amp; Mocciaro 2022). Recent data derived from the analysis of low-literate African migrants' interlanguages, collected in Palermo, Italy, in 2018-2022, show the presence of specific interlanguage constructions (absent in the input and independently developed by learners), in which functional words combine with uninflected lexical verbs to express tense-aspect information in their place. In addition to the copula (Bernini 2003), also light verbs (e.g., do-verbs) are 'placeholders' of functions of which learners are aware, even if they have not yet developed the target form. The study on L2 Italian presented here shows a more pronounced presence and stability over time of these constructions in low-literate learners‘ interlanguages, which would suggest a greater propensity towards analytical rather than synthetic (target) solutions. Supported by studies on placeholders in the L2 English of low-literate learners (Vainikka et al. 2017), this hypothesis could be explained by the greater accessibility (due to prosodic salience) of functional words compared to bound morphemes in oral input, the only one accessible to learners with limited literacy.