Interlanguage Variability of the Spanish Subjunctive

Abstract

This article reports on a study of the interlanguage variability of the acquisition and use of the Spanish subjunctive mood by a group of young English-speaking adults learning Spanish as a second language in Mexico. It was found that there is considerable variability in the use of the subjunctive by these subjects; nevertheless; this variability is systematic when taking into account multiple linguistic factors; such a syntactic; morphological; semantic and pragmatic ones; and universal learning processes; such as Ll transfer; overgeneralization and hypothesis formation.