Inflected infinitives in L2 Portuguese

This study investigates the acquisition of morphosyntactic and interpretativeproperties of the Portuguese inflected infnitive by Chinese and Spanish speakers,using three experimental tasks. Assuming a Full Access approach (Schwartz& Sprouse, 1996) and the Interface Hypothesis (Sorace, 2011), we predict thatfull acquisition of the morphosyntactic properties is possible, albeit showing L1effects, and that interpretative properties develop later than narrow syntacticproperties. Both predictions are supported. Our fndings show that the advancedlearners have largely acquired the relevant morphosyntactic properties, althoughthere is evidence of developmental delays, particularly in the Spanish group.Moreover, both advanced groups performed non-targetlike regarding theinterpretation of overt subjects; however, the Spanish group showed an advantageover the Chinese group with null subjects.