is likely
to be connected to the lexical aspectual characteristics of the predicates that de-
note states, i.e. continuous situations that are unlikely to change, unless an ex-
ternal factor intervenes. If the stative verbs in (6) and (7) are replaced by [+dy-
namic] predicates, E can be located before S, coherently with Reichenbach’s
explanation, as illustrated in (10) and (11):
(10) Eva behaved cheerfully.
(11) Eva’s cat died.
Although Reichenbach’s analysis of temporal relations has been criticised by sev-
eral scholars (e.g., Klein 1994, 2009b; Haßler 2016), it offers the great advantage
of explaining complex temporal relations within a simple and intuitively accessi-
ble framework. The present study adopts Reichenbach’s perspective on time, in
line with the most influential and detailed analysis of the Italian tense-aspect sys-
tem proposed by Bertinetto (1986, 1991). Tense is thus seen as a fundamentally
deictic category that allows the establishment of a relationship between a situa-
tion and the moment of speech or another reference moment, which is in turn
located on the time axis with reference to the moment of speech.
Sections 3.1.1 to 3.1.6 will focus on the temporal characteristics of the follow-
ing tenses within the indicative paradigm: present tense (Presente), compound
past (Passato Prossimo), simple past (Passato Remoto), pluperfect (Trapassato
Prossimo) and imperfect (Imperfetto). The following tenses are excluded from the
analysis: Trapassato Remoto, because it is rarely used in standard Italian and oc-
curs sporadically in the learner corpus analysed in the present study; Futuro and
Futuro Anteriore because the expression of future reference falls outside the
scope of the present study. Initially, the analysis will focus on the temporal value
of the presented tenses. While focusing on temporal characteristics, limited at-
tention will be dedicated to their aspectual value, which, however, constitutes an
essential part of their definition and cannot be completely separated from tense.
A separate section (3.2) is dedicated to the aspectual characteristics of the exam-
ined tenses, in order to analyse tense and aspect separately, before examining

Tense and temporality | 29

their interaction. Limited attention is dedicated to the modal value of these
tenses, beyond the focus of the present study.
In line with the studies on the acquisition of the Italian tense-aspect system
(e.g., Banfi and Bernini 2003; Giacalone Ramat 2003b; Rocca 2002, 2005; Rosi
2009a), the traditional tense-terminology is maintained throughout the study –
instead of the terminology proposed by Bertinetto (1986)
4
– in order to facilitate
the comparison of the present results with previous research.
3.1.1 Present tense
The present tense (PRES) is extensively used in both written and spoken language
and conveys a large variety of meanings: “[d]as Präsens ist das in der gesproche-
nen Sprache am häufigsten verwendete Tempus, dessen Bedeutungspotenzial
eine außerordentlich große Flexibilität ermöglicht“ (Haßler 2016: 91). Its proto-
typical, deictic meaning conveys simultaneity between S and E, thus in (12) the
situation [Carlo dormire] is interpreted as simultaneous to the moment when the
sentence is uttered (from Bertinetto 1986: 325), while its conclusion is undeter-
mined:
(12) In questo preciso istante, Carlo dorme.
When E and S are simultaneous, the present tense may also refer to a habitual
event, which is not necessarily in progress at S, however, it may occur any time,
when the circumstances allow for it (13) (from Bertinetto 1986: 333):
||
4 Bertinetto (1986: 18) notes that the traditional tense terminology in Italian is incongruent,
meaning that in some cases it refers to temporal deixis (e.g., the terms Passato Prossimo and
Passato Remoto refer to the relative distance of an event from the point of speech on the time
axis), while in other cases it is based on aspectual criteria (e.g., Imperfetto). Bertinetto proposes
a more consistent terminology, based on tempo/aspectual and formal criteria. Given that they
convey similar aspectual meanings, but differ in their formal complexity, Passato Prossimo and
Passato Remoto are referred to as Perfetto Composto and Perfetto Semplice respectively. This
terminology emphasises the similarity in their aspectual meaning, allows referring to both
tenses contemporarily by using the term Perfetti and contrapose them to the imperfective past
tense Imperfetto. In fact, no terminological change is proposed for the latter tense. The present
study maintains the traditional terminology, that is Passato Prossimo, Passato Remoto and Im-
perfetto, used in the majority of studies on language acquisition.

30 | Tense, aspect and grounding

(13) In montagna mi sento un altro
The expression of simultaneity, intuitively perceived as the prototypical meaning
of PRES, is only available with durative
5
verbs (Bertinetto 1986: 325). In combina-
tion with non-durative verbs, it may appear in extemporaneous comments, for
instance in a radio commentary. As pointed out by Bertinetto (1986: 325), “gli usi
rigorosamente deittici del PRE [presente], benché non rari, non sono sempre fa-
cilmente accessibili, e sono anzi talvolta addirittura impossibili”.
The prototypical meaning of simultaneity conveyed by PRES allows for the
expression of generally accepted facts (14), with no reference to the length of the
time interval under consideration:
(14) 3 più 3 fa 6.
In (14) the statement does not have a specific time reference; its validity extends
endlessly; it could be considered a case of extended simultaneity. In fact, PRES
can be applied when referring to generally valid characteristics or conditions. For
instance, statement (15) is not made for a specific muscle with respect to a deter-
mined time interval, but it has a general validity:
(15) Per generare movimento, il muscolo necessita di uno stimolo prove-
niente dal cervello.
Besides statements of scientific validity, PRES may also refer to things experi-
enced in everyday life as in (16) (from Bertinetto 1986: 331):
(16) Dal colle della Maddalena si vede una vasta corona di Alpi.
Haßler (2016: 92) points out that there is disagreement among scholars whether
the use of PRES to denote facts of general validity refers to an unbounded situa-
tion that includes the S or it does not involve any temporal relation: “Es gibt keine
Einigkeit unter den Grammatikern hinsichtlich der Frage, ob das generische
||
5 The term durativity makes reference to the lexical aspectual characterisation of predicates,
presented in more detail in section 3.2.4 . As pointed out by Bertinetto (1986: 88), durative verbs
refer to processes with an inherent duration, such as dormire, while non- durative predicates re-
fer to processes that happen instantaneously and their starting point coincides with their end-
point (e.g., esplodere).

Tense and temporality | 31

Präsens als vollständig zeitlos zu betrachten ist oder ob es in einer kontinuierli-
chen unbegrenzten Situation, die den Sprechaktmoment beinhaltet, zu lokalisie-
ren ist” . According to Bertinetto (1986: 328–331) PRES in generally valid asser-
tions corresponds to a non-deictic use of this tense, because the situation it refers
to does not have a temporal delimitation, thereby it cannot be located on the time
axis.
In its deictic uses, PRES may also convey anteriority with reference to the
deictic centre. This use is referred to as historical present, applied in narratives,
in order to view situations as still relevant at the S and to create the impression of
psychological proximity: “[l’]effetto è quello di un avvicinamento prospettico e di
un’attualizzazione degli eventi narrati, che pur appartenendo al passato vengono
presentati come se fossero appunto contemporanei o prossimi all’enunciazione”
(Roggia 2011). Thus, the historical present may appear in texts where past tense
morphology is predominant, in order to obtain a dramatic effect by emphasising
a sequence within a larger narrative unit or to indicate an important turning point
in the story. This use is also referred to as dramatic present and is observable in
(17) (from Roggia 2011):
(17) A qualche distanza giungemmo a una barriera, ove mi domandano una
piccola somma pel mio passaggio. Metto la mano in tasca, e qual fu la
mia sorpresa quando non trovai un soldo nel borsellino dov’io posi la
mattina cinquanta zecchini, che l’impresario di Praga, Guardassoni, pa-
gato m’avea per quell’opera! (Da Ponte 1918: 134)
On the other hand, the term narrative present denotes the cases when the present
tense is the prevalent tense of a narrative, used to produce a vivid narration and
create a sense of actuality. Both narrative present and dramatic present occur fre-
quently in spontaneous narratives (see Lo Duca and Solarino 1992) but can also
be found in written texts in order to produce stylistic effects.
However, PRES may also make reference to a future event. While reference to
the past may be implied by the context as in (17), reference to a future event re-
quires a temporal specification as in (18) (from Bertinetto 1986: 337):
(18) Domani dormo da mia zia.
The large variety of meanings conveyed by PRES has been observed in film-retell-
ing narratives produced by Italian native speakers (Lo Duca and Solarino 1992:
47–48); and has induced some scholars to consider PRES as a semantically empty

32 | Tense, aspect and grounding

tense which gains its temporal and aspectual value from the context. However,
Haßler (2016: 104) points out that the use of PRES in a text with predominantly
past tense morphology may cause the shift of the deictic centre and originate a
reorganisation of tenses around a reference point, instead of the speech point.
For instance, in (19) (from Bertinetto 1986: 335) the event [Enrico giungere],
marked with PRES, assumes the role of the deictic centre. The events [parlare al
capostazione] marked with past tense morphology; [dire] marked with PRES and
[arrivare] marked with future morphology express anteriority, simultaneity and
posteriority with respect to the deictic centre [Enrico giungere], and not with re-
spect to the speech point.
(19) Stavamo aspettando il treno. All’improvviso giunge trafelato Enrico. Ha
appena parlato al capostazione e dice che il rapido arriverà con molto
ritardo. Fu così che decidemmo di prendere l’espresso.
If the event [giungere] was marked with past tense morphology, the totality of the
events would be organised around the speech point, as illustrated in (20). Rojo
and Veiga (1999: 2892) consider the shift of the deictic centre caused by the use
of PRES as an argument against its consideration as a neutral tense.
(20) Stavamo aspettando il treno. All’improvviso giunse trafelato Enrico.
Aveva appena parlato al capostazione e diceva che il rapido sarebbe ar-
rivato con molto ritardo. Fu così che decidemmo di prendere l’espresso.
To summarise, besides the expression of simultaneity, perceived as the prototyp-
ical meaning of PRES, this tense may also express anteriority, posteriority or refer
to information of general validity. However, its potential to be the deictic centre
of a narrative sequence challenges the opinion that it may be a semantically
empty tense, which gains its interpretation from the context.
3.1.2 Perfective past tenses
Similar to other Romance languages (e.g., French, Spanish, Portuguese), Italian
has two perfective past tenses: the compound past, called Passato Prossimo (PP),
and the simple past, called Passato Remoto (PR). Both tenses convey anteriority
with respect to the speech point and express the perfective aspect by viewing a

