Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages, Inc.

(TESOL)

The Acquisition of the English Auxiliary by Native Spanish Speakers

Author(s): Herlinda Cancino, Ellen J. Rosansky, John H. Schumann
Source: TESOL Quarterly, Vol. 9, No. 4 (Dec., 1975), pp. 421-430
Published by: Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages, Inc. (TESOL)
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 TESOL Quarterly
Vol. 9, No. 4
December 1975

The Acquisitionof the English Auxiliary

by Native Spanish Speakers*
Herlinda Cancino, Ellen J. Rosansky, John H. Schumann

This paper describes the appearance of English auxiliaries in the speech

of five native speakers of Spanish (two children, two adolescents, one
adult). In addition, it also describes these subjects' acquisition of the
negative and interrogative transformations.
The acquisition of the negative transformation showed the following
developmental pattern. The subjects began negating by using no + verb
constructions (e.g. He no can play baseball). Then either simultaneously
or shortly afterwards, they began using don't + verb constructions (e.g.
I don't can explain). Next they acquired constructions in which the
negative was placed after the auxiliaries is and can (e.g. He can't go).
Finally, they learned the analyzed forms of don't (do not, doesn't, does
not, didn't, did not).
The analysis of the interrogatives indicated that both YIN and wh-
questions appear in the untransposed form, but there is no stage in which
the untransposed form is consistently prior to the transposed. There is
also no stage in which transposed YIN-questions precede transposed wh-
questions or vice-versa. In general, however, transposition is more fre-
quent in wh- questions.
The results of the auxiliary analysis indicate that is copula appears
first and that can and do appear shortly afterwards. Beyond these three
auxiliaries the order of appearance for each subject is highly variable.
This result contrasts with recent work on the acquisition of certain English
morphemes which shows an invariant order of acquisition.

In our research on second language acquisition at Harvard University

we have been examining the natural, untutored acquisition of English by
six native Spanish speakers: two children age five, two adolescents ages 11
and 13, and two adult subjects, whom we visited approximately twice
monthly for an hour over a period of ten months. All of the subjects had
been in this country less than three months when we began. The data
was collected in the following ways:

* This paper was presented at the 1975 TESOL Conventionin Los Angeles, Cal-
ifornia. The research reported here was supported by Grant NE-G-00-3-0014from the
National Institute of Education, Department of Health, Education and Welfare to
Courtney B. Cazden. However, the opinions expressed herein do not necessarily reflect
the position or policy of the National Institute of Education, and the official endorse-
ment by the National Institute of Education should not be inferred.
Ms. Cancinoand Ms. Rosansky are at present graduate students at Harvard. Ms.
Rosansky is also principal of a Hebrew school. Mr. Schumann, Assistant Professor at
UCLA, has until recently been an ESL teacher in Waltham, Massachusetts. All three
have contributedto WorkingPapers in Bilingualism. Mr. Schumannhas publishedpre-
viously in the TESOL Quarterly.
421
422 TESOL QUARTERLY

1. Spontaneous speech recording in which the experimenter engages the

subject in conversation;
2. Experimental elicitations in which the subject is asked to do such
things as imitate or negate a model utterance;
3. Pre-planned socio-linguistic interaction in which subjects are taken to
parties, restaurants, museums, sports events, etc., in order to collect
speech in varied natural situations.
All of the data was taped and in addition to the investigator, a bilingual
transcriber was always present, taking notes. The transcribers then tran-
scribed (and where necessary, translated) the tapes in a standard format
along the lines suggested in the Slobin Manual.
Studies of second language acquisition have generally been either large
cross sectional studies or studies of single individuals. While our study in-
cludes six subjects, this paper concerns itself with only five of them. Our
initial intention was to analyze the auxiliary in all six subjects; however, one
of our adults knew more English than the other subjects at the beginning
of the study and therefore her linguistic development is too advanced for
the present discussion.
The five subjects discussed are Marta, Cheo, Juan, Jorge, and Alberto.
Marta (5 years old) is an upper middle class Puerto Rican. Cheo (5 years
old) is an upper middle class Colombian from Cali. Juan (11 years old) and
Jorge ( 13 years old) are upper middle class Colombians from Bogota. Al-
berto (33 years old) is a lower middle class Costa Rican. In addition to
age and socio-economic differences among our subjects, there are some
differences in the nature of their exposure to English. While Jorge, Juan,
Marta and Cheo were all exposed to English through peer speech in public
schools (with practically no ESL instruction), Alberto worked in a factory
where some of his input is from other non-native speakers of English. All
of the subjects speak Spanish in the home.
Our goal in this paper is to describe the acquisition of the English aux-
iliary. The auxiliary system occupies a crucial position in English grammar.
It provides the means for the expression of negation and interrogation and
less frequently, for the expression of emphasis. Auxiliaries generally carry
semantic information and also mark tense and number. Their essential
systematicity and their indispensability in the functioning of the English
verb make the study of their development an essential focus for the acquisi-
tion of English.
We will describe the development of the auxiliary as it appears in the
declarative, negative and interrogative utterances of our subjects. Finally,
an overall picture of auxiliary development will be presented by combining
these categories. In addition, as we discuss the auxiliary in the negative and
interrogative, we will also discuss the acquisition of the negative and inter-
rogative transformations.
Throughout our discussion we will be speaking only about the order
of appearance of auxiliaries, not their order of acquisition. This is an
 ACQUISITION OF AUXILIARY 423

