![]() ![]() The aim of this paper is to provide an in-depth account of the emergence of the Italian passive with andare (‘go’) + past participle, and to explore the possible crosslinguistic implications of the proposed analysis, with a view to identifying the regularities in the diachronic processes leading to the emergence of passive constructions with deictic motion verbs as auxiliaries. Some passive constructions involving deictic motion verbs as auxiliaries are infused with special aspectual or modal meanings, even in the absence of overt aspectual or modal operators. The two deictic motion verbs ‘go’ and ‘come’ serve as passive auxiliaries in a handful of languages, in combination with non-finite participial forms of the main verb. The second analysis, carried out on sixteen grammar textbooks for Italian language learning, has shown some weakness regarding the teaching of passive auxiliaries, such as a) lack of any semantic differentiation between use of essere and venire b) a certain selectivity in presenting aspects of the remainder of auxiliaries (andare, rimanere, vedersi, trovarsi and finire are rarely presented in their entirety) c) various theoretical disagreements in the presentation of the rules that guide the use of passive auxiliaries. As far as auxiliaries are concerned, the syllabi refer explicitly to five: essere, venire, andare, restare andrimanere. The analysis of seven syllabi has confirmed the tendency to introduce the passive voice at B2 level. In view of this, the analysis of syllabi of Italian L2 and of Italian grammar books has been carried out. A growing body of research has been throwing light on the fact that the passive auxiliaries are not only the canonical essere and venire, but also andare, which is open to a twofold interpretation («modal passive» and «loss passive»), as well as rimanere, restare, trovarsi, vedersi and finire. This article attempts to examine the passive auxiliaries in modern Italian and how they are presented to the Italian language learners.
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