Tense and temporality | 33

situation “in its entirety, without regard to internal temporal constituency” (Com-
rie 1976: 12).
Despite conspicuous similarities, the two tenses display some differences in
their temporal and aspectual characteristics. The terminology Passato Prossimo
and Passato Remoto suggests that the difference between the two tenses concerns
the length of the time interval between E and S. Passato Prossimo alludes to prox-
imity between E and S, suggesting reference to recent past events; while Passato
Remoto would refer to remote past events. However, the criterion of temporal dis-
tance cannot account for phenomena observable in language use, characterised
by diatopic differences between Southern and Northern varieties (Lo Duca and
Solarino 1992; Squartini and Bertinetto 2000). Northern varieties of Italian dis-
play a tendency to generalise PP, while the opposite tendency is observable in
Southern varieties. Bertinetto (1986: 410) in fact notes that starting from the Cin-
quecento, grammatical studies have been struggling to justify the existence of a
morphological distinction which does not seem to be supported by language use:
“dal Cinquecento in poi, dobbiamo riconoscere che esse [prescrizioni dei gram-
matici tradizionali] documentano innanzi tutto l’aperto disagio dei letterati di
fronte all’esistenza di un’opposizione morfologica che non appare più sorretta da
coerenti e sistematiche motivazioni”. Furthermore, the extensive use of PP in
Northern varieties of Italian seems to have led to a neutralisation of the few exist-
ing differences between the two tenses. Consistently, Bertinetto (1986) refers to
both tenses with the umbrella term Perfetti and emphasises that they share the
following core characteristics:
1. Compatibility with adverbs that express a delimited duration;
2. Impossibility to assume a modal value;
3. Indication of sequentiality.
Weinrich (1964: 87) proposes distinguishing between PP and PR in terms of psy-
chological involvement, instead of temporal distance. PP refers to events that are
psychologically relevant to the speaker, while PR describes events perceived as
having no psychological impact at the moment of speech. This difference
emerges in narratives, where the sequentially narrated events are marked with
PR, while codas, expressing the speaker’s point of view on events, are marked
with PP. Thus, the selection between PP and PR expresses the degree of the
speaker’s psychological involvement on a morphological level.
However, Bertinetto (1986: 438–445) notes that the most systematic differ-
ences between PP and PR are connected to deixis and grammatical aspect. In this
respect, PP displays a high degree of flexibility in meaning, which is not the case
for PR. While the former can be subjected to deployment on the time axis and, in

34 | Tense, aspect and grounding

some contexts, may modify its aspectual value, the latter is always deictic and
expresses the perfective aspect. As pointed out by Bertinetto (1986: 407), Passato
Remoto “risulta essere la forma aspettualmente più pura […], in quanto rigorosa-
mente e costantemente perfettivo”.
The following sections outline the features that distinguish the two PERF
tenses by taking into account that these distinctions are not rigid, although their
maintenance is considered prestigious, especially in literary language and formal
register (Squartini and Bertinetto 2000: 424).
3.1.3 Passato Prossimo
PP belongs to the domain of perfective aspect, which can be further divided into
two subdomains: the perfect
6
aspect, referring to a “past situation which has pre-
sent relevance” (Comrie 1976: 11); and the aoristic aspect that refers to a single
occurrence of a concluded situation with no present relevance (Grandi 2010). One
of the defining features of PP with respect to PR is that PP conveys the perfect
aspect, while PR conveys the aoristic aspect (Wiberg 2011a). However, similar to
Weinrich’s definition, based on the speaker’s psychological involvement, the
concept of present relevance is also hard to operationalise (Klein 1992). Thus, the
various definitions of PP are based on ambiguous concepts such as proximity be-
tween E and S, psychological involvement and present relevance. Nevertheless,
these definitions are congruent, in the sense that a situation located in the recent
past is likely to have present relevance and consequently a psychological impact.
In fact, when the three factors converge, the use of PP is nearly compulsory, as
illustrated in (21) (from Bertinetto 1986: 415), where the event of getting ill makes
it impossible to participate at the celebration:
(21) Scusami, ma non posso venire alla tua festa: mi sono preso l’influenza.
As pointed out in section 3.1.2, PP displays a high degree of flexibility in meaning.
For instance, the feature of current relevance conveyed by this tense can be ex-
tended to a level where not only the result, but also the situation itself can be
considered valid at the point of speech, which leads to an imperfective
||
6 The term “perfect” makes reference to the terminology proposed by Comrie (1976: 11). The
same aspectual value is referred to as “aspetto compiuto” in Bertinetto’s studies written in Ital-
ian (e.g., Bertinetto 1986, 1991), while its counterpart in the English papers of the same author is
“perfectal” (e.g., Squartini and Bertinetto 2000).

Tense and temporality | 35

interpretation. This is the case in (22) where the situation [portare gonne
lunghissime] is still valid at S and could be paraphrased by means of an omnitem-
poral present portano da sempre (Bertinetto 1986: 418):
(22) Le donne di questo posto hanno sempre portato gonne lunghissime.
As pointed out by Bertinetto (1986: 418), “si può considerare questo fenomeno
come una sorta di caso estremo di rilevanza attuale, in cui non solo il risultato,
ma l’evento stesso perdura al ME [momento dell’enunciazione]”.
While PP can extend its perfect meaning (i.e. present relevance) to such a
high degree that it gains an imperfective interpretation, the exact opposite is also
possible. In (23) PP assumes an aoristic meaning, presenting a situation with no
present relevance (from Wiberg 2011a). In this sentence, PP is in fact replaceable
by PR. Squartini and Bertinetto (2000: 403–404) refer to this phenomenon as ao-
ristic drift and claim that Passato Prossimo “started out as a true perfect, but un-
derwent a process of gradual aoristicisation (i.e. of transformation into a purely
perfective past)”.
(23) Nel 2000 Maria si è sposata / si sposò con Giovanni: oggi è separata.
The flexibility in meaning allows for the use of PP as a non-deictic tense. In these
circumstances, the situation it denotes is not located with respect to the deictic
centre, but with respect to a reference point which does not coincide with S. The
reference point may be anterior or posterior to S. In the latter case, PP assumes a
future value as in (24). Conversely, when the reference point is anterior to S, PP
assumes a meaning similar to a pluperfect (25) (Bertinetto 1986: 420–421):
(24) Quando vedrai Giovanni, gli dirai soltanto che sei venuto per prendere
la tua roba.
(25) La casa è crollata dopo che tu sei uscito.
Finally, when used in a non-deictic meaning, PP can supress its temporal value
and assume an omnitemporal interpretation, referring to a situation of general
validity as in (26) (Bertinetto 1986: 423):
(26) Una persona che ha studiato non deve comportarsi così.

36 | Tense, aspect and grounding

To sum up, PP is characterised by flexibility in meaning, in the sense that its core
meaning as a perfective tense referring to a complete event with current relevance
is feasible to split into two opposite directions. It may be extended far enough to
gain an imperfective reading or weakened so that the tense gains an aoristic
value. Furthermore, PP may lose its deictic value and be used as an anaphoric
tense or gain an omnitemporal interpretation.
3.1.4 Passato Remoto
Flexibility is the feature that distinguishes PP from PR, which in turn is rigorously
deictic and perfective (Bertinetto 1986: 428–429). PR expresses the aoristic
aspect, i.e. it refers to a process concluded before S that does not have continuing
effects at S: “il passato remoto è un tempo perfettivo di tipo aoristico, designante
cioè un processo interamente concluso, le conseguenze del quale non si possano
considerare attuali” (Wiberg 2011b). The absence of persisting effects at S seems
to capture the semantics of PR better than the concept of psychological relevance
proposed by Weinrich (1964), especially in the case of the Southern varieties of
Italian, where PR often refers to the recent past, as exemplified in (27) (from Ber-
tinetto 1986: 428):
(27) Venendo qui, vidi Gennaro che andava alla stazione; sarà stato cinque
minuti fa.
As pointed out by Wiberg (2011b), the feature of conclusion without continuing
effects connected to the aoristic aspect prevents an inclusive interpretation of PR,
which is, however, possible in the presence of PP. While the use of PP in (28) ad-
mits the continuation of the situation at the moment of speech (i.e., it is possible
that Chiara still lives in Rome), such an interpretation is not possible with sen-
tence (29), where it is automatically assumed that Chiara no longer lives in Rome:
(28) Chiara ha vissuto a lungo a Roma.
(29) Chiara visse a lungo a Roma.
This implies that the temporal reference of PR is highly specific, as further exem-
plified in (30). Similar to (28), the use of PP in (30) allows for the inclusion of S,
i.e. the situation [abitare in questa casa] may be still valid at S. This is not possible

Tense and temporality | 37

in the presence of PR (31) which views the situation as necessarily concluded at
the S (Bertinetto 1986: 440):
(30) Ho abitato in questa casa per dieci anni di fila; comincio a non poterne
più.
(31) Abitai in questa casa per dieci anni di fila, finché non ne potei più.
For the same reason, adverbials that refer to S are compatible with PP but not
with PR (Bertinetto 1991: 100):
(32) Adesso finalmente ho appagato / *appagai ogni mio desiderio.
The examples (27) to (31) show that, when PR is applied, the time interval between
E and S does not necessarily have to be long, i.e. PR does not necessarily refer to
a situation in the distant past. However, as shown in (32), in the case of PR, S can
never include E, while in the case of PP this possibility exists.
The rigorously deictic nature of PR can also be observed in examples (33) and
(34) (from Bertinetto 1986: 429), which illustrate that PR, contrary to PP, cannot
be deployed along the time axis to be located with respect to a reference point.
PR always refers to a concluded event located with reference to S, the deictic cen-
tre. For this reason, sentences (33) and (34) are ungrammatical with PR, but pos-
sible with PP:
(33) Ti raggiungerò quando ho finito / *finii.
(34) Vengo dopo che ho mangiato / *mangiai.
To sum up, the main differences between PP and PR can be outlined in three
points (Bertinetto 1986: 438–445):
1. PP conveys the perfect aspect, viewing a situation in its entirety, with persist-
ing effects at the S; while PR conveys the aoristic aspect, viewing a situation
in its singular manifestation, without persisting effects at S;
2. The temporal reference of PP is not always deictic, it admits deployment
along the time axis in the sense that it can be located with respect to a refer-
ence point anterior or posterior to the S; while PR is rigorously deictic in na-
ture;

