The acquisition of the Chinese 被 <i>bèi</i> passive construction by L1 Italian learners

Abstract This study investigates the L2 acquisition of the Chinese 被 bèi passive construction (BPC) by L1 Italian learners, focusing on four challenging features: the acceptability of the post-verbal patient, the unacceptability of the post-verbal agent, and the incompatibility with stative and creation verbs. Learners’ knowledge was examined through triangulating acceptability judgment tests and verbal reports. Participants included 108 L1 Italian learners and 33 native Chinese speakers as a baseline. Results show that learners are familiar with BPC but lack explicit and metalinguistic knowledge of the investigated features. Compared to native speakers, they struggle to understand the dislocation of the direct patient when there is an indirect patient in topic position, the unacceptability of post-verbal agents, and verb-type restrictions. Structural mismatches between the Chinese BPC and the Italian passive likely contribute to learners’ difficulties in grasping the construction, alongside other interacting factors such as variability in L2 input and instructional shortcomings.