Some Unresolved Issues in Spanish Mood Use

Author(s): Lenard Studerus

Source: Hispania, Vol. 78, No. 1 (Mar., 1995), pp. 94-104
Published by: American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/345229 .
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APPLIED LINGUISTICS
Preparedby KarenL. Smith

Some Unresolved Issues in Spanish Mood Use

LenardStuderus
Universityof TexasatArlington
Abstract:Spanishmoodhastraditionally beentaughtthrougha framework rules.However,
of categorical
forsomeyearsnowtherehavebeeneffortsto findempirical datato clarifytheexactnatureof certainrules
andtobetterunderstand thepatterns thatexistoutsidetheclassroom.
ofrulevariability Atsomestageofstudy
to providefeedbackto studentsconcerning
it is usefulforinstructors thosemooduse issueswhicharestill
notfullyresolvedorfullyexploredintermsof actualusage.Issuesexamined of
hereincludetheintersection
moodwithnotionslikehabituality, generaltruthsandsharedknowledge-aswellas mooduseincertainlin-
and dubitativeswith doubleembedding.Empiricaldatafor this
guistic contexts entailingquasi-dubitatives,
studycomesfromtwobordervarietiesof Spanish.

KeyWords:mood,linguistic rule,variable
norm,linguistic rule,syntax,dubitative, dialect,Mexico,
pedagogy,
Texas

Introduction stigmatizedor whetherit representsa rule

One trend over the last two decades
among language researchers has been to
recognize and explore syntacticvariation
andhow it relatesto ourapplicationof typi-
cally categoricaltextbook rules. While in
this country empiricalresearch has been
carriedout regardingcertaingrammatical
structures-especially where sociolinguis-
tic factorslike bilingualismare relevant--
we still have not explored many of the is-
sues havingto do with Spanishmood.And
whiletheoristshavegrappledwithvariation
they have not offered models suitable for
classroom instruction. Many aspects of
Spanishsyntax only demandspecial class-
room emphasis at a particularlevel of in-
structionandwhen certainskills are being
focussed upon.The type of informationdis-
cussed in this studybecomes most relevant
when students-both non-nativesandnear-
natives-become fully engaged in written
activities requiringfeedback from the in-
structor.It is when a student is free to do
originalessays or smallpapersthatallkinds
of interestinggrammaticalissues arise.For
example, before beginning to correct ob-
served "errors,"an instructormust decide
if some structurethat looks odd is indeed
in a state of flux or even a rule triggeredby
a particularlinguistic or communicative
context.Inaddition,aninstructormaywant
to give differentguidance to a non-native
Spanishspeakerthanto a near-nativeSpan-
ish speakerwho independentlycomes up
with the same structure.This distinctionis
necessary since, in the case of the near-na-
tive, there is more likelyto be some logical
linguisticmotivationforchoosinga particu-
lar form, perhaps a variationof a well-ac-
cepted rule. With this in mind, the issues
we shalldiscuss offertwokindsof informa-
tion:linguisticinsightsintoandbackground
for Spanish mood use, and regional per-
spectives regarding mood use in U.S./
Mexico borderSpanish.
This studyundertakesat least a prelimi-
nary analysis of mood variationin certain
problematiccases seen in Spanish.Ittreats
whatone might call fuzzyissues: those not
fully treated in texts and reference gram-
mars and not examinedas to the impactof
regionaland populartrends on competing
mood rules. First and foremost, the evi-
dence will show that substantialrule varia-
tion does exist and that in some instances
the elegance of textbookrules for explain-
ing Spanishmooduse needs to be evaluated