38 | Tense, aspect and grounding

3. PP leaves the conclusion of the process undetermined, admitting its contin-
uation or resumption at the S; while PR refers to concluded events in the past
and does not leave any space for the continuation of the event at S.
However, these distinctions between PP and PR are not rigid and, as emphasised
by Bertinetto (1986: 441), “[a]bbiamo quindi a che fare […] con una semplice in-
dicazione di tendenza, piuttosto che con una rigida regolarità di comporta-
mento”.
3.1.5 Trapassato Prossimo
The pluperfect Trapassato Prossimo (TRAP) can be characterised as a relative or
anaphoric tense, in the sense that it is located on the time axis with respect to a
reference point, instead of the deictic centre (Lo Duca and Solarino 2006: 55).
Thus, in (35) the event [nascondere la torta nella dispensa] is anterior to the event
[mangiare la torta] that constitutes the reference point and in turn is anterior to S
(Lo Duca and Solarino 2006: 53).
(35) Il gatto ha mangiato la torta che avevo nascosto nella dispensa.
In fact, TRAP often appears in subordinate clauses, while the event in the main
clause constitutes the reference point (R), as observable in both (35) and (36)
(from Wiberg 2011c). However, TRAP can also appear in main clauses (37) (from
Bertinetto 1986: 455).
(36) Dopo che si era fatta la doccia, Luisa prendeva sempre un’aranciata.
(37) Alle 3 venne / è venuto il momento di lasciarci. Gli altri erano partiti in
precedenza.
Its aspectual characterisation is fundamentally perfective, i.e. it presents events
in their globality and conveys a perfect meaning (Bertinetto 1986: 450; Wiberg
2011c). However, it shares with PP the possibility of gaining an inclusive mean-
ing, leading to an imperfective interpretation as in (38) (from Bertinetto 1986:
461), where the event point includes R.

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a brick or wooden drain for security, or even run to earth, if one
should luckily present itself in the emergency. They are thought to
foresee a change in the weather, and to regulate their sitting
accordingly. After harvest they are found in stubbles, banks of
hedges, woods, and thickets; during the fall of the leaf, they seat
themselves more in open fields; and when the severity of winter
begins to decline, warm, dry, hilly fallows are hardly ever without
them. As one species of game, they are held in high estimation; and,
notwithstanding the utmost efforts, by every degree of interdiction,
with all the pains and penalties that successive parliaments could
devise, from Richard the Second to the present day, for their
preservation, and appropriation to the use of the superior classes,
yet no laws ever proved more fallacious or deceptive; for the infinity
of poachers , with which every rural district abounds, and the alacrity
with which stage coachmen and country higlers supply their friends, will
never let any inquirer be in want of a hare, who has his five shillings
in hand as a means of retribution. This insufficiency of the law to
check nocturnal depredation, and progressive infamy, is most
sincerely to be regretted; but experience has long held forth ample
conviction, that regret cannot produce redress.
HARE-HUNTING—is a well-known sport, of very ancient and
enthusiastic enjoyment, reported, by the most celebrated antiquaries,
to have been established more than two thousand years before the
Christian æra. Various opinions have been occasionally promulgated,
and perseveringly supported, (by cynical rigidity, and religious
severity,) upon the "cruelty of the chase;" which, however, is now
never likely to be shaken in either theory or practice, as to almost
every pack of hounds in the kingdom there are clerical devotees, who
are by no means unworthy members of the church .
Hare-hunting , though universal in every part of England, Ireland,
Scotland, and Wales, is in the highest estimation in those open and
champaign counties where, from want of covert, a stag or fox is
never seen. Here the hares are stouter, more accustomed to long
nightly exercise, more frequently disturbed, more inured to severe

courses before greyhounds , and hard runs before hounds;
consequently, calculated to afford much better sport than can be
expected in either an inclosed or woodland country. There are three
distinct kinds of hounds, with which this particular chase is pursued,
according to the soil and natural face of the district where it is
enjoyed. The large slow southern hound is adapted to the low
swampy, marshy lands, so conspicuous in many parts of Lancashire;
as well as those in Norfolk, and various others bordering upon the
sea. The small, busy, indefatigable beagle seems appropriated by
nature to those steep, hilly and mountainous parts, where it is
impossible for the best horse and boldest rider to keep constantly
with the hounds. The hounds now called harriers , and originally
produced by a cross between the southern hound and the dwarf fox,
are the only hounds to succeed in those open countries, where, for
want of covert, the hare goes five or six miles an end without a turn;
as is frequently the case in many parts of Oxfordshire,
Northamptonshire, Wiltshire, Hampshire, and other counties;
constituting chases very superior to many fox hounds , hunting
beechen coverts and woodland districts.
Hare-hunting , when put in competition with the pursuit of stag or
fox, is much more gratifying to the ruminative and reflecting mind,
than either of the other two; as it affords a more ample field for
minute observation upon the instinctive sagacity of the game, and the
patient, persevering fortitude of the hound , in the various heads,
turns, and doubles, of the chase. Hence it is that hare-hunting is
principally followed, and most enjoyed, by sportsmen in the decline
of life; but with the younger branches it is held in very slender
estimation, as they in general appreciate the excellence of sport
more by the difficulty in pursuing it, than by its duration. Hare-
hunting, in a woody or inclosed country, is such a perpetual routine
of repetition within a small sphere, affording no more than a
continual succession of the same thing, that with a zealous rider, and
a high-mettled horse, it soon palls upon the appetite of both. Young
men, from emulative motives, (naturally appertaining to their time of
life,) feel a pressing propensity to encounter obstacles, and

surmount difficulties, where the effect of vigour and manly courage
can be displayed, and consequently prefer the kind of chase where
personal fortitude, and bodily exertion, are brought more to the
proof; and where, by covering a larger scope of country, and with a
much greater proportional rapidity, a more pleasing and extensive
variety is obtained.
Another cause of mortification constantly presents itself to young
sportsmen with harriers , or beagles , in the field: a valuable horse, or a
bold rider, are equally unnecessary in hare-hunting , and this is
eternally brought to an incontrovertible proof; for after a burst of
five minutes, in which a perfect hunter has an opportunity of
displaying his speed, and, after clearing some dangerous leaps, a
sudden turn or double of the hare, brings him by the side of a rustic
upon a poney of five pounds value, who is nine times out of ten as
forward as himself. The infinite time lost in finding, where hares are
not in great plenty; the frequency of faults; the persecuting
tediousness of cold hunting; and the injury done to horses in drizzling
dreary days, during hours of slow action, are great drawbacks to the
pleasure this species of hunting would otherwise afford.
Moderate sportsmen will never avail themselves of immoderate
means to occasion a contraction of their own sport, by a wanton or
unnecessary destruction of hares; too great a body of hounds should
never be brought into the field, or any unfair modes adopted during
the chase: pricking a hare in the paths, or upon the highways, as
well as placing emissaries upon the soil, are paltry, mean, and
disgraceful artifices, that no genuine, well-bred, honest sportsman, will
ever permit; but candidly acknowledge, if the hounds cannot kill her,
she ought to escape . In respect to numbers, less than twelve, or more
than eighteen couple ought never to be brought from the kennel to
the chase; nor, indeed, seldom are, unless with those who think
much less of sport, than of personal pride and ostentation.
Mr. Beckford , who is a perfect master of this subject, has so
completely investigated, and minutely explained, every particular
appertaining to the chase of both hare and fox, that as it is

absolutely impossible to suggest an idea, or communicate a thought,
but what must carry with it the appearance of plagiarism; it will be
more candid, (evidently more honest) to introduce occasional
passages in his own words, as language more expressive, by which
they will be infinitely better understood. He says, "By inclination he
was never a hare-hunter; but followed the diversion more for air and
exercise than amusement; and if he could have persuaded himself to
ride on the turnpike road to the three mile stone, and back again, he
never should have thought himself in need of a pack of harriers."
He then apologizes to "his brother hare-hunters for holding the
sport so cheap, not wishing to offend; alluding more relatively to his
own particular situation in a country where hare-hunting is so bad,
that it is more extraordinary he should have persevered in it so long,
than he should have forsaken it then." Adding, "how much he
respects hunting in whatever shape it appears; that it is a manly and
a wholesome exercise, and seems by nature designed to be the
amusement of a Briton." He is of opinion that more than twenty
couple of hounds should never be brought into the field; supposing
it difficult for a greater number to run well together; and a pack of
harriers can never be complete who do not. He thinks the fewer
hounds you have, the less you soil the ground, which sometimes
proves a hindrance to the chase.
Custom has greatly varied in the practice of hare-hunting during the
last thirty years: at that time the hounds left the kennel at day-light,
took trail upon being thrown off, and soon went up to their game;
which having the pleasure to find by their own instinctive sagacity,
they pursued with the more determined alacrity: a brace or leash of
hares were then killed, and the sport of the day concluded, by the
hour it is now the fashion for the company to take the field. As the
trail of a hare lays both partially and imperfectly when it gets late in
the day, so the difficulty of finding is increased, in proportion to the
lateness of the hour at which the hounds are thrown off; hence it is
that hare-finders , so little known at that time, are now become so
truly instrumental to the sport of the day.

