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THE INTERPRETATION OF SPANISH SUBJUNCTIVE AND INDICATIVE FORMS IN ADVERBIAL CLAUSES

A Cross-Sectional Study

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 May 2014

Matthew Kanwit  and
Kimberly L. Geeslin
Matthew Kanwit*
Affiliation:
Indiana University
Kimberly L. Geeslin
Affiliation:
Indiana University
*
*Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Matthew Kanwit, University of Pittsburgh, Department of Linguistics, 2816 Cathedral of Learning, Pittsburgh, PA 15260. E-mail: mkanwit@pitt.edu
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Abstract

The present study fills a need for investigations of learner and native speaker (NS) interpretation of the Spanish subjunctive in contexts that allow variation. The analysis compares responses by NSs and three levels of learners on a written interpretation task in which each item contained a temporal indicator (cuando “when”, después de que “after”, or hasta que “until”) and in which verbal mood, verbal morphological regularity, the order of clauses, and the temporal indicator were manipulated. Participants indicated their interpretation of each item by selecting that the event happened habitually or had not yet occurred, or that both were possible. Results show that NSs’ and highly advanced learners’ interpretations corresponded with verbal mood, whereas intermediate learners patterned separately. Using models generated with binomial regressions, the current study proposes stages of development for the interpretation of adverbial clauses that are essential for the growing number of theoretical approaches to language variation.

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Articles
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Studies in Second Language Acquisition , Volume 36 , Issue 3 , September 2014 , pp. 487 - 533
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

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