important distinction. Our analysis answers the question of whether or not

a particular auxiliary is present in obligatory context. It does not speak to
the issue of whether or not the auxiliary is correctly supplied (in terms of
number and tense) in that context. Thus, if a subject were to say they is
boys, he would be given credit for having supplied the copula is. If he
were to say they boys, he would be scored "are copula." Hence what we
will present is a "there-not there" analysis, not a "correct-incorrectanalysis."
Future analyses may well include scoring for tense and number. Such
analyses would then allow us to talk about order of acquisition.

1.0 The Auxiliary in Declaratives.

The auxiliary in declaratives includes such forms as: She was here
yesterday and He is going to the store. To determine the order of appear-
ance of the auxiliary in declarative utterances we established the following
criterion: to say that an auxiliary has appeared it must be supplied at least
80% of the time in three consecutive samples and in each sample there
must be at least two instances of the particular auxiliary under consideration
with a total of ten or more auxiliaries in the sample. In scoring modals
where obligatory context cannot be determined we simply considered an
auxiliary to have appeared when it was present at least twice in three
successive samples. On the basis of this criterion the order of appearance
was found in declaratives as displayed in Table 1.

TABLE 1
Appearance Order for Auxiliaries in the Declarative
Marta Cheo
is (cop) is (cop)
can can
is (aux) was (cop)
am (aux), are (cop), will
was (cop), are (aux)
could
Juan Jorge
is (cop) is (cop), am (aux)
can, are (cop), are (aux), was (cop) can
is (aux) was (cop)
were (cop) are (cop)
would was (aux), will
were (aux), am (aux), will is (aux)
have am (cop)
Alberto
is (cop)
am (cop)
are (cop)

From this analysis we can make the generalization that is (cop) and
can appear very early and in that order. Beyond these two auxiliaries, the
order of appearance seems to be quite variable.
424 TESOL QUARTERLY

2.0 The Auxiliary in Negatives.

When determining the appearance order for auxiliaries in negatives we
used the same criterion as we did for declaratives. An auxiliary was scored
as "present" whether or not it was correctly formed with regard to the
position of the negative particle. Thus, He can't go and the less frequent
form He no can go were both credited for having the auxiliary can present.
This analysis resulted in the orders of appearance displayed in Table 2:

TABLE 2
Appearance Order for Auxiliaries in the Negative
Marta Cheo
can can
is (cop)
do
did
Juan Jorge
do is (cop)
is (cop), can, does can
did do, does
was (cop) did
will
Alberto
is (cop)
can

These orders indicate that, as in the declarative, can and is (cop)

appear early, but in the negative the order in which they appear varies
from subject to subject. Do also shows up in the negative in three of the
five subjects as one of the first auxiliaries to appear. Of course, in declar-
atives do did not have the opportunity to appear. As we will see in a
moment, early appearance of do in the negative (in the form of don't) results
from the fact that don't is simply a negative marker similar to no and does
not consist of do plus the negative.

2.1 The Negative Transformation.'

The acquisition of the negative transformation showed the following
developmental pattern. The subjects began negating by using no + verb
constructions such as,
I no like ice cream.
He no can play baseball.
Then, either simultaneously or shortly afterwards, they began using don't +
verb constructions,
I don't understand.
I don't can explain.
1A preliminary analysis of the negative presented at the 1974 summer LSA meeting
(Amherst) suggested that analyzed don't preceded isn't and can't. Subsequent analysis,
as shown above, reversed this order.
 ACQUISITION OF AUXTTIARY 425

Next they acquired constructions in which the negative was placed after
the auxiliaries is and can,
She is not a teacher.
He can't go.
Finally, they learned the analyzed forms of don't (do not, doesn't, does
not, didn't, did not),
I do not go every day.
He doesn't speak English.
They didn't have time.
This sequence led to the speculation that Spanish speakers' first hypothesis
is that negation in English is like negation in Spanish; hence the learners
place no in front of the verb. The learners' next hypothesis appears to be
that the negator in English is not no, but don't, and don't is placed before
the verb. At this point, it is argued that don't is simply an allomorph of
no and that don't + verb constructions are still essentially Spanish negation
but with the negator slightly more anglicized. Then when the learners begin
using can't, isn't, and the analyzed forms of don't, it would appear that
they have learned that English negatives are formed by putting the negative
particle (n't, not) after the first auxiliary element.