Although their services are welcome to the eager and expectant
sportsman, yet it is on all hands admitted, they are prejudicial to the
discipline of hounds; for having such assistance, they become
habitually idle, and individually wild: expecting the game to be
readily found for them, they become totally indifferent to the task of
finding it themselves. Hounds of this description know the hare-finder
as well as they know the huntsman, and will not only, upon sight, set
off to meet him, but have eternally their heads thrown up in the air,
in expectation of a view holloa!
With all well-managed packs, they are quietly brought up to the
place of meeting; and when thrown off, a general silence should
prevail, that every hound may be permitted to do his own work.
Hounds well bred, and well broke to their business, seldom want
assistance. Officious intrusions frequently do more harm than good:
nothing requires greater judgment, or nicer observation in speaking
to a hound, than to know the critical time when a word is wanting.
Young men, like young hounds, are frequently accustomed to babble
when newly entered, and, by their frivolous questions or
conversation, attract the attention of the hounds, and insure the
silent curse of the huntsman, as well as the contemptuous indifference
of every experienced sportsman in the field.
Whenever a hare is turned out of her form, or jumps up before
the hounds, a general shout of clamorous exultation too frequently
prevails, by which the hare's intentional course is perverted, and she
is often headed, or turned into the body of the hounds to a certain
death; when, on the contrary, was she permitted to go off with less
alarm, and to break view, without being so closely pressed at
starting, there is no doubt but much better runs would be more
generally obtained. Individual emulation, or individual obstinacy,
invariably occasions horsemen in hare-hunting to be too near the
hounds, who, being naturally urged by the rattling of the horses, and
the exulting zeal of the riders, often very much over-run the scent,
and have no alternative but to turn and divide amidst the legs of the
horses, so soon as they have lost it; and to this circumstance may

be justly attributed many of the long and tedious faults which so
frequently occur, and render this kind of chase the less attracting.
Gentlemen who keep harriers vary much in their modes of hunting
them; but the true sportsman never deviates from the strict
impartiality of the chase. If a hare is found sitting, and the hounds
too near at hand, they are immediately drawn off, to prevent her
being chopped in her form: the hare is then silently walked up by
the individual who previously found her, and she is permitted to go
off at her own pace, and her own way. The hounds are then drawn
over the spot from whence she started, where taking the scent, they
go off in a style of uniformity, constituting what may be fairly termed
the consistency of the chase. Others there are who never can, or
never will, resist the temptation of giving the hounds a view, and
never fail to tell you, both hare and hounds run the better for it. In
addition to this humane method of beginning the chase, every
advantage is taken of the poor affrighted animal's distress, amidst all
its little instinctive efforts for the preservation of life. The hounds,
instead of being permitted to run the soil, and kill the hare by dint of
their own persevering labour, are constantly capped from chase to
view; and the object of the sport most wantonly and uncharitably
destroyed; for nothing less than a miracle can effect its escape.
Those of nicer sensations enjoy the sport, but enjoy it much more
mercifully; and would rather see their own hounds occasionally
beaten, than, by any unfair or unsportsman-like introduction, kill
their hare. These never permit a profusion of vociferous assistance
from the huntsman, who is enjoined to an almost silent execution of
his own duty, that the hounds may not be prevented (by his noise)
from a strict and attentive performance of theirs. If they throw up,
upon a dry or greasy fallow, a footpath, a highway, or a turnpike-
road, a thousand busy bustling endeavours are to be self-made for a
recovery of the scent, before any one effort is permitted to assist in
lifting them along; and even then, not till every patient and
persevering struggle has failed of success. The sportsman of this
description admits of no device, stratagem, or foul play whatever;
the hounds must hunt the hare; they must go over every inch of

ground she has gone before them; they must hit off their own
checks, recover their faults; and, by cold hunting, pick it along,
where, in passing through a flock of sheep, the ground has been
foiled, and the chase proportionally retarded. Early and extensive
casts are unjust, unless upon some unexpected or unavoidable
emergency; as the repeated interventions of sheep, or intersections
of roads, or fallows in a dry season; when it would be impossible to
make the least progress in getting the hounds along without
assistance.
When hounds come to a check, not a horse should move, not a
voice should be heard: every hound is eagerly employed, exerting all
his powers for a recovery of the scent, in which, if not officiously
obstructed, they will most probably soon succeed. At such times
there is generally, and unluckily, some popinjay in the field, who,
unfortunately for himself, never speaks but upon the most improper
occasion; rendering, at such moment, the judicious observation of
Mr. Beckford truly neat and applicable, that "when in the field, he
never desires to hear any other tongue than a hound ." Whenever
assistance to hounds is become unavoidably necessary, and the
chase cannot be carried on without, sound judgment, and long
experience, are necessary to speedy success. Casts cannot be made
by any fixed, certain, or invariable rules, but must, at different times,
be differently dependent upon the chase, the soil, the weather, and
the kind of country you are hunting in. It may, in one instance, be
prudent to try forward first; in another, to try back; as it may be
judicious, or necessary, to make a small circular cast at one time,
and a much larger at another; and although to one of the field,
circumstances may appear, in either instance, to have been nearly
the same, yet they have not been so in the "mind's eye" of the
huntsman, (or the person hunting the hounds,) upon whose superior
knowledge, or circumspection, the good or ill effect of the
experiment must depend.
None, but weak or inexperienced sportsmen, ever presume to
obtrude their opinions when hounds are at fault; those who do it,
soon find the interference is ill-timed, and that it only excites a

contemptuous indifference. Strangers cannot be too cautious and
circumspect in the field, if they wish to avoid just reproofs, and not
to encounter rebuffs: some there are, whose hard fate it is to
become conspicuously ridiculous upon every occasion that can occur,
and to such, unfortunately for them, occasions are seldom wanting.
During the chase, they are riding into, over, or before, the hounds ;
and at every check, asking some vexatious, trifling question of the
huntsman; or entering into a frivolous conversation with what seems
to them the most vulnerable subject of the company. Officious
individuals of this description, whose error too frequently originates
in a certain degree of personal pride, and unbounded confidence,
should learn to know, that "the post of honour is a private station;"
as well as that an old pollard in a painting, might be admirably
calculated to form a respectable object in the back-ground, but
never intended by the artist to become a principal figure in the front
of the picture.
HARE NETS—are of two sorts, one of which will be found
described under the head "Gate-nets;" the other are called purse-nets,
and are exactly in the form of cabbage-nets, but of larger and
stronger construction. These occasionally afford collateral aid to the
former; for being fixed at the different meuses (either in hedges, or
to paling) where hares are expected to pass, and the ground being
scoured by a mute lurcher, as there described, the destruction is
certain. These nets are the nocturnal engines of old and experienced
poachers , doing more mischief where hares are plenty, in one night,
than the wire manufacturers can accomplish in a week.
"HARK FORWARD!"—is a sporting exclamation, well known in the
practice of the field, and affords to every distant hearer, authentic
information, that the hounds are a-head, and going on with the
chase. It sometimes happens, that, in very large and thick coverts,
no man or horse existing can be in with the hounds; at which times
(particularly in stormy weather) recourse must be had to every
means for general accommodation. The best sportsmen are often

thrown out for miles, and not unfrequently for the day, by various
turns of the chase in covert, and then breaking up the wind on a
contrary side, leaving every listening expectant in an awkward
predicament, if not relieved by the friendly communication of "hoic
forward!" from one to another, enabling the whole to continue the
sport.
HARE-PIPES—were instruments so curiously constructed, to
imitate the whining whimper of a hare, that, being formerly found a
very destructive nocturnal engine in attracting the attention of hares,
and bringing them within the certain possession of the poacher , their
use was prohibited (by particular specification) in every Act of
Parliament for the preservation of game, from the reign of Richard
the Second, to the present time; although it is natural to conclude,
there is not now such an article to be seen, or found in the kingdom.
HARRIERS—are the species of hound appropriated solely to the
pursuit of the hare, and from thence derived their present
appellation. The breeding experiments so long made, and the
various crosses so repeatedly tried, by the best judges in the
kingdom, seem at length to have centered between the old southern
and the dwarf fox hound. Mr. Beckford , whose "Thoughts" no
sensible man, or judicious sportsman, will presume to dispute, was
entirely of this opinion, and proved it by his practice; for he says,
"his hounds were a cross of both these kinds, in which it was his
endeavour to get as much bone and strength, in as small a compass
as possible. It was a difficult undertaking. He bred many years, and
an infinity of hounds, before he could get what he wanted, and had
at last the pleasure to see them very handsome; small, yet very
bony: they ran remarkably well together; ran fast enough; had all
the alacrity that could be desired, and would hunt the coldest scent.
When they were thus perfect, he did as many others do—he parted
with them."
Notwithstanding the criterion of excellence thus laid down, the
same sort of hound (as a harrier) is by no means applicable to every
soil: the southern hound will be always in possession of the swamps,

as will the beagles of the mountainous and hilly countries. Those
who delight in seeing hounds bred and drafted to a certain degree of
uniformity, in size, bone, strength, and speed, strictly corresponding
with the opinion of Mr. Beckford , will not find it time lost, to take the
field with the harriers of his Majesty, kept at Windsor: they are, as
they ought to be, the best pack, and the best hunted, this day in the
kingdom. See the Frontispiece; where every man, horse, and hound , is
individually a portrait.
HART—is the sporting term synonimous with Stag, (which see,) and
was, in all forest laws and records, constantly in use to signify the
same. At present, however, it is considered almost obsolete, and
never so expressed in sporting report, or conversation.
HART ROYAL.—A stag hunted by king or queen, obtaining his
perfect liberty by beating the hounds, was formerly called a hart
royal; and proclamation was immediately made, in the towns and
villages of the neighbourhood where he was lost, that he should not
be molested, or his life attempted by any farther pursuit; but that he
should continue in a state of unrestrained freedom, with power to
return to the forest or chace from whence he was taken at his own
free will. This ceremony is, however, discontinued, and bids fair to
be buried in a perpetual oblivion; as two instances have recently
occurred worthy recital: one in the neighbourhood of High Wycombe ,
where the stag was killed before the hounds, by a rustic, during the
heat of the chase, in which the King at the time was personally
engaged. And another at Mapledurham , near Reading , where the deer
was wantonly shot, as he lay in a willow bank near the Thames, two
days after he had beaten the hounds; yet it is publicly known, that
no steps were taken to prosecute the offenders, which probably
originated in his Majesty's clemency.
HAUNCH and HIP—of a horse, have been hitherto (but not with
strict propriety) used in a similar sense: nice observers might say
one begins where the other ends, or that one immediately succeeds
the other. The haunch is that part of the hind quarter extending from

