Future Tense Acquisition by French-Speaking Learners of L2 Spanish: Chronology, Conjecture and Concession

Abstract

The different interpretations of future tense in Romance languages arise due to the interaction of morphosyntax with language-external discourse conditions. In Spanish, the synthetic future has been claimed to have evolved away from indicating chronology, towards expressing speaker-internal evidentiality and, sometimes, concession; whereas in French, these interpretations of future tense are greatly restricted, and chronological ones predominate. This chapter addresses some aspects of the relationship between these two languages, specifically, whether empirical evidence supports the proposed analysis of future tense, and the relevance of such evidence to theoretical positions on the L2 acquisition process of French-speaking learners of Spanish. A study on future tense acquisition in L2 Spanish by French L1 speakers (29 with CEFR B2 level of proficiency and 19 with C1) in formal learning environments in France is presented, with data obtained by way of three tasks. A control group of 29 native speakers of European Spanish also participated in the study. Results indicate that despite advantages in the use and interpretation of chronological future, learners produced future tense significantly less than native speakers for expressing conjectural and concessive meaning. However, learners showed understanding of all these uses of future to the same degree as L1 speakers.