Interpreting mood choice effects in L2 and L1 Spanish: empirical evidence and theoretical implications
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Aoife Ahern
,
José Amenós-Pons
Abstract
The rich morphology of Spanish, such as that of tense and verbal mood, encodes a range of features leading to diverse contextual effects on interpretation, some of which are examined in the light of original experimental data in the present study. Specifically, we analyse data on the interpretation of mood in concessive structures by upper-intermediate and advanced learners of L2 Spanish, with L1 French (N=48) and L1 English (N=40), and from an L1 European Spanish control group (N=35). The results of the learner-group interpretation experiment led to a follow-on study enquiring into the understanding of mood alternation in concessive clauses by another group of L1 European Spanish speakers through a metalinguistic interpretation task. Learner group findings suggested a heavier reliance on lexical information and world-knowledge than on grammatical cues, while L1 speakers’ data indicate a default association maintained between subjunctive and irrealis interpretations, leading to a greater measure of variability in describing presuppositional uses of this mood. The native speaker data may reflect challenges posed by representing and describing, using metalinguistic knowledge, structures whose interpretation requires the integration of linguistic, discourse and extralinguistic information. Findings are discussed in relation to current linguistic descriptions and potential contributions of our empirical data.
This research has been developed as part of the research project “Semántica procedimental y contenido explícito III” (SPYCE III), funded by the Spanish Ministry for Economy and Competitivity (FFI2012-31785). We thank the two anonymous reviewers who provided helpful suggestions and observations on a previous draft; all disclaimers hold.
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© 2019 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Effects of age and education on variable but native heritage grammars: Theoretical and empirical implications for the Null Subject Parameter
- Interpreting mood choice effects in L2 and L1 Spanish: empirical evidence and theoretical implications
- Does empirical data from bilingual and native Spanish corpora meet linguistic theory? The role of discourse context in variation of subject expression
- English for sale: Using race to create value in the Korean ELT market
- Language tests and neoliberalism in “global human resource” development: A case of Japanese Universities
- A mixed methods study of “English Corners” funded by the Taiwan Ministry of Education “Program for Promoting Teaching Excellence of Universities”
- Questions about CLIL which are unfortunately still not outdated: A reply to Pérez-Cañado
- Effects of recasts and form-focused instruction on the acquisition of novel vocabulary
- A translanguaging view of the linguistic system of bilinguals
- The relationship between English proficiency and humour appreciation among English L1 users and Chinese L2 users of English
- Beyond ‘(non) native-speakerism’: Being or becoming a native-speaker teacher of English
- “So, why do you sign?” Deaf and hearing new signers, their motivation, and revitalisation policies for sign languages
- Microaggressions as speech acts: Using pragmatics to define and develop a research agenda for microaggressions
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Effects of age and education on variable but native heritage grammars: Theoretical and empirical implications for the Null Subject Parameter
- Interpreting mood choice effects in L2 and L1 Spanish: empirical evidence and theoretical implications
- Does empirical data from bilingual and native Spanish corpora meet linguistic theory? The role of discourse context in variation of subject expression
- English for sale: Using race to create value in the Korean ELT market
- Language tests and neoliberalism in “global human resource” development: A case of Japanese Universities
- A mixed methods study of “English Corners” funded by the Taiwan Ministry of Education “Program for Promoting Teaching Excellence of Universities”
- Questions about CLIL which are unfortunately still not outdated: A reply to Pérez-Cañado
- Effects of recasts and form-focused instruction on the acquisition of novel vocabulary
- A translanguaging view of the linguistic system of bilinguals
- The relationship between English proficiency and humour appreciation among English L1 users and Chinese L2 users of English
- Beyond ‘(non) native-speakerism’: Being or becoming a native-speaker teacher of English
- “So, why do you sign?” Deaf and hearing new signers, their motivation, and revitalisation policies for sign languages
- Microaggressions as speech acts: Using pragmatics to define and develop a research agenda for microaggressions