the point of the hip-bone, down the thigh to the hock; but as it is a
part well known, and but little subject to partial disease or accident,
it lays claim to no particular description. The term of "putting a
horse upon his haunches," implies the making him constantly fix the
principal weight of the frame upon his hind quarters, by which
practice he bears less upon the bit, and becomes habitually light in
hand. Horses hard in mouth, and heavy in hand, frequently undergo
the ceremony of being put upon their haunches in the trammels of a
riding school , where, by too severe and inconsiderate exertions,
sudden twists, distortions, and strains, are sustained in the hocks,
which terminate in curbs and spavins never to be obliterated.
HAUNCH of VENISON—implies the hind quarter of a fallow deer,
(either buck or doe,) cut in a particular form for the table. The hind
quarter of a stag, or hind, also passes under the same denomination;
but it is more applicable to form a distinction, and call the former a
haunch of venison; the latter, a haunch of red deer.
HAW.—The haw is that cartilaginous part of a horse's eye, plainly
perceptible at the inner corner next the forehead, which internally
constitutes a circular groove for the easier acceleration of the eye in
its orbit. When confined within its natural and proper sphere, it is
but just in sight, when taking a front view of the horse; but when it
has acquired a preternatural degree of enlargement, it protrudes
over part of the orb, partially obstructs the sight, particularly in that
direction, and constitutes no small disfiguration of the horse.
Ingenuity heretofore suggested the possibility of extirpation with the
knife, which operation has been frequently performed, but with too
little success to justify a continuance of the practice. It having been
found, that when the haw was taken away by a regular process, and
by the hand of the most expert operator, yet the eye, for want of its
former support, was observed to become contracted in the socket,
and a total deprivation of sight to follow, evidently demonstrating
"the remedy worse than the disease;" as well as to convince us, it is
sometimes more prudent

"—— to bear those ills we have,
Than fly to others that we know not of."
HAWKS,—as birds of prey, are divided into two sorts, called long
and short winged hawks: of the former there are ten, and of the
latter eight; but their names, and particular description, is so remote
from the language and manners of the present time, and their use
so nearly obsolete, that the least animadversion would prove entirely
superfluous.
HAWKING—was some centuries since a sport of much fashion and
celebrity; the hawks being as regularly broke and trained to the
pursuit and taking of game, as are the best setters and pointers of
the present day. It is, however, so completely grown into disuse, and
buried in oblivion, that there does not appear the least glimmering
of its ever attaining a chance of sporting resurrection.
HAY—is the well-known article of grass, cut in its most luxuriant
and nutritious state during the months of June and July; when the
succulent parts, tending most to putrefaction, being extracted by the
powerful rays of the sun, it acquires (if the season should prove dry,
and favourable for the operation) a degree of fragrancy nearly equal
to a collection of aromatic herbs. Hay, in this state, is a most
attracting sort of aliment to horses of every description, and is so
truly grateful to the appetite, that it is often accepted when corn is
refused. Of hay there are different kinds; as meadow hay, clover hay,
and sainfoin . The first is called natural grass, as the spontaneous
produce of what is termed pasture land: the two latter are deemed
artificial, as being cultivated upon arable land, and affording crops of
only biennial and triennial duration; when the fertility of which is so
far exhausted, as to render a crop of the ensuing year an
unprofitable prospect, the land is ploughed up, to undergo its
regular routine of cultivation, when crops of this description are
renewed, by sowing the seed previously preserved for the purpose.

Fine, rich, short, fragrant meadow hay, has by much the
preference with the sporting world; as well as with all those who
employ horses in light work, and expeditious action: it varies much
in its property; not more in respect to the manner in which it is
made, than to the soil it is produced from. Those who are anxious
for the health and condition of their horses, are always as judiciously
circumspect in the choice of their hay as their corn; experimentally
knowing, as much depends upon the excellence of one as the other.
Hay produced from rushy land, or mossy moors, is always of inferior
quality, and impoverishes the blood of the horses who eat it, in
proportion to its own sterility. Those who inconsiderately purchase
cheap hay upon the score of economy, will have to repent their want
of liberality. Whether it is coarse, and barren of nutritious property,
or ill-made, musty, and repugnant to appetite, the effect sooner or
later will be much the same; and those who imprudently make the
experiment, will soon find, that horses ill-kept, and less fed than
nature requires, for the support of the frame, and the supply of the
various secretions by the different emunctories, will soon display, in
their external appearance, a tendency to disease.
Clover hay is produced in most counties in the kingdom; it is
generally sown with barley , sometimes with oats, and least of all with
wheat: it constitutes, upon dry ground, a profitable and convenient
pasture in the autumn, and affords its general crop the following
season. If luxuriant, it is mown twice in the same summer; but the
second crop is not considered equal in value to the first. This hay is
said, by those who ought to be the best enabled to judge and
decide, superior to every other as to its nutritious property: this may
be admitted in a certain degree, so far as its increasing the
crassamentum of the blood, and proportionally promoting its
viscidity; rendering horses who are constantly fed upon it (for
instance, farmers horses) fuller in flesh, duller in action, and thicker
in the wind, than those who are supported upon food of a lighter
description. Although well calculated for slow and heavy draft
horses, it is by no means adapted to those of expeditious action; for
the blood thus thickened, becoming more languid or tardy in its

circulation, would, when propelled through the vessels with great
and sudden velocity, in hunting, or journies of speed upon the road,
inevitably lay the foundation of different inflammatory disorders.
Sainfoin is rather an article of necessity than choice, and very little
known in some parts of England, where nature has been more
liberal in her diversity of vegetation: it is principally cultivated in the
upland counties, where neither a meadow, stream, or rivulet, is to
be seen for a great number of miles in succession. Many very
extensive farms in the lower counties west of the metropolis, feel
the want of pasture land, not having a single acre of meadow or
natural grass in possession. Necessity, the mother of invention, has,
however, so amply furnished a variety of substitutes, that their
horses, and stock of every kind, seem equal, upon the average, to
what is produced in any other part of the kingdom.
HAYS—are a particular kind of nets for taking rabbits and hares, the
use of which are proscribed in almost every Act to be found in the
penal statutes for the preservation of game. They are made from sixty
to one hundred and twenty feet long, and six feet deep; constituting
the most destructive engine of any ever yet invented to strip a
country, by the mode in which they are used. They are only in the
possession of poachers of the first magnitude, (in the neighbourhoods
of parks, hare warrens , and preserves ,) by whose desperate and
determined nocturnal exertions the wholesale trade of the metropolis
is invariably supplied.
HAYWARD—is a manorial parochial officer, appointed to preserve
the privileges, and protect the rights, immunities, and cattle, of
those who are entitled to commonage of certain lands, wastes, &c.
He derives from his appointment, authority to drive his district at
stated periods, well known in its vicinity; to impound strays, and to
prevent nuisances of diseased cattle; or any other impropriety of
cattle breaking bounds, and destroying fences, of which it comes
within the intent of his office to take cognizance. To all which there
are certain local fees appertaining, according to the custom of the

country, for the support of an office very wisely instituted to prevent
trifling law-suits and paltry litigations.
HAZARD—is, beyond a doubt, the most fashionable and
fascinating game ever yet invented for the expeditious and
instantaneous transfer of immense sums from one hand to another.
It is a game of chance ; and, when fairly played, is the fairest upon
which a stake can possibly be made, from one guinea to a thousand,
or to any amount whatever; the winning or losing of which is
decided with so much rapidity, that the adventurer can never be
more than a few moments in suspense, although he may be many
years in repentance. Hazard is the game of nocturnal celebrity, by
which the best estates have been impoverished, and immense
property destroyed: it is played with a box and pair of dice, and is of
considerable antiquity, as noticed by Shakespeare in Richard the Third,
whom he has made to say,
"Slave, I have set my life upon a cast,
"And I will stand the hazard of the die."
The person holding the box is called the Caster, who having been set
as much money by the surrounding company (or any individual) as
he proposes to throw for, and the stake or stakes being deposited
within a centrical circle upon the table, he then throws the dice from
the box, and whatever number appears upon the surface is termed
"the main;" and so vociferated loudly by a person called the Groom
Porter, who stands above the rest, and whose business it is to call
the main and chance, furnish fresh dice when demanded, and to
receive the money for a box-hand when due. So soon as the main is
declared, which, in fact, is the number by which the Caster's
opponents must abide for themselves, the Caster throws a second
time, and this number is called the chance, being his own chance
against the main previously thrown; and so named, because it is the
number of the main of the players against the chance of the individual
who is the Caster, and makes stakes against the whole, or any part
of the rest.