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 APPLIED LINGUISTICS95

in the light of research directedat speech 1991). None of the above mentionedstud-
productionby natives. ies, including that of Garciaand Terrell,
The Laredo/ Nuevo Laredoborderva- investigated the same array of mood use
rieties of Spanishexaminedhere were cho- issues that are examined in the present
sen in orderto complementborderSpanish study.
research carriedout by GarciaandTerrell
in a similarstudy of mood use at El Paso / The Survey
Juirez (1977) and to build upon their re-
search by examiningcases not treatedby For the Laredo/ Nuevo Laredostudy
them. Garcia and Terrell focussed upon this researcher has chosen structures
mood in noun clauses after imperative, which were either not treated or barely
dubitative and comment matrices (e.g., focussed upon by Garciaand Terrell.The
matriceslike quiero,no creo,and es triste). 13 items treated here are taken from a
They foundthe indicativeform to be most broader-basedstudyinvolving139Spanish
accepted in subjectivecomment-typesen- speakers from Laredo,Texas and Nuevo
tences andleastacceptedin imperative-type Laredo,Tamaulipas.They represent five
matrixsentences. While they showed the patterns not usually discussed in texts in
use of mood in both their bordervarieties terms of mood variability.These patterns,
to be subjectto variableconstraints,their each illustratedby a pertinentsurveyitem,
resultsdemonstratedmuchless acceptance are the following:
by the Mexicans than by the Mexican
Americansof the use of the indicativein im- (1) mood and habituality:
perative and dubitative type matrix sen- Maria siemprehace lo mejorque puede /
tences. However, they found about the pueda
same level of preferencein subjectivecom- (2) mood in generaltruth sentences:
ment sentences. GarciaandTerrellalso of- Un hombreque dice / digamuchasmenti-
feredsome evidencethatpasttemporalref- ras no es confiable
erencecorrelatesmorestronglywiththe in- (3) mood afterquasi-dubitatives:
dicative mood than with the subjunctive. Tal vezesagente vive/viva bien
Althoughthe Laredo/ Nuevo Laredosur- (4) mood and doubleembedding:
vey examinedin this articlealso dealswith Es imposibleque haya gatos que vuelan/
a Texas / Mexico border area, the aims, vuelen
methodology and types of participantsof (5) mood and sharedknowledge:
the two studies differ.1' El hecho de que el mundoes / sea redon-
Blake (1985)also demonstratedthrough do es significativo.
empiricalsurveys the existence of variable
rules in Spanish mood. His subjects in- Survey participantswere asked to choose
cluded students from non-borderareas of what seemed to them the most naturalof
Mexico as well as Spaniards.Forthese rea- two verb forms (one indicative,the other
sons, as well as the different types of ex- subjunctive)for each item on a writtensur-
ampleschosen (mainlydubitativeandcom- vey. This procedureis similarto that used
ment sentences) it is not possible to make by Lantolf(1978), who dealt with Puerto
close comparisons between Blake's find- RicanAmericans.For cases in which they
ings and those presented below. Certain could simply not decide, the instructions
other empirical studies conducted in the suggested that they choose both.2Partici-
United States do not focus on the Mexico pantsknewthatthe surveywas intendedto
macrodialect (see Lantolf,1978 and Guitart, measure regionalpreferencesin verb use,
1982). More recent empirical studies on butthey didnotreceiveinformationregard-
mood deal only with Mexican Americans ing the specific natureof the survey.Fur-
and not with Mexicans (see Smead, 1988; thermore, the survey items were embed-
Ocampo, 1990; and Puente-Schubeck, ded in a manner which would not reveal

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96 HISPANIA 78 MARCH 1995

obvious patterns to survey participants. their lives outside of the borderregion. Of

While there appearto be several potential the total,60%listed Laredoas the principal
factors (semantic, syntactic, discourse, placeof residenceduringmostof theirlives,
extralinguistic,etc.) which can be used to 14%listed south Texas, 10%listed both
explain the choice of mood in any given Laredoand Nuevo Laredo,and 16%listed
case, this studyintentionallyexaminesonly places in Mexico, all but two of whom had
context free sentences. This is not done to lived mostly in Tamaulipas, the state in
minimizethe complexityof moodchoice in which Nuevo Laredois located.The major-
Spanish;on the contrary,the context free ity,68%of all participants(MexicanAmeri-
focus allowsresearchersto isolatepotential can andMexican)werewomen.As withthe
syntacticand lexical factorsin orderto ex- case of age, gender did not turn out to be a
amineanypatternsthatcouldreflectessen- statistically significant factor in mood
tial speaker tendencies regardingparticu- choices. Of the 56 Nuevo Laredopartici-
lar cases of mood use. pants,72%were born in Nuevo Laredo,the
rest in other Mexican cities, most in the
Survey Subjects neighboring state of Nuevo Le6n. When
asked where they had spent the majorpart
The purposewas to examinethe Spanish of their lives, 93%of the Nuevo Laredo
of what are in effect two varietiesof a com- grouplisted the city of Nuevo Laredo.
mon dialectrepresentingthe sistercities of
Laredo, Texas and Nuevo Laredo, Statistical Procedures and Prelimi-
Tamaulipas.The 1993 Laredo survey in- nary Findings
cluded participants,all Spanish speakers
since childhood, who represent different The followingcategoricalvariableswere
degrees of Spanish / English bilingualism. used in this analysis:1) Group:subjectsin
Andwhilethere is of course a greatamount the Laredogroupwere categorizedas 1 and
of bilingualismon the Laredo,Texas side, those of the Nuevo Laredogroup as 2; 2)
Spanishis spokenby over95%of the Laredo Gender:male subjectswere categorizedas
population.The largergroupof subjectsdid 1 andfemalesubjectsas 2;and3) Age: sub-
in fact consist of 83 people from Laredo. jects betweenthe ages of 17 to 30 were cat-
Counting all participants (Laredo and egorized as 1 and those over 30 as 2.
Nuevo Laredocombined) 30%were Mexi- A preliminary Analysis of Variance
can preparatoria (high school level) stu- (ANOVA)was performed on the data to
dents, the rest, on both sides of the border, determinehow selectionof the subjunctive
were university level students. A few of or the indicativevaried by group, gender,
these were also graduate students and andage. The probabilitylevel forthis analy-
teachers. While 47%of the Laredopartici- sis was set to a < .05. The results of this
pantswere between 17and30 years old 77% analysis (TableI) showed no mainor inter-
of the Nuevo Laredoparticipantswere in action effects for gender or age, and they
this same age group.Thus, on average,the were droppedfrom subsequent analyses.
U.S. citizens were older.However,Analysis The analysis did reveal, however,that dif-
ofVariancerevealedno significantdifference ferencesin subjectperformanceon the sur-
in moodchoicepatternswithregardto age. vey were significantlyrelatedto the variable
Of the 83 Laredo,Texas participants10 "group"(p=.003).Also, Sheff6 test results
were actuallyborn in Mexico. In 13 cases confirmedthis significance(p=.0025witha
one parentwas born in Mexico, the other probabilitylevel set at a < .01). As shown
in the United States. In 28 cases both par- below,there was a tendencyfor the Mexi-
ents were born in Mexico.Thus, 49%of the cansubjectsto choose the subjunctivemore
Laredoparticipantshad at least one parent oftenthantheirMexicanAmericancounter-
born in Mexico. Ofthese same Laredopar- parts.
ticipantsonlytwo had spent the majorityof

