From number agreement to the subjunctive: Evidence for Processability Theory in L2 Spanish

Abstract

This article contributes to typological plausibility of Processability Theory (PT) (Pienemann, 1998, 2005) by providing empirical data that show that the stages predicted by PT are followed in the second language (L2) acquisition of Spanish syntax and morphology. In the present article, the PT stages for L2 Spanish morphology and syntax are first hypothesized after a brief description of PT theory. The results of a corpus of conversational data by L2 Spanish learners ( n = 21) are then presented. Implicational scaling confirmed the five stages for the syntax and morphology with 100% scalability. Evidence was also found for the existence of discrete stages 1,2, 3 and 5 for the syntax as well as stages 1–4 for the morphology. Syntax was also found to emerge before morphology for all learners.