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In:New Frontiers and Connections in Second Language Acquisition: Selected Proceedings of the 17th Generative Approaches to Second Language Acquisition (GASLA-17) Conference
Edited by Tania Ionin and Silvina Montrul
[Language Acquisition and Language Disorders 71] 2026
► pp. 178–202

Spanish modal infinitival constructions in English–Spanish bilingual grammars

Acquisition despite poverty of stimulus?

 | University of Ottawa
 | University of Ottawa
This content is being prepared for publication; it may be subject to changes.
We investigate two superficially similar constructions in Spanish: modal periphrases as in podemos salir (we can leave) and nominal infinitival clauses as in deseamos salir (we wish to leave). The absence of a superficial structural contrast (inflected verb form followed by an infinitive), together with the semantic complexity conveyed by modality and the grammatical constraints which differentiate these constructions, could interfere with their acquisition. To address whether non-Spanish dominant bilinguals can distinguish between them, we administered a Grammaticality Judgement Task to three groups of adult English–Spanish bilinguals with different linguistic backgrounds. Results showed no significant differences between the groups, which leads us to propose that this outcome constitutes evidence in favor of the poverty of the stimulus argument.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Ways of expressing modality in Spanish
  • 3.Modal infinitival constructions
  • 4.Experimental study
    • 4.1Research questions and hypotheses
    • 4.2Participants
    • 4.3Materials
    • 4.4Data collection procedure
    • 4.5Data analysis overview
    • 4.6Results
  • 5.Discussion and conclusions
  • Notes
  • References
  • Appendix
References (70)
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