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In the wrong mood at the right time: Children’s acquisition of the Spanish subjunctive in temporal clauses

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 June 2016

Jeannette Sánchez-Naranjo  and
Ana T. Pérez-Leroux
Jeannette Sánchez-Naranjo
Affiliation:
Michigan State University
Ana T. Pérez-Leroux
Affiliation:
University of Toronto
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Abstract

This study investigates the complexity of the mapping task in children’s acquisition of the Spanish subjunctive in temporal clauses. We consider that children’s difficulty with this task arises from the interaction between mood and other elements determining the evaluation of the temporal clause, such as semantic factors, tense, and cognition. Forty monolingual Spanish-speaking children first completed a cognitive assessment test, evaluating false belief understanding; this was followed by a linguistic prerequisite test assessing understanding of temporal connectors and knowledge of subjunctive morphology, and finally a temporal clause production task. Results reveal that mood selection in temporal clauses does not simply start with indicative followed by its replacement by subjunctive. On the contrary, the use of subjunctive temporal clauses involves a complex process for children in which tense corresponds to a fundamental source of bootstrapping. These results confirm the view that the acquisition of mood selection undergoes a protracted development. Spanish subjunctive meanings are not immediately accessible to children.

Résumé

Résumé

Cette étude examine la complexité de la tâche d’attribuer les valeurs sémantiques lors de l’acquisition par les enfants du subjonctif espagnol dans les propositions temporelles. Nous proposons que les difficultés proviennent de l’interaction entre le mode grammatical et d’autres facteurs qui déterminent l’interprétation de la subordonnée temporelle par les enfants, comme le temps, des facteurs lexico-sémantiques et le développement cognitif. Quarante enfants hispanophones monolingues ont d’abord participé à une évaluation cognitive sur la compréhension de fausses croyances. Ensuite, ils ont fait un test d’habiletés morphologiques et temporelles et, en dernier lieu, une tâche de production de subordonnées temporelles. Les résultats montrent que l’acquisition de la sélection du mode dans les subordonnées temporelles ne consiste pas à remplacer simplement l’indicatif par le subjonctif. Au contraire, l’emploi du subjonctif dans les subordonnées temporelles est le résultat d’un processus d’initialisation dans lequel le temps grammatical est un des facteurs les plus importants. Ces données confirment l’idée selon laquelle l’acquisition de la sélection du mode résulte d’un processus graduel. Les enfants n’ont pas immédiatement accès aux sens du subjonctif.

Type
Articles
Information
Canadian Journal of Linguistics/Revue canadienne de linguistique , Volume 55 , Issue 2 , July 2010 , pp. 227 - 255
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Linguistic Association/Association canadienne de linguistique 2010 

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