3.0 The Auxiliary in Interrogatives.

Once again using the criterion of 80% supplied in obligatory context for
three consecutive samples, we established the order of appearance of the
auxiliary in the interrogative, which can be seen in Table 3.
The one generalization deriving from this analysis is that is (cop) appears
to precede do and can (with the exception of one subject, Juan, where do
and is (cop) appear at the same time). The appearance order beyond is
(cop), can and do is, once again, variable.
TABLE 3
Appearance Order for Auxiliaries in Interrogatives
Marta Cheo Juan Jorge Alberto
is (cop) is (cop) do, is (cop) is (cop) is (cop)
do can did do, can
can, is (aux) can did
are (aux) are (aux) are (aux)

3.1 The Interrogative Transformation.2

Interest in the development of the interrogative in studies of first lan-
guage acquisition was initially motivated by the desire to see whether the

A more extensive discussion of the interrogative can be found in Cazden, Cancino,

Rosansky, and Schumann, Second Language Acquisition Sequences in Children, Adoles-
cents and Adults. Final Report to National Institute of Education, Grant No. NE-6-
00-3-0014, 1975.
426 TESOL QUARTERLY

acquisition sequence reflected the rules represented in the transformational

analysis of adult English grammar. For our purposes the transformational
rules for questions are:
Yes/No questions:
a. She is playing soccer.
b. Is she playing soccer? [Transposition] (Aux is moved in front of the
subject.)
Wh-questions:
a. He is going where.
b. Where he is going? [Preposing] (Wh-word is moved to the front of
the string.)
c. Where is he going? [Transposition] (Aux is moved in front of the
subject.)
In first language acquisition, Klima and Bellugi (1966) found what they
called "Stage C", in which Y/N-questions were inverted but wh-questions
were not. We examined our data on the interrogative to see whether indeed
their description characterizes the interrogative in second language learning.
In doing so we asked the following questions.
a. Do wh-questions appear in the untransposed form? When looking at
all wh-questions for all auxiliaries in all subjects the answer is "yes."
b. Do untransposed wh-questions appear prior to transposed? When all
the auxiliaries for each subject are considered the answer is "no."
c. Do untransposed Y/N-questions appear? Totaling for all auxiliaries
we find that the answer is "yes" for all subjects.
d. Do untransposed Y/N-questions appear prior to transposed? When
all auxiliaries are considered the answer is "no" for all subjects.
e. Does Klima and Bellugi's "Stage C" exist for our second language
learners? The answer is "no" when we look at all the auxiliaries for
each subject.
f. Is there a stage for our second language learners which is the exact
opposite of "Stage C", i.e., where wh-questions are inverted and Y/N-
questions are not? With the exception of one subject (Jorge), this is
not the case.
Thus, for second language learners the development of the interrogative
unfolds in the following manner: Both Y/N and wh-questions appear in the
untransposed form, but there is no stage in which the untransposed form is
consistently prior to the transposed. There is also no stage in which trans-
posed Y/N-questions precede transposed wh-questions or vice versa. In
general, however, transposition is more frequent in wh-questions (which
might be expected because it is here that transposition is obligatory in adult
English). If one were to characterize the sequential development of inversion
in our subjects' questions, the best statement that could be made is that
from the beginning interrogatives appear in both the transposed and un-
 ACQUISITION OF AUXILIARY 427

transposed forms. And for some subjects transposition appears to be more

frequent in later development.

4.0 The Auxiliary in Declaratives, Negatives and Interrogatives (totaled).

When a tally of auxiliaries is made, combining the declarative, negative
and interrogative the following appearance order for auxiliary emerges (see
Table 4). The order can be more clearly seen in Table 4a, which displays the
rank orderings for the appearance of auxiliaries.

