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This study investigates the acquisition of null subjects by Mandarin Chinese native speakers (‘Chinese NSs’ hereafter), with different levels of L2 English proficiency, at initial stages of L3 Italian acquisition. The aim is to find out if, when acquiring Italian null subjects, Chinese NSs resort to their L1, which, like the L3, allows null subjects, or to the L2, that does not allow null subjects but may be perceived as typologically closer to the L3, given the shared affiliation to the Indo-European family. For this purpose, four groups of Chinese NSs all at the same stage of L3 acquisition but differing with respect to their L2 English proficiency level, were tested. The results of an acceptability judgement task showed that the lowest L2 proficiency group, in two conditions (i.e. declaratives and  wh -questions), was the most accurate in rejecting overt subjects, although in the third condition (i.e. expletives) they did not perform as accurately. However, the overall high acceptance of null subjects suggests that L2 English did not act as the sole source of transfer for learners with a higher proficiency: L1 transfer seems to contribute to shaping L3 acquisition too, possibly combined with learning-environment-related factors.

The role of L1 and L2 in the acquisition of null subjects by Chinese learners of L3 Italian