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 APPLIED LINGUISTICS97

TABLE I
ANOVAanalysiswith Group,GenderandAge as the MainEffects and2-wayinteractions

Source SS DF MS F SIG
MainEffects 50.55 3 16.85 3.18 .026
GRP 48.59 1 48.59 9.17 .003
GEN 1.93 1 1.93 .36 .547
AGE .02 1 .02 .00 .943

2-WayInteractions. .10 3 .03 .00 .999

GRPGEN .06 1 .06 .01 .910
GRPAGE .07 1 .07 .01 .906
GENAGE .04 1 .04 .00 .930

Explained 50.65 6 8.44 1.59 1.54

Residual 698.95 132 5.29
Total 749.61 138 5.43
In order to determine precisely which (starredexamples 1, 8, 10, 11, and 12)
items were significantlydifferentbetween were statisticallysignificant (aX< .05)
the two groups, separatet-tests (TableII) with respect to the difference shown
revealed that five of the thirteen items and that the remaining eight items
were not.
TABLE II
Separatet-testresults comparingNuevo LaredoandLaredogroupperformancefor each
individualitem on the survey

ITEM GROUP N MEAN SD df t P

IT1 Laredo 82 1.18 .38
N. Laredo 55 1.47 .50 135 -3.79 .000*

IT2 Laredo 82 1.20 .40

N. Laredo 55 1.12 .33 135 1.21 .230

IT3 Laredo 82 1.39 .49

N. Laredo 55 1.43 .50 135 -.53 .594

IT4 Laredo 81 1.17 .38

N. Laredo 55 1.07 .26 134 1.70 .071

IT5 Laredo 83 1.28 .45

N. Laredo 53 1.24 .43 134 .56 .578

IT6 Laredo 83 1.26 .44

N. Laredo 56 1.35 .48 137 -1.16 .249

IT7 Laredo 83 1.38 .49

N. Laredo 56 1.53 .50 137 -1.75 .082

IT8 Laredo 83 1.19 .39

N. Laredo 55 1.45 .50 136 -3.41 .001*

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98 HISPANIA78 MARCH1995

IT9 Laredo 83 1.72 .45

N: Laredo 56 1.85 .35 137 -1.88 .06

IT10 Laredo 82 1.76 .42

N. Laredo 56 1.91 .28 136 -2.19 .03*

IT11 Laredo 83 1.73 .44

N. Laredo 55 1.90 .29 136 -2.57 .01*

IT12 Laredo 83 1.54 .50

N. Laredo 56 1.82 .38 137 -3.52 .001*

IT13 Laredo 83 1.48 .50

N. Laredo 56 1.46 .50 137 .20 .84

Discussion

Itemsstudiedarepresentedaccordingto subjunctivechosen by the Mexicanpartici-

their semanticgrouping.Note that signifi-
cant differences between the two groups
were foundin items 1,8,10,11,and 12.The
numbers above each example discussed
show the percentageof subjunctivechosen
first by the Laredo,Texas group, next by
the NuevoLaredogroup.Webeginwiththe
habitualityfeature.
The Habituality Feature
Accordingto textbooks,examplesof the
kindwe will focus on, especiallythose con-
taining an explicit adverb of habituality,
should show the lower verb in the indica-
tive since such sentences seem not to con-
tain any marker of futurity,the standard
textbook signal for choosing subjunctive
after temporal adverbs. Nevertheless, in
writtennativespeakerSpanish,this author
has observed the use of the subjunctivein
exampleslike 1,forwhich 18%of the Laredo (2) Subjunctive: L. 23% / NL. 13%
group and 47%of the Nuevo Laredogroup
chose the subjunctive:
(1) Subjunctive: L. 18% / NL. 47%
El siemprese bebe toda la cerveza
que estA /est6 en la nevera
'He alwaysdrinksall the beer that'sin pedagogicalnorms.This is especiallytrue
the refrigerator'
the
Note thatin this example proportion of shall examinetwo relatedsentences which
pants is significantlyhigher than that cho-
sen by the MexicanAmericans(see Table
II). One suspects that the nuancewhich is
meantto be conveyedby the subjunctivein
this case is akin to the English "thathap-
pens to be in the refrigerator."In addition
to this, the survey datashow that a similar
example(one containingpoder)sometimes
takessubjunctiveformwhen standardrules
wouldnot call for that mood. For instance,
in example2 the use of the subjunctivedoes
not follow normativerules and (as in 1) is
in conflictwith the habitualnatureof both
verbs. However,the Laredogroup contin-
ues to select the subjunctiveat the same
rate experiencedfor item 1, but the Nuevo
Laredo group chose the subjunctive34%
less thanin the previousexample.Note that
the differencebetween the two groups for
example2 is not statisticallysignificant.
Mariasiemprehace lo mejorquepuede
/pueda
'Mariaalwaysdoes the best she can'
The subjunctive proportions shown for
both 1 and 2 are high when comparedwith
of the 47%figure for the Mexican partici-
pants with respect to example 1. Now, we

