The imperfective paradox in a second language: A dynamic completion-entailment test

The imperfective paradox (IP) refers to the fact that the imperfective-progressive yields completion entailment with atelic predicates (e.g., Livia was pushing the chair -> Livia pushed the chair = true) but not with telic predicates (Livia was peeling the tangerine -> Livia peeled the tangerine = not necessarily true). The paper questions whether L2 learners too - like adult native speakers - are sensitive to the IP. Ninety-nine adult L2 Italian learners with different Lis and proficiency levels underwent a novel version of the completion judgment task based on event sub-intervals. In this task, learners did not assess if imperfective and perfective events in a video clip was completed but when. Analysis of reaction times and of interruptive-clicks showed that beginner and intermediate L2 learners - unlike native speakers - did not differentiate the patterns of completion between perfective and imperfective predicates and between telic and atelic predicates. It is possible that - at initial stages of acquisition - such aspectual oppositions are still underspecified. These results challenge the predictions of the Lexical Aspect Hypothesis. (C) 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.