Kontrastive Linguistik und Deutsch als Tertiärsprache (L3): die Möglichkeit des verstärkten Kontrastes

The paper aims to outline some implications of the relationship between the L3-hypothesis and contrastive linguistics, a relationship that is implicit in the plurilingual perspective of L3-hypothesis, with respect to which the commonly discussed case is that of closely related L2 and L3 and of the positive influence that L2 may have on the learning of L3 by virtue of genetic or typological proximity. The possibility outlined here (relating in particular to the constellation Italian L1 / English L2 / German L3) is instead that of a contrast between closely related L2 and L3, amplified by a correspondence between L2 and the less related L1. In this case, L2 plays its role as a cognitive factor, which makes it possible to problematize categories of linguistic description that the learning process of L2, despite the genetic or typological diversity of languages, has consolidated, transforming them into a declarative knowledge that tends to move in the learning of L3, resulting however inadequate or misleading (an example in this sense in the ItEnGer constellation is that of the construction of the noun phrase).