An Exploration of the Range and Frequency of Occurrence of Forms in Potentially Variable Structures in Second-Language Spanish

Abstract

This article adds to the growing body of research focused on second-language (L2) variation and constitutes the first large-scale study of the production of potentially variable grammatical structures in Spanish by English-speaking learners. The overarching goal of the project is to assess the range of forms used and the degree to which native and L2 speakers of Spanish differ in several independently defined syntactic or discourse-based contexts. The contexts examined in the current study have been the object of sociolinguistic research in monolingual environments and include the following: copula contrast, mood distinction, past-time reference, future-time reference, and subject expression. Interview data from 16 English-speaking learners and 16 native speakers of Spanish from a variety of countries, all of whom are part of a single speech community in the United States, are examined. The analysis focuses on the range of forms used in each of the contexts investigated and the frequency with which these forms appear. A possible relation of individual characteristics, such as country of origin, years of language study, and time spent abroad, to this frequency of use is also considered.

Degrees of subjunctive vitality among monolingual speakers of Peninsular and Argentinian Spanish

“…Subjunctive vitality was also found in studies conducted with NSs currently residing in the U.S. (Geeslin & Gudmestad 2010;Gudmestad 2010Gudmestad , 2012. However, in terms of frequency, Geeslin and Gudmestad (2010) indicated that their native speaker (NS) participants favored non-subjunctive forms significantly more than subjunctive forms.…”

“…However, in terms of frequency, Geeslin and Gudmestad (2010) indicated that their native speaker (NS) participants favored non-subjunctive forms significantly more than subjunctive forms. A total of 8,716 tokens were identified for the data collected during an oral elicitation interview, of which 586 (6.7%) were subjunctive forms.…”

“…Similarly, some varieties outside of the U.S. also have shown debilitation in the use of past forms and prevalence of the indicative in contexts in which the subjunctive would have been expected (López Morales 1989;Molina 2008;Serrano 1995). Contrarily, maintenance and vitality of subjunctive use has been observed in several regional varieties (Fernández-Ulloa & Portillo Mayorga 2000;García 2011;Gudmestad 2006Gudmestad , 2010Gudmestad , 2012Geeslin & Gudmestad 2010;Kowal 2007;Lastra & Butrageño 2012).…”

Interlanguage

“…Bayley and Tarone (in press) review variationist SLA studies and conclude that these show that much of the variation that we see in learner language is systematic. Variation in interlanguage production, documented in dozens of variationist studies, certainly has profound implications for data elicitation and analysis in research (Preston, 1989(Preston, , 2002Tarone, 2007;Geeslin & Gudmestad, 2010). Variationist researchers argue that because production of given interlanguage forms varies systematically in relation to accompanying linguistic variables, task, topic, focus on form, interlocutor, and so on, then researchers need document the contextual factors in play in each elicitation, and use sophisticated statistical tools to model interlanguage.…”

Frequency of Subjunctive Use in Oral Production in Two Varieties of Spanish

“…While maintenance of subjunctive use has been observed in several regional varieties (Fernández-Ulloa & Portillo Mayorga, 2000;Gallego & Alonso Marks, 2014;Gudmestad, 2006Gudmestad, , 2010Gudmestad, , 2012Geeslin & Gudmestad, 2010;Kowal, 2007;Lastra & Butragueño, 2012), the predominance of nonsubjunctive forms in subjunctive-triggering contexts appears to be more prevalent in varieties of Spanish spoken in the U.S. (Lynch, 2000;Martínez Mira, 2009;Mikulski, 2010;Montrul, 2009;Silva-Corvalán, 1991, 1994, 2001.…”