Restructuring of Reverse Psychological Predicate

The target of investigation in the present study is the class of psychological predicates exemplified by gustar; this class demonstrates unique mapping properties that render it especially problematical and perplexing for English speakers acquiring Spanish as a second language and likewise vulnerable to alteration in contact and contracting varieties of Spanish. In the experiment reported herein, heritage Spanish speakers are shown to accept and produce particular non-target psychological predicate constructions. Their behavior is interpreted as revealing two 'optimization' strategies-Map the animate argument to the structural subject position and the inanimate argument to the structural object; and dedicate the preverbal position to the structural subject-which render the mapping more transparent.