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also show mood variation:
(3) Subjunctive: L. 39% / NL. 42%
El siemprese bebiatodala cerveza que
estaba / estuviera en la nevera
'He always drankall the beer that was
in the refrigerator'
(4) Subjunctive: L. 17% / NL. 9%
Mariasiemprehacialo mejorque podia
/ pudiera
'Mariaalwaysdid the best she could'
Alongwith2, pasttemporalexamples3 and
4 produceno significantresults relevantto
"group."While the Mexican participants
are more comfortablewith the subjunctive
for 1 than their MexicanAmericanneigh-
bors;the slight differences(23%vs. 13%for
2, 39%vs. 42%for 3, and 17%vs. 9%for4) are
not statistically significant, as shown in
Table II.Andwhile 4 shows slightlyless of
a preference for the subjunctiveon both
sides of the borderthan its non past coun-
terpart 2, example 3 actually shows a
greater proportion of subjunctive forms
chosen by the Laredogroup than it chose
for its non-pastcounterpart1.3 One thing
standsout, the exampleswithpoder (2 and
4) show far less subjunctiveselected than
for their estarcounterparts(1 and 3). It is
possible to hypothesizethat there are lexi-
cal factorsinvolvedin these particularcon-
trasts. More data is called for in order to
confirmthis hypothesis.4
General Truth Sentences
A prominentpatternfor conveyinggen-
eral truth statementswhich containadjec-
tive clauses favorsthe definitearticleover
the indefinitearticleandembodiesa restric-
tive clause containinga verb in the indica-
tive:Los ninos queson inocentesse lo creen
todo(Childrenwho arenaivebelieveevery-
thing). Of course, in sayings it is common
not to use any articleat all: Camardnquese
duermeselo ilevala corriente(Ashrimpthat
fallsasleepis sweptawayby the current)- Quasi-Dubitatives
see Porto Dapena: 1991: 158-60. Still an-
other possible pattern,one not treated in
standardtextbooks,is thatwhich employs dence that mood use afteradverbslike tal
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APPLIED LINGUISTICS99
the singular indefinitearticle. Certainly,
when a definite article is employed (and
exceptingimpliedfuturereference)we can
be sure that all speakers will choose the
indicativeafterthe relative.However,when
an indefinite article is employed, there
seems to be some vacillation.Note that in
English,in contrastwith Spanish,it is very
common to express a general truth state-
ment or even a sayingby beginningwithan
indefinite article (e.g., A man convinced
againsthis will is ofthe same opinionstilO.
From a theoretical viewpoint such sen-
tences in Spanishare problematicin terms
of mood since they deal with hypothetical
entities (normallycalling for the subjunc-
tive) but they convey general truths-
whichwouldimplythe use of the indicative.
Let us examinetwo examples seen on the
1993survey:
(5) Subjunctive: L. 28% / NL. 24%
Un hombre que dice / diga muchas
mentirasno es confiable
'Amanwho tells a lot of lies isn'ttrust-
worthy'
(6) Subjunctive: L. 28% / NL. 34%
Un hombreque nuncadice / diga
mentirasno tiene buen juicio
'Amanwho nevertells lies doesn'thave
good judgement'
While exampleslike 5 and 6 are clearlybi-
ased toward the indicative,they show an
acceptance level for the subjunctive be-
tween 24-34%.The two Spanishvarieties
studiedshow onlya 4-6%differencein their
mix of moods, and these differences be-
tweenthe groupsarenotstatisticallysignifi-
cant. Certainly,a possible explanationfor
subjunctivechoice in the above examples
would be that some participantsread into
them a futurityfeature,the kindthatwould
be explicitly evidenced in sentences like
Quiendigamentirasserdcastigado(Anyone
who tells lies will be punished).
There is alreadypartiallyconflictingevi-
100 HISPANIA78 MARCH1995
vez, quzdz(s),and acaso varies by region.
Woehr (1972) studied literary texts from
