Use of the English Subjunctive by L1 English/L2 Spanish Bilinguals
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Abstract
The current study examines the use of the English subjunctive mood by L1 American English/L2 Spanish late bilinguals using a multi-competence model of bilingualism (Cook, 1991, 1992; Pavlenko, 2000). While the use of the present subjunctive is productive in Spanish (Butt & Benjamin, 2000), it is generally assumed that use of this verb form in English is declining (Whitley, 2002; Kleiser, 2008; Kovács, 2009). However, recent research shows that the subjunctive may be productive in mandative constructions, such as it is important that, in American English (Övergaard, 1995; Hundt, 1998; Crawford, 2009). The current study examines bilingual and monolingual use of the subjunctive in addition to examining participants’ use of the subjunctive for three age groups (20 – 29, 30 – 39, and 40+) in order to capture any change in progress occurring in American English. Participants (N=37, 18 bilinguals and 19 monolinguals) in the current study completed a 20-item sentence completion task including 12 sentences for which the subjunctive is possible as well as 8 distractor items. Results confirm the aforementioned hypothesis, showing that bilinguals generally use the subjunctive in mandative constructions while monolinguals prefer constructions other than the subjunctive. Findings for the three age groups also lend some support to the hypothesis that the subjunctive is declining in American English.
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