This special issue presents results from comparative research into the principles constraininglearner varieties (interlanguages) in use. The contributors analyze the oral production of complexverbal tasks (descriptions, instructions, narratives, retellings) in L2 Dutch, English, French,German, and Italian, concentrating on the way information from different semantic domains isorganized across utterances (referential movement) and on a major aspect of the interactionbetween utterance-level and discourse-level constraints, namely, scope phenomena. We hope theresults presented here will provide insights into the structural and communicative factorspushing, or hampering, L2 acquisition and will further our understanding of how the organizingprinciples interact at different levels of discourse production, be it in L1 or L2.