both Spain and Latin America finding a
slightly greater use of the subjunctivein
Spainafterquizd(s)anda muchgreateruse
of the subjunctivein Spain after acaso in
comparisonwith his compositeresults for
all of the LatinAmericancountriesstudied.
The same type of comparisonregardingtal
vezshowedno apparentregionaldifference.
Renaldi(1977)studiedonlyLatinAmerican
literarytexts finding a substantiallylower
proportionof subjunctiveused afterbothtal
vez and quizd(s) than had Woehr.5Part of
Renaldi'sresults, however,coincidedwith
Woehr'sin that after acasovery little sub-
junctive was found. Neither researcher
madecomparisonsamongthe severalcoun-
tries studied nor did they isolate their
findingson Mexicanusage.
Herewe willexamineonly talvez,which
in preverb position many textbooks link
ratherstronglywith the subjunctive.Note
that this adverbis consideredhere to be a
"quasi-dubitative" since besides regional
variationit appearsto offerspeakersa mood
choice based upon the degree of uncer-
taintyinvolvedwith respect to a particular
situation.Since in the surveythe examples
are context free, regional preference in
mood selection should be evident in the
findings:
(7) Subjunctive: L. 37% / NL. 55%
Talvez esa gente vive / viva bien
'Perhapsthose people live well'
Despite the spread between the percent-
ages shown for example7 it is not possible
to statisticallyconfirmthat in this case the
MexicanAmericanssurveyedhavea lesser
preference for the subjunctivethan their
neighborsfromNuevoLaredo.Onceagain,
however,there is substantialvariabilitybe-
tween the two moods.
In contrast to adverbs like ta vez, the
syntactic behavior of another "quasi-
dubitative,"probablemente,has received
less analysis and is normallygiven scant
attentionin Spanishtexts. The survey in-
cludedone examplewithprobablemente. An
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examplecontainingthe impersonalexpres-
sion esprobablewas also includedin order
to examinewhatthis writersaw as a poten-
tiallyinterestingpatternof mood use, that
probablemente mightcorrelatemuch more
strongly with the indicativethan would es
probable. Whileprobablemente does not ap-
pear among the examples employed by
Garcia and Terrell, they do show an ex-
amplewith esprobablefollowedby the syn-
theticfuturein the embeddedclause.Their
Juirez teenagers show a 63%acceptanceof
the indicativein such a sentence.6While
Porto Dapena (1991:60)notes that mood
neutralization is optional after probable-
mente, he does not indicate which mood
might be more preferred.Note that both 8
and 9 below show simultaneityratherthan
futurity in the embedded clause. This is
importantbecause futurereference could
be seen to influencethe use of the subjunc-
tive if it were present. Let us examine the
LaredoandNuevoLaredoresultsforthese
two exampleskeepingin mindthatit would
be difficultto applythe GarciaandTerrell
datato this discussion.
(8) Subjunctive: L. 19% / NL. 46%
Probablementelos europeos comen /
coman muchalechuga
'ProbablyEuropeanseat lots of lettuce'
(9) Subjunctive: L. 72% / NL. 84%
Es probableque los europeoscomen /
coman muchalechuga
'It'sprobablethatEuropeanseat lots of
lettuce'
While each group shows greater subjunc-
tive preference (MexicanAmericans 53%
more and Mexicans 38%more) in 9 as op-
posed to 8, the Mexicanparticipantsshow
a 27%greater subjunctivepreferencethan
the Mexican Americans when probable-
mente is involved but only a 12%greater
subjunctive preference when the context
includes es probable que. The difference
between the two groups is statistically sig-
nificant in 8 (as seen in Table II) but not in
9. Since the semantics of 8 and 9 seem to
be the same, it would follow that each of
these items would call for the same particu-
 APPLIED LINGUISTICS101

