2025/12/04 by Alessandra Baldo · 1 voice
Arts and Humanities · #Linguistics and Language Studies #Linguistics, Language Diversity, and Identity #Spanish Linguistics and Language Studies
paper · pdf · doi:10.25189/2675-4916.2025.v6.n5.id816
openalex created_date 2025/12/04 · openalex publication_date 2025/12/04 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/06
This article presents a study on lexical deviations due to borrowings and neologisms committed by 15 proficient learners of Portuguese whose mother tongue (L1) is Italian, based on the analysis of ninety written productions. The main objectives were twofold: (i) to identify the lexical deviations with the highest number of occurrences and (ii) to verify whether the language most frequently used in these deviations was the L1 or a previously acquired foreign language (FL). The data analysis identified 28 lexical deviations, primarily neologisms, and the use of the L1 as the main source language. These findings differ from Kellerman's (1977) psychotypological hypothesis of languages, which suggests that the language typologically closest to L1 is the most used in lexical deviations rather than the L1 itself. This will be examined through the works of Garcia-Lecumberri (2003) and Llach (2010).