How children shape heritage morphosyntax: Acquisition of the Spanish subjunctive in sentential complements

Abstract This study investigated the origins of mood vulnerability in heritage language (HL) grammar. Prior research on adult heritage speakers (HSs) shows that subjunctive use with sentential complements is highly vulnerable, hypothesized to stem from language-internal (type of selection, modality) and language-external (HL experience) factors. We examined Spanish subjunctive use in complements to factive emotive predicates (Presupposition) and nonassertive predicates (Nonassertion), where mood selection is pragmatically conditioned. We also tested two categorical contexts (Volition, Control indicative). Data from 78 school-age HSs indicated that reduced subjunctive use in sentential complements derived from children with insufficient exposure to and capacity with the HL to master the categorical, modally simple volition context. Most of the child HSs relied on nonsubjunctive felicitous and infelicitous responses as alternative or innovative ways of expressing modal meanings in these contexts. We propose that bilingual children in central Texas may be developing a distinct HL grammar for modality.