lar mood.The most logical explanationfor confirmationof moodvariability.However,

the overallgreater subjunctivepreference
in 9 is the presence of the subordinatorque
includedin esfrobableque.Wedo knowthat
the use of queas an indicatorof subordina-
tion is a featurethat almostobligatorilyac-
companiesthe subjunctivemood.This que
is of course not possible after probable-
mente.The fact thatprobablementeby na-
ture has an adverbialfunctionmay lead us
to concludealsothatit is the presenceof the
adverbialsuffix which makes it correlate
best with the indicative;i.e., most adverbs
in -mente(lentamente,desgraciadamente,
etc.) do not have a dubitative or quasi-
dubitativefeature.
Double Embedding
The next two examples contain the
dubitative matrices es imposibleand era
impiosible.As withexamples1-4 we see con-
trasting temporalreference. The key fea-
ture of exampleslike 10 and 11 is thateach
containstwo embeddedverbs.Inthese two
examplesthere would seem no doubtthat
speakerswould choose the subjunctivein
the immediatelylowerverb,but motivated
by occasional observations of native
speakervacillationthis researcherwanted
to see which mood survey participants
would choose for the second embedded
verb.Exampleswithdoubleembeddinglike
10 and 11 are not discussed at all in Terrell
and Hooper'scomprehensive1974 article Shared Knowledge
on Spanishmood.Neitherhas this observor
seen them treatedin textbooks.
(10)Subjunctive: L. 74% / NL. 88%
Es imposible que haya gatos que shared informationbetween speaker and
vuelan / vuelen.
'It'simpossiblethatthere are cats that DeMello (1974) with the proviso that the
fly'
(11)Subjunctive: L. 73% / NL. 89%
Era imposible que hubieragatos que Hooper (1974) employ elkecho de que as a
volaban / volaran
'Itwas impossiblethatthere were cats favor the subjunctive. While Guitart's 1982
thatflew'
For these examples, and especially in the
case of the Laredo participants,there is
there is no indicationthattense form (tem-
poralreference)playsa part.Note thatthe
NuevoLaredoparticipantsagainchose the
subjunctivemore oftenthantheir Mexican
Americancounterparts.As shownin Table
II the difference is statisticallysignificant
for both examples. From a theoretical
standpoint,such examplespresent a prob-
lem. Whatmatrixdeterminesthe mood of
the most deeplyembeddedverb volaRLle6
(1979:50-53)discusses the issue of "sub-
junctive-extension"where after an initial
comment or negated assertion matrixthe
subjunctiveappearingin the immediately
lowerverbmayoptionallytravelon downto
lower clauses. However,she gives no ex-
ampleswith dubitativematriceslike those
in 10 and 11. Since, intuitively, the cats
talked about are hypothetical,we are not
surprisedby the subjunctivehere. One ar-
gument might be that 10 is simplyan em-
phaticparaphraseof nohaygatosquevuelex.
On the other hand, if the mood of each
embedded verb were determined by the
immediatelyhighermatrix,we couldimag-
ine gatos que vuelan dominatedby haber
which asserts something as true. This
couldexplainthe choices madeby manyof
the Laredo subjects and a few Nuevo
Laredosubjects. Evidently,this issue has
not been resolvedin the minds of all Span-
ish speakers.
In the case of elkechode queit has been
saidthatthe subjunctivemaybe usualwhen
the "fact"being mentioned is already
listener.This is essentiallywhat is said by
factreferredto is alsothe premiseon which
a conclusion is based. In fact, Terrell and
test for presupposed complements which
study involving Cubans, Venezuelans and
Mexican Americans did not really support
this shared information rule, he himself
suggests that the form of the test item (his

