This October, TreLinLab welcomes Lorenzo Toniolo, PhD candidate in Language Acquisition at Goethe University Frankfurt, whose visit will center on research discussions in multilingualism, syntax, and second language learning.
Lorenzo is part of NegLab, a research group exploring the many faces of linguistic negation, and works within the project B02 The Acquisition of Negation in Second Languages.
He holds a Master’s degree in Linguistics from the University of Padova, where he completed a fieldwork-based study on Cimbrian verb–particle syntax in collaboration with the Kulturinstitut Lusérn.
Lorenzo’s doctoral research investigates how adult learners acquire negation in Italian as a second language. Drawing findings on early learner productions, his work argues that surface accuracy alone is not a reliable measure of acquisition. Adopting a syntactic perspective, he examines how the correct placement of the negator and verb — together with TP-related cues such as verb finiteness, agreement, and clitic placement — signals the development of grammatical competence.
His study examines written data from extensive learner corpora (LOCCLI and LIPS) and employs statistical modelling of linguistic features to delineate the progression of learners from non-target forms to complete grammatical proficiency. The project integrates theoretical, quantitative, and cross-linguistic perspectives on second language acquisition. In doing so, it connects with the diverse research directions pursued at TreLinLab.
Lorenzo will discuss this research in the framework of the permanent seminar Conversazioni linguistiche on October 17, with a talk titled “Acquisition of negation by adult learners of Italian as a second language.”
On the same day, Lorenzo will also take part in SuXr – “Gli sguardi e le voci delle persone migranti”, a multidisciplinary event dedicated to migration and integration. Together with Dr. Angela Alaimo and the non-profit Il Gioco degli Specchi, he will reflect on the voices and stories of migrants — a topic that has been close to him since his undergraduate days here in Trento.
“Before moving to Frankfurt, I worked in refugee centers and public schools as an Italian language teacher,” Lorenzo recalls. “Participating in SuXr feels like coming full circle, reconnecting my early experiences with my current research on multilingualism and language acquisition.”
For TreLinLab, collaboration with scholars like Lorenzo is not only a research exchange but also an opportunity to reflect on how language connects theoretical inquiry with real-world experience.
We look forward to Lorenzo Toniolo’s visit to Trento — and to exploring together how even a single linguistic element like the particle “no” can reveal so much about how we learn, communicate, and connect.