Ojalá (hopefully) dependent clauses in L2 Spanish: verbal morphology and epistemic interpretation
Author ORCID Identifier
0000-0003-3402-0803
Document Type
Paper Presentation
Presenter Language
English
Research Area
Second Language Acquisition
Location
MBSC Omaha Room 304
Start Date
19-10-2024 10:00 AM
End Date
19-10-2024 10:30 AM
Abstract
According to the bottleneck hypothesis (Slabakova, 2016) in L2 acquisition syntax and semantics ‘come for free’, while morphology constitutes a bottleneck that may interfere in both interpretation and structure building in the L2. We test this idea with the interpretation of subjunctive clauses that are dependent on the interjection ojalá..
The invariant word ojalá subcategorizes for a subjunctive clause (1). According to Quer (2001, 2009) in intentional contexts the tense of the subjunctive is dependent on the tense of the main clause. However, ojalá is tenseless. As a consequence, the interpretation of the dependent clause rests solely with the subjunctive. There is little in the literature regarding ojalá clauses, but example (1) summarizes the different possibilities:
(1) a Ojalá (que) Lucía esté bien. (present subj., possible, present/future time)
b. Ojalá (que) Lucía estuviera bien (imperfect subj., counterfactual, present/future time)
c. Ojalá (que) Lucía haya estado bien (present perf. subj., possible, past time)
d. Ojalá (que) Lucía hubiera estado bien (pluperfect subj., counterfactual, past time)
Examples such as these pose an interesting problem for L2 acquisition because the interpretation of the clause will depend solely on the tense morphology of the embedded verb and the context. We tested advanced L2 learners of Spanish (n=10) and a control group (n=10) with two tasks: a GJT task that tested knowledge of the morphology of the subjunctive and a preference task that looked at the interpretation of the ojalá clauses in different contexts.
There were very few errors in interpretation of the different types of subjunctive (10% error rate, with two participants giving no unexpected responses). This is evidence that there is no deficit in second language acquisition and these properties are acquirable. However, most of the errors (6%) were in contexts that called for the imperfect subjunctive because they expressed irrealis situations referring to present or future time (I wish I could leave early tomorrow). We would argue that this is an overextension due in part to input and instruction, where imperfect is generally taught to refer to the past.
Ojalá (hopefully) dependent clauses in L2 Spanish: verbal morphology and epistemic interpretation
MBSC Omaha Room 304
According to the bottleneck hypothesis (Slabakova, 2016) in L2 acquisition syntax and semantics ‘come for free’, while morphology constitutes a bottleneck that may interfere in both interpretation and structure building in the L2. We test this idea with the interpretation of subjunctive clauses that are dependent on the interjection ojalá..
The invariant word ojalá subcategorizes for a subjunctive clause (1). According to Quer (2001, 2009) in intentional contexts the tense of the subjunctive is dependent on the tense of the main clause. However, ojalá is tenseless. As a consequence, the interpretation of the dependent clause rests solely with the subjunctive. There is little in the literature regarding ojalá clauses, but example (1) summarizes the different possibilities:
(1) a Ojalá (que) Lucía esté bien. (present subj., possible, present/future time)
b. Ojalá (que) Lucía estuviera bien (imperfect subj., counterfactual, present/future time)
c. Ojalá (que) Lucía haya estado bien (present perf. subj., possible, past time)
d. Ojalá (que) Lucía hubiera estado bien (pluperfect subj., counterfactual, past time)
Examples such as these pose an interesting problem for L2 acquisition because the interpretation of the clause will depend solely on the tense morphology of the embedded verb and the context. We tested advanced L2 learners of Spanish (n=10) and a control group (n=10) with two tasks: a GJT task that tested knowledge of the morphology of the subjunctive and a preference task that looked at the interpretation of the ojalá clauses in different contexts.
There were very few errors in interpretation of the different types of subjunctive (10% error rate, with two participants giving no unexpected responses). This is evidence that there is no deficit in second language acquisition and these properties are acquirable. However, most of the errors (6%) were in contexts that called for the imperfect subjunctive because they expressed irrealis situations referring to present or future time (I wish I could leave early tomorrow). We would argue that this is an overextension due in part to input and instruction, where imperfect is generally taught to refer to the past.