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TAML2 brings together researchers from many different countries, working on different aspects of the acquisition, learning and teaching of TAM in second languages. The conference responds to a widely recognised need for an updated knowledge base and innovative methodological tools in the study of temporal and modal representations in second / additional languages (L2).

The acquisition and learning of Tense, Aspect and Modality (TAM) in an additional language is one of the most challenging tasks for second language learners. As in the previous TAML2 editions, we expect the outcome of this conference to lead to valuable contributions to linguistic theory and to research into second language learning, second language acquisition (SLA) and language teaching. Over the years, and from different theoretical perspectives, a range of hypotheses have emerged about the factors that affect the acquisition of morphology, semantics and discourse use of tense, aspect and modality expressions in an L2. One of the strengths of the TAML2 conferences is the opportunity to discuss different theoretical approaches and empirical data in a friendly atmosphere. For us, this is the true spirit of TAML2.

In this edition, special attention will be paid to the expression of evidentiality through TAM devices, and to the challenges of expressing and interpreting evidential content in an L2. The term evidentiality (Boas, 1911) refers, strictly speaking, to a set of grammatical mechanisms, of obligatory use in some languages, whose primary function is to indicate the origin of the information expressed in an utterance. All languages have resources for marking the source of information and, in relation to this, assessing the likelihood of something, or expressing greater or lesser confidence regarding its veracity (Aikhenvald, 2018). Languages differ, however, in the resources available for this. So, in a more comprehensive use of the term, evidentiality encompasses a range of morphosyntactic, lexical or pragmatic mechanisms, of obligatory or optional use, which point to the original source of information for the content expressed.

The nature of the resources available in different languages implies that evidential notions are, in turn, related to other linguistic notions: for example, and recurrently, to tense and aspect. Past and future tenses are the ones that most often, in typologically different languages, give way to evidentiality (Forker, 2018). Mood choices and modal auxiliary verbs can also express evidentiality.

The ability to interpret evidential mechanisms brings general cognitive skills into play and is thus situated at the grammar/discourse interface. In studies of L2 acquisition, it has often been pointed out that the phenomena at the grammar/discourse interface, or syntax/semantics/pragmatics, tend to be particularly complex (Sorace, 2011). This fact, together with the deep relationship of the TAM categories to the expression of evidentiality in many languages, is central to the attention given to the concept of evidentiality at this conference. There will be a thematic panel on the acquisition of evidential mechanisms in L2s, based on TAM expressions. Nevertheless, proposals related to other relevant aspects of L2 acquisition, teaching and learning of TAM are equally welcome.

Selected papers will be published in high-ranked journals and/or monographic volumes.