The main and chance being proclaimed by the Groom Porter, odds
are generally laid between the throws (upon the termination of the
event) according to the numbers opposed to each other, and
according to the scale by which all bets upon the game are
regulated, and strictly observed. The Caster may, or may not,
engage in any of these bets, which he very frequently does, as a
hedge (or fence) to his own stakes, when the odds are six to four, or
two to one, in his favour: at any rate, he continues to throw the dice
in succession, till either the main or chance appears: if the main is
first thrown, those who "set the Caster" draw their money; the
Caster is then said to have "thrown out," and passes the box to his
next neighbour: on the contrary, should he have thrown his own
chance first, he is then the winner, and of course not only draws all
the money he staked and betted, but continues to hold the box, and
throw a "new main" for any sum he wishes to be set, in which a
Caster is never known to be disappointed.
When a Caster has thrown in (that is, has won) three times in
succession, it is termed "a box hand," and he then pays half a guinea
to the Groom Porter, for the privilege of playing, the use of box and
dice, negus, &c. provided for the accommodation of the company.
The box continues in the Caster's possession so long as he continues
to throw in, (paying an additional half guinea every third time of
winning;) but the first time he loses, he resigns the box to the player
sitting next to him, unless he requests, and is permitted to renew his
own play, which is then called taking "a back hand." There are more
minute distinctions, as well as a fixed table of the odds during the
play; but they are too long for insertion; and could not be so clearly
comprehended by theory, as understood by practice.
HEAD.—The correct formation of a horse's head is so indispensibly
necessary to the striking symmetry and corresponding uniformity of
the whole, that its make should never be inadvertently overlooked in
a hasty purchase. The head, the crest, the curve of the neck, and
the entire of the forehand, are what may be termed the predominant
features, or distinguishing traits, which alone seen, hold forth, in

general, a tolerably just idea of what may be expected to follow. In
the present state of equestrian improvement, the beauty of a horse's
head is too well known to require a literary description: nor would
the word itself have been introduced, but to remind every class of
sportsmen, that those who purchase a horse too thick in the jole, or
a head too large for the body, must never expect to be complimented
upon the beauty of the acquisition.
HEAD, pain in.—Horses, it is supposed and admitted, may be
subject to pains in the head; and that such pains may proceed from
causes it is impossible to explore. As, therefore, every attempt at
definition must rest upon conjecture, it is evidently better not to
advance opinions founded upon uncertainty, by which many may be
misled, none either instructed or entertained. For symptoms, see Ears.
HEAD of a DEER. See Antlers .
HEAD-STALL—is the part of a caveson, bridle, or hunting-rein
halter, which passes round, and on each side the head of the horse,
and to which the reins of either are affixed, for use in the field or on
the road, and for safety in the stable.
HEATH-FOWL—are a species of grouse , (passing under the
denomination of black game,) of which there are different sorts,
individually expressed in the various acts of successive Parliaments
for the preservation of the game; as "grouse , heath-cock, moor-game, or
any such fowl." To prevent the general destruction that must
evidently follow, if game of this description was pursued and taken
at all seasons of the year without restraint, the Legislature has
wisely provided a remedy by the following prohibition, exclusive of
the penalties annexed to other Acts for killing without the necessary
qualifications.
By the 13th George Third, c. lv. s. 2, No person shall kill, destroy,
carry, sell, buy, or have in his possession, any heath-fowl, commonly
called black game, between the tenth day of December and the
twentieth day of August; nor any grouse , commonly called red game,

between the tenth day of December and the twelfth day of August;
nor any bustard between the first day of March and the first day of
September, in any year, upon pain of forfeiting, for the first offence ,
a sum not exceeding twenty, nor less than ten pounds; and for the
second , and every subsequent offence, a sum not exceeding thirty,
nor less than twenty pounds: One moiety thereof to go to the
informer , the other to the poor of the parish.
HEAVIER.—A stag deprived of his testicles by castration, is then
called a heavier, which operation is occasionally performed, that a
supply may not be wanting for the chase during the time of rutting;
in which the stag is perpetually ranging from one hind to another, for
three weeks or longer; not allowing himself the comforts of food,
sleep, or rest. Towards the termination he becomes lean, languid, and
dejected; when, having executed the task prescribed by Nature, he
withdraws himself from society, to seek repose and food. At this
period he is so ill-adapted for sport with the hounds , that the
operation of castrating was adopted as an alternative to the
temporary suspension of the royal chase.
It is worthy of remark, that if a stag undergoes the operation
when his horns are shed, they never grow again; on the contrary, if it
is performed while the horns are in perfection, they will never
exfoliate; and it is equally remarkable, that being deprived of only
one testicle, the horn will not regenerate on that side, but will
continue to grow, and annually shed on the other, where the single
testicle has not been taken away. Heaviers are of great strength, and
stand a long time before hounds; for which reason the hunting
establishment of his Majesty in Windsor Forest is never without a
regular succession.
HEAVY in HAND.—A horse is said to be heavy in hand, when, from
want of spirit, he goes sluggishly on, bearing his whole weight upon
the bit; as if the hand of the rider alone prevented his pitching upon
his head; and this to a good horseman is one of the most unpleasing
defects a horse can possess. Horses of this description should be

rode in a Weymouth bridle, (see Bit,) and constantly made to feel
the curb rein; when at the same moment, that useful monitor the
spur should be brought into brisk and sudden contact with the body;
a perseverance in which practice will be found the only mode to
remedy the inconvenience. See Hand.
HEELS.—The heels of a horse, critically speaking, imply only that
part of the hoof which is the very reverse of the toe; seated behind,
and forming the back of the foot, across the widest end of the frog,
extending from one point of the heel to the other. Custom has,
however, so far extended both the idea and the expression, that in
the present general acceptation of the word, it is admitted to include
the feet as high as the fetlock-joint; so that the heels are subject to
accidents, inconveniencies, defects, and blemishes, as cracks ,
scratches, overreaches , grease, &c. The heels of a horse, to be good,
should be high, (that is, of a proper length from the hair above to
the ground below,) firm, and substantial, open on each side the frog,
and never should be cut down too low by the destructive instrument
of the shoeing -smith; an error in both judgment and practice, to which
may be justly attributed the frequent failure in the back sinews; for
where the heels are unnaturally reduced, and the tendons in part
deprived of their support, they have evidently to encounter a
preternatural distension, by which the elasticity is partially
destroyed, and some of the fibrous coats consequently ruptured.
HEELS NARROW—is a defect, or inconvenience, to which horses
are constantly subject; but they are produced much more by the
officious obtrusions of art, than any deficiency in the original
formation of nature. Horses with narrow heels are generally those
who have had very little attention paid to the state of the feet, by
either master or man, during the operation of shoeing ; and where the
journeyman smith too often, from absolute idleness, affixes a shoe
too narrow to the foot, and then, to increase the injury, reduces the
foot to the dimensions of the shoe.
This grievance is much easier prevented than remedied; for when
once a destruction of parts has been inconsiderately occasioned, a

regeneration may not be easily obtained. The cruel and invincible
practice of applying the hot shoe to the foot (by way of fitting it)
during the act of shoeing, contributes in no small degree to the
contraction of the heel; and when this injury is once sustained, great
care and constant attention become necessary to solicit a
renovation. Whether it has been occasioned by the fatal operation of
the cutting-knife, the fashionable back-stroke friction of the rasp, or
the fiery effect of the hot shoe when conveyed from the forge to the
foot, the direct road to relief is precisely the same: nightly stopping
with any applicable composition calculated to mollify the bottom of
the hoof, and to promote its expansion, with a plentiful impregnation
of sperma-cæti oil daily, are the only sure and certain means by
which the heels can be restored to their original and proper
formation.
HEELER—is the person who affixes the deadly weapon called a
spur (made of either steel or silver) to the heel of a game cock, when
taken from the pen previous to his being carried to the cock-pit to
fight his battle. A hard-hitting cock, who is perpetually fighting with
effect, and gives his adversary no time to stand still, or look about
him, is likewise called a heeler .
HELPS, or AIDS,—are terms appertaining solely to the manege and
riding -school , little known elsewhere, and totally unconnected with
the sports of the field. Professors technically describe seven helps
necessary to complete the lesson given to a horse; as the voice, whip,
bit, calves of the legs, the stirrups , the spur, and the ground .
HEROD,—commonly called King Herod, was the first horse of his
time as a racer, and afterwards as a stallion. He was bred by the
then Duke of Cumberland, and got by Tartar out of Cypron, who was
got by Blaze; he was foaled in 1758, and, after beating every horse
that could be brought against him at four, five, and six years old, he
became a stallion of the first celebrity, and transmitted a greater
progeny to posterity, than any other horse in the whole annals of

sporting, unless Eclipse and Highflyer (his son) are admitted upon
the score of equality.
HIDEBOUND—is an impoverished state of the frame and system to
which horses are frequently reduced, and partakes much more of
neglect in food and stable discipline, than of constitutional defect, or
acquired disease. A horse said to be hidebound has the appearance of
being emaciated; the coat is of a dingy variegated hue, staring
different ways, with a scurfy dust underneath; the skin is of an
unpliable rigidity, seeming to adhere closely to the internal parts,
denoting a deficiency of the fluids, an obstruction of the porous
system, and a languor in the circulation.
The whole, or any part of these, may originate in various causes;
as a short allowance of good and healthy food, or a profusion of bad.
Nothing will produce it sooner than hard work with bad keep, and a
constant exposure to all weathers, in the severity of the winter
season. Musty oats, mouldy hay, and winter straw-yards, are
generally the harbingers of this appearance, which in all cases is
very easily removed: good stable discipline, in wisping and dressing,
regular daily exercise, a few mashes nightly of ground malt and
bran, equal parts, followed by a cordial ball every morning, or an
antimonial alterative powder nightly in the mash, will soon be found
to answer every expectation, and restore the subject to good
condition.