TABLE 4
Appearance Order for the Auxiliaries (totaled)
Marta Cheo
is (cop) is (cop), do
do can
is (aux) was (cop)
can, am (aux)
did, are (cop)
will
was (cop), are (aux)
could
Juan Jorge
do, is (cop) is (cop), am (aux)
was (aux), can can
are (cop) do
was (cop), did, is (aux), does, were (cop) does
am (aux), have was (cop)
will did
am (cop) are (cop)
could is (aux), will, was (aux)
are (aux) am (cop)
were (aux, would
Alberto
is (cop)
am (cop)
can
are (cop)

The most obvious finding is that is (cop) is acquired first, universally,

and do and can are the other two auxiliaries that appear early for most of
the subjects. As we move beyond these three auxiliaries there is a great deal
of variability in terms of order of appearance. This reflects the same varia-
bility observed in the order of appearance of the auxiliary when considered
separately in the declarative, negative and interrogative.
The early appearance of is (cop), can and do might be explained on the
following grounds.
a. is (cop) is a form that exists in Spanish and which functions similarly
to the English form. Of course, there is a second be form in Spanish,
estar. But this does not seem to cause problems, because it is gen-
erally easy to move from two categories in the native language to one
 TABLE 4a
Rank Orderings of Appearance of the Auxiliaries
Is Is Are Was Were Was Are Am
(C) Do Can (A) (C) Does (A) Did (A) (C) (A) (A) Will
Marta 1 2 4 3 5 5 7 7 4 6
Cheo 1 1 2 3
Juan 1 1 2 4 3 4 2 4 11 5 10 6 7
Jorge 1 3 2 8 7 4 8 6 5 1 8
Alberto 1 3 4
 ACQUISITION OF AUXILIARY 429

category in the target language. The Spanish counterpart to is (cop)

is es, (ser), which is even phonologically similar to the English form.
This similarity undoubtedly facilitates positive transfer.
b. The early appearance of can is probably explicable on the basis of its
functional utility in early second language acquisition. It allows the
learner to express notions of ability and requests-notions which are
essential for functioning in the second language even at elementary
stages.
c. The early appearance of do can be explained, in part, by the fact that
it serves as a negative particle similar to no. In this case, however, al-
though do appears early (in the form of don't) it is not functioning as
an auxiliary, but simply as a negator. The reason for the early appear-
ance of do in questions is more difficult to explain. It could perhaps
result from the existence of certain stereotyped forms, i.e. high fre-
quency utterances heard in the input and simply repeated as such:
Do you know what I mean? and How do you say X?, or do might
simply be placed in front of a statement as a question marker.
After having rank ordered the appearance of the auxiliaries for our sub-
jects, we wanted to determine whether or not the orders for our subjects
were at all similar. Clearly from "eye-balling" the data we can see that
is (cop) appears early for all subjects. But beyond that, we wished to deter-
mine statistically whether or not there were any correlations between the
subjects' orders. We analyzed our rank orderings with the Kendall Correla-
tion of ConcordanceW. With an N (the auxiliaries in this case) as large as
18, the distribution approaches the x2 distribution. The H. was that the
orders are independent or unrelated. The correlation was nonsignificant
(p > .90). So, not only were we unable to disprove the null hypothesis, but
93% of the time our correlations would not be significant. In other words,
we find that our subjects' orders appear to be highly variable.
Of course, had we had a larger sample of subjects there is the possibility
that this measure of concordance would have revealed similar orders for the
appearance of the subjects' auxiliaries, or it might have revealed a similarity
in orders across subjects with the auxiliaries appearing in clusters. With a
larger sample it is also possible that different orders might have emerged for
children, adolescents, and adults.
It is equally possible, however, that a larger sample would reveal the very
same variable orders that we have found in our study to date. Assuming
that our findings are indeed representative of what occurs in second language
acquisition, some very interesting issues arise:
1. There have been recent claims (Dulay & Burt, 1973, Madden, Bailey,
and Krashen, 1975) that acquisition of English by speakers of other
languages follows an invariant order for certain grammatical mor-
phemes. Our analysis which considers grammatical features, some of
which are similar to morphemes, finds considerable variability.
430 TESOL QUARTERLY

2. Whether large-scale cross-sectional studies or in-depth longitudinal

investigations of small numbers of subjects provide a more accurate
developmental description of English is a question which remains to be
resolved.
3. Dulay and Burt's (1973) version of the creative construction hypothe-
sis has developed out of the observation that morphemes show an
invariant order of acquisition and little interference. How does a
highly variable appearance order for auxiliaries affect the creative
construction hypothesis?
As more such research results become available earlier explanations for
second language acquisition may have to be considered from a different
perspective. It is obvious that there is a lot more to be learned, and there-
fore it is our hope that research in this area will continue.

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Health, Educationand Welfare. National Institute of Education Officeof Research
Grants. (Grant No. NE-6-00-3-0014,Project No. 730-744)
Klima, E. S. and U. Bellugi. 1966. Syntactic regularitiesin the speech of children. In
J. Lyons and R. J. Wales (Eds.) Psycholinguisticspapers. Edinburgh,Edinburgh
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Madden, C., N. Bailey and S. Krashen. 1975. Acquisition of function words by adults
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Siegel, S. 1956. Nonparametricstatistics for the behavioralsciences. New York, Mc-
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