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102 HISPANIA78 MARCH1995
el hechode que clause follows the matrix)
maybe the reasonwhy.In this regardButt
and Benjamin (1988) indicate that the
phrase in question is normallyused with
statements of influence and reaction and
withvaluejudgements,especiallyif used at
the head of the sentence. However,they
also indicatethatthere arenumerouscases
where the mood of the verb introducedby
elkechode queseems to involvestylisticfac-
tors.7
(12)Subjunctive: L. 54% / NL. 84%
El hecho de que el mundo es / sea
redondoes significativo
The factthatthe worldis roundis sig-
nificant'
If there is a rule based upon sharedknowl-
edge, the Mexican speakers appearto fol-
low it more than their Laredo neighbors
since they chose the subjunctive84%of the
time compared to 54%of the time by the
Laredosubjects.This differenceis statisti-
cally significant(see Table II). Also, while
mood preferencesdiffer,the compositere-
sultsforthe two groupssurveyed (66%sub-
junctive preference) clearly indicate vari-
able rules.
The same type of rule thatwe have men-
tioned with respect to elhecho de que sen-
tences has been used to explain present
subjunctiveuse with no future reference
after aunque. Note that auzque involves
certain additionalfeatures. For example,
when used in the context of future refer-
ence the subjunctivewould not be unex-
pected at all. However,when referringto a
non-futurefact (not necessarilyan obvious
fact like the propositionthat the world is
round)auzqueshouldlogicallybe followed
by the indicative(see forexampleEspinosa
andWonder,1976:117). Quite often, how-
ever, aunque, in factive situations, is fol-
lowed by the subjunctive. Explanations
vary;for example,it has been said thatthe
subjunctivemaybe employedif the speaker
sees the particular truth with emotion
(Postonet al., 1967)orwhenthe concessive
clause refersto a factualsituationin spiteof
whichan event will occur or has occurred
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All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
(SoldandSole, 1977).Morerelevantto the
previousdiscussion (involvingel hechode
que), however,is the kind of optionalrule
stated by Porto Dapena (1991) who indi-
cates that afteraunqueeither indicativeor
subjunctivemay be used when the subor-
dinateclause expresses a fact which is not
new informationfor the listener.Note that,
in essence, this says that when there is
sharedinformationthe subjunctiveis a pos-
sibility.Ifa given set of speakersfollowsthe
strongersharedknowledgerulefor elkecho
de queand the optionalshared knowledge
rule with regard to aunque, the results
should show (given the same context) a
greaterchoice of subjunctiveafterelkecho
de quethanafterauzque.Withthis in mind
the surveycontainedan additionalexample
with the same essential presupposedfact
(thatthe worldis round)whichwe have al-
ready seen in example 12. Note that ex-
ample 13 below does show a pronounced
drop in subjunctivepreference (as com-
pared to 12) with regard to the Mexican
participants but not with respect to the
MexicanAmericans.While this majordif-
ference in preference between 12 and 13
(84%vs. 48%)pertainsto the Mexicansub-
jects, there is onlya very slightdropforthe
MexicanAmericans.The result is that the
two groupsconvergeratherclosely in their
mood preferenceswith referenceto 13 but
diverge rather widely with respect to 12
(see TableIIwhichshows a statisticallysig-
nificantp value only for 12).
(13)Subjunctive: L. 47% / NL. 48%
Aunque el mundo es / sea redondo
parece ser plano
'Althoughthe worldis roundit seems
flat'
In effect, example 13 indicates a strong
amountof rule variabilityon both sides of
the border.The Nuevo Laredoresults do
favorthe hypothesis of a stronger shared
informationrulefor 12 anda weakerrule-
perhapsan optionalone-for 13. Because
it is so clear,though,thatexample 12treats
shared information,the 54%Laredoselec-
tion of subjunctivewith elhechode quedoes
 APPLIED LINGUISTICS103