HIGHFLYER—was the name of a late celebrated horse, that, taken
"for all in all," (as a racer and a stallion,) far exceeded any other ever
known in this kingdom. He was foaled in 1774; was got by Herod
out of Rachel, who was got by Blank; her dam by Regulus, &c. He
was purchased of the breeder, when a colt rising two years old, by
the late Lord Bolingbroke , and was then thought to be getting too
large and unpromising for any capital performances upon the turf. It
was, however, observed by the training groom, that he displayed
astonishing powers in some of his first trials; and it was upon his
suggestion Highflyer was immediately named in the most capital
sweepstakes and subscriptions then open; winning all which with the
greatest ease, he was at the very zenith of his celebrity as a racer,
when Lord Bolingbroke , disgusted with the villainous deceptions and
variegated vicissitudes of the turf, as well as declining daily in his
health, Highflyer was purchased of his Lordship by Mr. Tattersal,
who fixed him as a stallion at a farm of his own near Ely, in
Cambridgeshire, where his success soon stamped the spot with the
name of Highflyer Hall, which it will most probably ever retain. Here
he covered for some years at thirty guineas; and from the almost
incredible number of mares he was permitted to cover, it was
concluded he produced to his owner no less than from fifteen
hundred to two thousand pounds a year, for many years in
succession. His progeny of winners only exceeded three hundred in
number, who received, in subscriptions, plates and sweepstakes,
above a thousand prizes. Amongst the most celebrated of his get were
Escape, (who once sold for 1500 guineas,) Euphrosyne, Bashful,
Maid of all Work, Plutitia, Sir Pepper, Sir Peter Teazle, Skylark,
Skyrocket, Skyscraper, Spadille, Rockingham, Toby, Thalia, Walnut,
Old Tat, Vermin, Skypeeper, Grouse, Oberon, Screveton, Diamond,
Sparkler, Guildford, Moorcock, and Stickler: of whom several are now
stallions in the highest reputation at ten and fifteen guineas each.
HIND—is the female of the species called red deer, the male of
which is termed a stag: the offspring of both is, during its first year,

called a calf; and these only are the deer hunted by the King's stag-
hounds .
HIP-SHOT.—The defect so termed is an injury frequently sustained
in the hip joint, but not always with the same degree of severity. It is
a ligamentary twist, or distortion, by which the junction of the bones
is materially affected, but not amounting to absolute dislocation;
although it may proceed from a variety of causes, in sudden shocks
from the different prominences of, or cavities in, an uneven and
irregular pavement; blows, strains , or wrenches , (in drawing heavy
loads,) as well as by sliding , or falling; yet there is little doubt but it
occurs much oftner from carelessness, inattention, and brutality,
either by a violent blow from the post of the stable door, in being
hastily led in or out, than by any other means whatever. Let what
will be the cause, a cure is seldom completely effected; for as the
injury is not only deeply, but critically seated, so if the horse, after
any medical means have been used, is turned out to obtain strength,
a repetition of work generally produces a relapse of the injury
originally sustained.
HOCK, or HOUGH.—The joint of the leg behind, corresponding
with the knee before, is so called. Its office, in sustaining the
principal weight, and various turns of the body, renders it liable to
injuries, which, when they happen, are not unfrequently both severe
and permanent. Bone spavins, blood spavins, and curbs, are of this
description.
HOLD—is a term of trifling import, yet, as it appertains to the
important act of propagation between the horse and the mare, its
emphatic signification cannot be omitted. When a mare has taken
the horse, that is, when copulation is completed, a doubt generally
arises, whether the mare will hold; that is, whether she sufficiently
retains the male semen to constitute conception . The mare being
brought to the horse on the ninth day, from the first time of
covering, if she again receives the horse, that alone is held a
sufficient proof she did not hold before: she is, nevertheless,

brought again to the horse at the end of another nine days, and
when she has refused twice to take the horse, she is then said to be
stinted , and no doubt entertained of her being in foal.
HOOF.—The hoof of a horse is that hard and horny substance at
the lower extremity of the legs, coming into contact with the ground,
and upon which are placed shoes, made of iron, for the preservation
of the feet. The hoof, to be perfect and uniform, should nearly
circumscribe five eighths of a circle, with a transverse line from one
point of the heel to the other, as if a segment of three eighths was
taken away; in addition to which form, it should be solid in
substance, smooth to the hand, and free from the contracted rings,
or wrinkles, similar to those upon the horns of cattle, by which the
age is ascertained.
Hoofs are very different in both property and appearance, and a
great deal of this depends upon the manner in which they are
treated. The well-known and well-founded adage, that "Doctors
differ," was never more verified than in the subject before us;
previous to the necessary remarks upon which, it will be proper to
point out the distinct or opposite texture and property of such hoofs,
before we advert to the most applicable mode of treatment for each.
The hoofs of some horses are so naturally dry, and so defective in
animal moisture, that they gradually contract, become apparently
compressed, and narrow at the heel, as well as acquire a degree of
brittleness hardly to be believed; in which state splinters are
frequently scaling off from the edges of the hoof, at many places
where the nails are unavoidably inserted to secure the position of
the shoe, for the preservation of the foot.
These are the species of hoof much more susceptible of injury
than any other, particularly of sandcracks ; defects which, when they
happen, very much reduce the value of the horse if offered for sale;
not more in respect to the blemish , than the perpetual apprehension
and expectation of his becoming irrecoverably lame. Hoofs of this
description should be plentifully impregnated with sperma-cæti oil
every night all round the foot; and the bottom should be stopped

with a composition of stiff cow-dung, and the skimming of the pot in
which fat meat has been boiled, previously preserved, and well
incorporated for that purpose. It has been asserted by those who
speculate, and propagate the report of fancy for fact, that "unctuous
or greasy applications are prejudicial to the feet," of which indefinite,
vague and imperfect expression, the weak and wavering happily
avail themselves, and boldly declare, under sanction of the equivocal
mutation in meaning, that every thing greasy is injurious to the
hoofs.
It is a degree of justice that so egregious an absurdity should be
exposed. Without descending to a minute and scientific analyzation
of the hoof in its animated state, to ascertain how far it is, or is not,
a porous substance, it becomes only necessary to demonstrate its
possessing the property of absorption from external application. That
this may be the more clearly comprehended, let it be remembered, if
a single drop of sperma -cæti oil is left upon a quire of white paper, it
will, by its penetrative property, pass through each leaf of the quire,
till every particle of its moisture is exhausted, where it terminates in
a space little larger than the point of a needle: from whence it is fair
to infer, this article, in a state of perfect liquefaction, will insinuate
itself into, or go through, any possible substance where a liquid can
be supposed to pass: this admitted, upon clear and indisputable
proof, it becomes necessary to proceed to its effect upon the dry,
hard, contracted, brittle hoof of the horse.
If the foot is held up from the litter with the hand, and with the
stable-brush well impregnated with oil, so as to be left tolerably wet
upon the surface, persevering patience (by holding the foot from the
ground a few minutes) will prove, that the oil with which the hoof
was so plentifully basted, has nearly disappeared , although no drop
has fallen to the ground. What will the rigid disputant, or cynical
Sceptic, oppose to this fact, when asked what is become of the oil
so recently laid on? From the fertile resources of "exhalation,"
"evaporation," or even "running off," he can derive no assistance to
support him in the erroneous opinion he has formed; and perhaps
an obstinacy, from time and custom become habitual, will not permit

him (till his judgment is more matured by experience) to admit, that
it is lost to the eye, and taken up by absorption . This, however, is the
fact, and to the incredulous, who are open to conviction, and willing
to make the experiment, it will appear, that this treatment of the
hoof, and the stopping previously mentioned, (if nightly persevered
in,) will, in less than three shoeings , completely restore and improve
the most brittle and battered hoofs in the kingdom. So much cannot
be said of unctuous or greasy substances; for, from their confidence,
not possessing the property of penetration, they can add none to the
expansion of the hoof; from the dry and preternaturally contracted
state of which the defect generally arises; and by the additional
growth and distension of the hoof alone can be relieved.
HOOF-BOUND.—See Compression and Heels Narrow .
HORSE—is the name of the most beautiful, the most useful, and
the most valuable, animal, this or any other nation has to boast: the
majestic extent of his formation, the graceful ease of every motion,
the immensity of his strength, the smooth and glossy surface of his
skin, the pliability of his temper, and, above every other
consideration, his rapidity of action, and general utility, render him
highly worthy the care, attention, and pecuniary estimation he is
now held in from one extremity of the earth to the other. He is the
most spirited and most powerful of all creatures; yet the most
generous, docile, grateful and obedient to the purposes of man as
an individual, as well as to all the agricultural and commercial
advantages of society at large. He may be justly termed the great
main-spring of pleasure to one class, and of profit to the other;
without whose aid, the eternal routine of both must come to
immediate termination, constituting a chaos very far beyond the most
fertile imagination to conceive or describe.
The natural history, the form, and general utility, of the horse, is
become so perfectly familiar to every eye, that the less will be
required upon those points in explanation. The various pleasurable
purposes, and useful talks, to which horses are appropriated in this

country, has long since demonstrated the consistency of cultivating,
by select and judicious propagation, each particular kind of stock, so
as to render it individually applicable to the use for which it is
intended. The numbers annually produced, and annually destroyed,
within the circle of our own isle (even in time of peace) exceed
common conception, and of which no computation can be tolerably
formed. The long list constantly bred for, and engaged upon, the
turf; the sports of the field; the national establishment of military
cavalry; the carriage horses of the opulent, rattling through every
street of every city and large town in the kingdom; the thousands
employed in agriculture, as well as all the draft work of the
metropolis ; in addition to the infinity annexed to mail and stage
coaches , as well as to the post work, and those useful drudges
denominated roadsters , in the possession of every class of people,
constitute an aggregate that in contemplation excites the utmost
admiration.
The constantly increasing opulence , or the constantly increasing
luxury, has rendered the demand for horses so very superior to the
example of any previous period, that no comparative statement of
former and present value can hardly be ascertained. The fashionable
rage for expeditious travelling, and of being conveyed at the rate of
eight or nine miles an hour from one part of the kingdom to another,
is the absolute furor of the times, and supported at an immense
expence by those whose peculiar personal pride prompts them to
display the advantages resulting from opulence, and the privileges
from ostentation; to the incessant misery and premature destruction
of thousands, whose services would be insured for years by a more
moderate and humane mode of treatment. The incredible increase of
light carriages of every description, has opened such a field for the
use of horses of airy form, and easy action, that they are now in
eternal request, at more than double, and in many purchases treble ,
what they were to be obtained for no more than twenty years since.
The different kinds of horses bred for various purposes, pass
under the denomination of running horses , hunters , carriage horses ,
cart horses , roadsters , and hacks. The first are propagated in the

