Case Studies in Eliciting the Spanish Subjunctive in

Previous research has shown that the Spanish subjunctive is a vulnerable mood in the process of acquisition for adult heritage speakers. Specifically, the subjunctive use in optional contexts tends to be more prone to simplification (i.e. in adjectival clauses). This subjunctive emerges in monolingual Spanish-speaking children as early as two years of age and reaches more adultlike development by age 7. This development seemingly correlates with their development of theory of mind. Reduced exposure to Spanish can also affect heritage children’s use of the Spanish subjunctive. However, little is known about heritage bilingual children’s knowledge of heritage Spanish in the U.S. Previous literature leaves in question whether heritage speakers’ development of the Spanish subjunctive is the result of reduced exposure alone or if it is connected to the development of the cognitive underpinnings of this linguistic mood. Therefore, the current study aims to add to this line of research by examining heritage bilingual children’s production of the Spanish subjunctive in adjectival clauses. I report on six case studies on the use of the subjunctive in child heritage speakers of Spanish between the ages of three and five. I administered a task designed to elicit both the indicative and subjunctive moods and a theory of mind task assessing cognitive development. Demographic information was also collected from parents/guardians about the child’s exposure to and use of English and Spanish for the purposes of analyzing the participants exposure to and production of Spanish. Preliminary results demonstrate that the children mostly opted for the indicative mood in scenarios that required the subjunctive. More data would be necessary to reach firm conclusions about the effect of theory of mind development. As such, these first findings suggest that factors such as exposure to Spanish and generation in the U.S. may be better predictors than theory of mind development alone for child heritage speakers.