seem quite low, indicatingthat among the centage of subjunctive chosen for both
MexicanAmericanssuch a sharedinforma- these examples (80%for all survey partici-
tion rule may be strictlyoptional. pants) is the highest of any of the 13 items
examined.
Conclusions Our Laredo / Nuevo Laredo data also
suggest that:(1) Certainsentences withan
This study has examined items which explicit adverbof habituality(siempre)do
areratherproblematicwithrespectto mood notnecessarilycorrelatewithindicativeuse
use. Firstly, the evidence shows that on in the subordinateverb (compositesubjunc-
both sides of the Texas / Mexico border tive percentages are 30%and 19%respec-
there is variabilityin mooduse withrespect tivelyfor examples 1 and 2); (2) The types
to the items in question.Forexample,com- of generaltruth sentences examinedshow
posite percentages for the proportion of the indicativeto be chosen three times as
subjunctivechosen by all survey partici- often as the subjunctive;this of course in-
pants show the followingfor each item: 1) dicates a great amountof tolerancefor the
30%,2) 19%,3) 40%,4) 14%,5) 26%,6) 30%, subjunctive.It was with respect to these
7) 45%,8) 28%,9) 77%,10) 80%,11) 80%,12) examplesthatbothbordercities cameclos-
66%and 13) 47%.Also, through statistical est in moodselection--differencesbetween
analysiswe have shown that the Mexican the groups vary from only four to six per-
subjects tended to choose the subjunctive centage points in examples 5 and 6; (3)
more often than their Mexican American When comparedwith previoustext-based
counterparts(see TableI), andthatfor five data,talvezcontinuesto showconsiderable
of the 13 items examinedthe Mexicansub- mood variabilityas shown by example 7
jects chose a significantlyhigherproportion with a compositefigure of 45%subjunctive
of subjunctivethanthe MexicanAmericans; chosen; (4) The adverb con-
probablemente
these were items 1, 8, 10, 11 and 12 (which trasts sharplywith esprobablequein terms
are starredin TableII).Forthese fivecases of moodcorrelations,the latterfavoringthe
we find different results in terms of how subjunctive(with a composite subjunctive
each groupmightrelateto normativerules. figure of 77%o), the formerfavoringthe in-
For instance, for example 1 (entailingthe dicative (with a composite subjunctive
habitualityfeature)the MexicanAmericans figure of 28%).As alreadynoted,the Mexi-
were statisticallycloserto pedagogicalcues can subjectsshowed a greater subjunctive
since they preferred the indicative more preference than the Mexican Americans
often than their cross border neighbors. with respect to the examplewithfrobable-
However,for 12,containingelkeckode que, mente; (5) The two examples of double
it was the Mexicans who more often fol- embeddinggoverned by a dubitativemain
lowed the normative rule since a signifi- verb show a strongpreferencefor the sub-
cantlygreaterpercentageofthemchose the junctive(a compositeproportionof 80%for
subjunctive.With respect to example 8, a both example10and 11)buta considerable
sentence with rather undefined mood toleranceon the partof Laredoparticipants
norms,we founda greatertendencyon the for the use of the indicativein the lowest
partof the Mexicansto choose the subjunc- verb (showing Laredoproportionsof 74%
tive afterprobablemente. Even so, the pro- and 73%subjunctivefor 10 and 11 respec-
of
portion subjunctive chosen here by the tively);lastly (6) The lesser correlationof
Nuevo Laredosubjectswas still only 46%. aunque with the subjunctivewhen com-
With respect to items 10 and 11,which are pared to el kecho de que seems to make
also ambiguous as to formalvs. informal sense based upon the hypothesis that a
norms, the Mexicans showed a much sharedknowledgeruleis indeedoptionalin
greaterpreferenceforthe subjunctivein the the case of aunque.This conclusionis logi-
lowest embeddedverb for these two cases cal with respect to Mexican participants
of double embedding.The compositeper- (who chose 84%subjunctiveafter elkhecho

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All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
104 HISPANIA78 MARCH1995
dequevs. 48%subjunctiveafteraunque)but Butt,JohnandCarmenBenjamin.1988.A NewRefer-
not clear with respect to the Mexican ence Grammarof ModernSpanish.London:Ed-
wardArnold.
Americanssurveyed. De la Puente-Schubeck,Elsa. 1991. "Laperdidadel
I NOTES
'My special thanks go to ProfessorFrankSharp
(formerlyof LaredoState University)for helping to
make this 1993surveypossible andto ProfessorRay
Elliottof the Universityof Texas at Arlingtonfor his
help in the statisticalanalysisof the data
2Pastsurvey experience had alreadytaught this
investigatorthat humannatureinhibitsmost people
fromusing the libertyof choosing both of the items
they are asked to discriminatebetween. In the very
few cases where both choices were circledor where
both were inadvertentlyskipped these items were
excluded from survey results. The "df' figures in
Table II indicatethese factors.
3Becauseof these conflictinginitialresults,no fur-
ther statistical tests were performed on these ex-
amplesin orderto linkmoodandtemporalreference.
4Blake,1985foundcontrastsamongdifferentlexi-
cal items withinthe same generalsyntactic-semantic
verbmatrixcategoriesin the waytheycorrelatedwith
the subjunctive;for example,forhis Mexicanuniver-
sity studentsno es seguro,dudarandno es ciertocor-
related with the subjunctiverather inconsistently
showing percentages of 89%,72%,and 46%respec-
tively.
'For his LatinAmerican sample Woehr (1972)
found 60%of the tal vezexamplesto be followedby
the subjunctive.Incontrast,Renaldi(1977)foundonly
38%in his sample.
6GarciaandTerrell'sEl Paso / Juarezsurveypar-
ticipantsaccepted or rejected sentences containing
onlyindicativeverbs,andotherscontainingonlysub-
junctiveverbs;they didnotchoose betweenindicative
and subjunctiveverb forms.GarciaandTerrellused
still other kinds of elicitationdevices for other sub-
jects.
7Krakusinand Cedefio (1992)and Lipski(1978)
providemore informationon this topic.
* WORKS CITED
Blake, Robert. 1985. "FromResearch to the Class-
room: Notes on the Subjunctive."Hisfania 68:
166-73.
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