racing studs of the most opulent characters, and appropriated
entirely to the decision of sporting engagements upon the turf;
many of which, after having displayed their powers in this way, then
become hunters of the first class, and are frequently sold at three
and four hundred guineas each. Carriage horses , with which the gay
and fashionable are now whirled through the western streets of the
metropolis with the most incredible velocity, were formerly
considered the good, safe, substantial English hunter , and might forty
years since have been purchased for thirty or five-and-thirty pounds,
which was at that time about the current value: they are not now,
however, from the constantly accumulating demand, and incessant
destruction, to be procured in a state of youth and purity, at less
than nearly three times that sum. Cart horses of great size, strength,
and adequate powers, are principally furnished by the midland and
northern counties, for the coal and corn trade, as well as the
commercial purposes of the city and suburbs, where they command
an incredible price: small and inferior sorts are bred in, and
dispersed through, almost every other county in the kingdom.
Roadsters and hacks may be supposed to include that great infinity of
all sizes, descriptions, and qualifications, with which every road,
every common, and every pasture, seem so plentifully to abound.
If superior judgment and circumspection were ever truly
necessary in the selection and purchase of a horse, they are become
doubly so, when the object of pursuit is proportionally difficult of
attainment. To direct the eye, to form the judgment, and to check
the natural impetuosity of the young and inexperienced purchaser,
some few remarks are indispensibly necessary to shield him from the
rock of fascination, upon which so many have repentantly
foundered. The mind of man should never be more itself, never
more adequate to the task of cool deliberation and patient
observation, than in the simple examination of a horse for sale.
Deception in dealing is so truly systematic, and so truly honorable in
the present age, that the mind cannot be too closely fortified for all
events: whether the subject is to be sold by auction , or by private

contract, the property of a gentleman , or the offer of a dealer, the
ground of self defence should be precisely the same.
It is the fixed and invariable rule with every dealer , to affect, at
first, a perfect indifference respecting the horse he wishes most to
get rid of; and he always makes a point of never giving the
unequivocal price of any horse till he has been seen out of the
stable; during which time of shewing out, he, as well as his
emissaries and attendants, are occasionally engaged in watching
most attentively every trait of the intentional purchaser's
countenance, anxious for a single sign of approbation, by which to
regulate the magnitude of his demand; asking five, ten, fifteen, or
twenty guineas more than he originally intended, in proportion as he
finds the enquirer fascinated with his object of perfection, and
disposed to purchase. Before the horse is brought out, it is in vain to
entreat the ceremony of "figging" may be dispensed with; it is
declared a custom of honor amongst the fraternity, and must be
complied with.
This prelude performed, and his stern thrown upon his back like
the tail of a squirrel, he is literally driven into action; the whip (with
which he is privately alarmed in his stall twenty times a day) cannot
be permitted to lay dormant even upon the present occasion,
particularly when its flaggellating flourish can be displayed to so
great an advantage; the irritating severity of the lash, so retentively
dreaded, he furiously flies from, and affords an attracting specimen
of speed you may look for in vain upon any future occasion. After
this curious exhibition of his action , the horse still trembling with a
dread of the deadly instrument waving in his sight, it will be proper
to make a minute and careful examination of his shape, make,
probable perfection , or possible blemishes and defects, if the horse is
permitted by the dealer to stand quiet, a favor which is not always to
be obtained.
This done, place yourself directly opposite to the horse's head at
two yards distance, in which position, casting your eyes upon his
ears, and dropping them gradually from one point to another, you

command, at a single view, the effect of his countenance, the good
or bad state of his eyes, the breadth of his breast, the fate of his
knees, the appearance of splents, as well as the growth and uniformity
of the feet. Changing your place to a side view, at similar distance,
you have there the curve of the crest, the circumference of the bone,
the depth of the chest, the length of the back, the strength of the
loins, the setting on of the tail, and the fashionable finish of the hind
quarter; without which, individually perfect, he cannot be in
possession of the symmetry that is known to constitute a handsome
and well-bred horse.
Looking at him behind, it is instantly perceived, whether he stands
well upon his legs, and is formed wide, firm and muscular across the
gaskins, or narrow and contracted, bearing what is termed a "bandy-
hocked" or "cat-hammed" appearance. The same moment affords
opportunity to observe, if blood spavins are perceptible within side,
bone spavins without, or curbs on the back of the hock; as well as
splents upon any one of the legs, and whether he cuts either behind
or before. If blood or bone spavin is observed, it is necessary to
recollect (however attracting the object may be in other respects)
they sooner or later produce lameness to a certainty; and although
they are not deemed absolutely incurable, they open a field to the
disquietude and anxiety of blistering , firing, &c. with the additional
and consolatory ultimatum of a farrier's bill. Splents are by no means
so critical, or dangerous, if seated forward upon the shank-bone,
and not likely to interfere with, or vibrate in the action of the tendon,
passing under the denomination of the "back sinews;" in which case,
a good and otherways valuable horse need not be declined for so
slight a cause, where no injury is like to be sustained.
Having proceeded thus far in the examination with strict attention,
it becomes equally necessary to descend minutely to the feet, in
search of cracks , corns, thrushes , compression of the hoof, narrow heels,
or fleshy protuberances of the inner, and consequent projection of
the outer sole. The state of the wind is next the object of enquiry,
which is done by making the customary and critical experiment of
pinching the gullet or windpipe with considerable force, nearly close

to, and just behind the jaw-bone: should the horse, upon such
pressure, force out a sound substantial cough, (which is sometimes
repeated,) the safety of the wind is ascertained: on the contrary,
should nothing be produced but a faint hollow wheezing, with a
palpable heaving of the flanks, the state of the wind may be justly
suspected. Should any doubt arise upon the decision, (which
sometimes happens with the best and most experienced judges,) let
the horse be put into brisk action, and powerful exertion, when the
roaring at a distance, the laboured respiration, and the preternatural
heaving of the flank, after a brisk gallop of two thirds of a mile, will
determine the state of the wind, without the least chance of being
mistaken.
The eyes, that were only superficially noticed as matter of course in
the front view, when the horse was first brought out of the stable,
now become the necessary objects of minute, patient, and judicious
investigation. If they are clear, full and prominent in the orb,
reflecting your own figure from the pupil, without any protrusion of
the haw from the inner corner, any inflammatory enlargement of the
lids, or any acrid weeping from either, there is then every well-
founded reason to believe they are not only safe, but good. On the
contrary, should there appear a seeming sinking of the orbs, with a
perceptible indentation, and a wrinkled contraction above the
eyelids, they are very unfavorable symptoms, indicating impending
ill, and should not be encountered, but with an expectation of
certain loss. A small pig eye should be examined with great caution;
they are better avoided, if possible, as their future state is not only
to be considered exceedingly doubtful, but they are always objected
to, and productive of vexatious rebuffs, when a horse is again to be
sold. A cloudy muddiness beneath the outer covering of the eye, or
a milky thickening upon the surface, denotes present defect, and
probability of future blindness; in all which cases, prudence should
prevent such subject from becoming an object of attraction.
The age, if asked of a dealer, is declared "rising six" or "rising
seven;" for it must be held in remembrance, that their horses are
never acknowledged younger than "five," or older than "six off"; and

what is still more extraordinary, in addition to this convenience, they
possess the sole patent for regeneration, having it always in their
power to make a ten years old horse six, with the very desirable
advantage to a purchaser, that he shall never be more (by the
mouth) so long as he lives. This extra effort of art, or renewal of
age, passes under the denomination of "bishoping ," (which see,)
where a description of the operation will be found. The age of a horse
by the mouth is not dissimilar to abstract points in politics with
coffee-house politicians, largely talked of, but little understood;
which circumstance alone has laid open a perpetual field for this
eternal and remorseless imposition: to remedy which, as much as
the nature of the case will admit, and that a matter of so much
utility may with very little attention be perfectly understood, a plate is
annexed, and accompanied with such explanatory matter, as will
render it easy to every comprehension. See Colt.
Having gone through, with precision, all that can possibly present
itself upon the score of examination, in respect to age, shape, make,
figure, and action, we arrive at the very ultimatum of enquiry,
respecting the warranty of his being perfectly sound. What that
warranty is, and how far it is to extend, requires a more correct and
limited line of certainty than seems at present to be understood.
blemishes and defects are supposed by some not to constitute
unsoundness, provided the action of the horse is not impeded by
their appearance; whilst, on the contrary, it is as firmly urged by the
impartial and disinterested, that no horse ought to be sold as, or
warranted "perfectly sound," but in a state of natural and unsullied
perfection. This criterion is the more necessary to be ascertained,
and laid down by some principle of law, because the numerous
litigations in every successive term demonstrate, that various
opinions prevail, according to the interest , caprice , or pecuniary
convenience, of individuals concerned; to carry, support and confirm
which, even the prostitution of truth and honor must become
subservient. And this "glorious uncertainty of the law" is so clearly
comprehended by the Gentlemen of the Long Robe, that when a

horse cause is coming on in any of the Courts, an observation
immediately follows, that "whoever swears the hardest will obtain it."
To prevent suits of such description, (which sometimes happen
between gentlemen of equal honor, and strict integrity,) it is much to
be wished, some direct and unequivocal mode of distinction could be
legally ascertained, how far a general "warranty of soundness" is to
extend, and where the line of perfection or imperfection is to be
drawn; as for instance, to establish, by law or custom, some fixed and
invariable rules, by which the soundness of a horse might so far be
insured between buyer and seller, as to render unnecessary such law-
suits as are invariably supported by a subornation of perjury on one
side or the other. Nothing, perhaps, could conduce more to a cause
so desirable, or tend more to constitute a criterion of equity between
all parties, if once established, and mutually understood; that no
horse should be deemed sound, and sold with such warranty, but in a
state of perfection , entirely free from lameness, blemish, and defect,
not only at the time of transfer, but never known to have been
otherways: admitting which mode of dealing to form the basis of
equity between one man and another, an additional observation
naturally presents itself, as a collateral consideration clearly implied,
though not particularly expressed; that a horse sold bona fide
sound, and admitted on both sides to be so at the time of purchase,
should have no right to be returned under any plea whatever; for it
is universally known, that any horse so sold, must be as liable to fall
lame, become diseased, or even to die, in one hour after delivery, as
in any other hour of life. Then where can be the equitable
consistency of returning a horse positively sound when sold, upon the
plea of lameness or disease, when the time of attack has been
merely a matter of chance between one and the other?
No juvenile or inexperienced purchaser should be too eager and
hasty in his pursuits, or too easily fascinated with a seeming object
of general attraction . It is exceedingly easy to purchase "in haste, and
repent at leisure:" none should be instantly allured by sudden show,
and short inspection; too much trial cannot be obtained, nor too
much patience persevered in during the examination. The sportsman

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Tense And Aspect In Italian Interlanguage Zuzana Toth

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Tense And Aspect In Italian Interlanguage Zuzana Toth

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