Abstract
This investigation seeks to expand the current understanding of mood use and vitality among monolingual native speakers of two varieties of Spanish. It focuses on establishing a cross-dialectal analysis of mood use in semi-spontaneous oral production. A total of 112 adult monolingual native speakers of Spanish participated in the study (N=56 from Rosario, Argentina and N=56 from Toledo, Spain). A controlled interview was administered to elicit the frequency and vitality of subjunctive use. Results indicate that the use of present subjunctive in complement clauses was found stable and vital among older speakers (51-73 years old) in both regions. However, while the youngest generation (18-30 years old) shows prevalence of non-subjunctive forms in Rosario, this age group favors the use of present subjunctive in Toledo. A similar pattern is observed with middle-aged participants. Results indicate an overall reduction of present subjunctive use among younger generations in Rosario, and vitality in every age group in Toledo.
Highlights
A recent proliferation of studies investigating mood use as determined by linguistic and sociolinguistic variables such as gender, education, socio-economic status, and geographical region have indicated both the debilitation and the vitality of subjunctive forms
Concerning the broad category of Spanish in the U.S, those varieties spoken by heritage speakers, previous research has identified a gradual trend of mood simplification, which is explained by the predominance of indicative forms in contexts in which subjunctive forms would be expected (Lynch 2000; Martínez Mira 2010; Mikulski 2010; Montrul 2009; Silva-Corvalán 1991, 1994, 2001)
Simple frequency calculations determine that 63% of the complement clauses with present subjunctive were produced by speakers from Toledo and 37% were produced by speakers from Rosario
Summary
A recent proliferation of studies investigating mood use as determined by linguistic and sociolinguistic variables such as gender, education, socio-economic status, and geographical region have indicated both the debilitation and the vitality of subjunctive forms. Concerning the broad category of Spanish in the U.S, those varieties spoken by heritage speakers, previous research has identified a gradual trend of mood simplification, which is explained by the predominance of indicative forms in contexts in which subjunctive forms would be expected (Lynch 2000; Martínez Mira 2010; Mikulski 2010; Montrul 2009; Silva-Corvalán 1991, 1994, 2001). Serrano (1995) identified a similar pattern among older female speakers of La Laguna (Spain), in which the imperfect indicative appears in lieu of the present or imperfect subjunctive as in: (1) Si tenía doce hijos, los atendía a todos and (2) Si fuera más jóven, yo me lo compraba This author pointed out that the overgeneralization of subjunctive use is evident in Latin American varieties (Bello 1860; Serrano 1991)
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