Tense Aspect in Verbal Morphology

Author(s): Rafael Salaberry

Source: Hispania, Vol. 86, No. 3 (Sep., 2003), pp. 559-573
Published by: American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20062909
Accessed: 17-11-2015 12:22 UTC

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/
info/about/policies/terms.jsp

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content
in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship.
For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend
access to Hispania.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 193.61.135.112 on Tue, 17 Nov 2015 12:22:11 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 Applied Linguistics
Prepared by Joseph Collentine

Tense Aspect in Verbal Morphology

Rafael Salaberry
Rice University

Abstract: Several studies have analyzed the development of verbal morphology in second language acquisition with
reference to lexical aspectual clauses. For instance, Andersen (1986, 1991) argues that the use of inflectional endings in
past-tense Spanish (i.e., Preterit and Imperfect) will be associated with the lexical aspectual value of the verb phrase.
Alternatively, learners may initially rely on a default marker of past tense (e.g., Preterit). In the present study I analyzed
the development of past tense verbal morphology in L2 acquisition among LI English speakers (105 college students)
divided into three levels of proficiency. The analysis was based on two multiple-choice tasks utilizing two different texts
of similar lengths. The analysis shows that learners may use a default marker of past tense (preterit or imperfect) during
the beginning stages of development of verbal morphology, but the choice of the default option may be dependent on the
type of text (personal or fictional).

Key Words: Acquisition, lexical aspect, tense, inflectional morphology, Preterit, Imperfect, discourse

1.0 Introduction

The use of verbal morphology by second language learners may be indicative of develop
mental stages of acquisition. For instance, Andersen and Shirai (1994) argued that the
lexical aspectual values of verbal endings is associated with specific stages of
development of past tense verbal morphology across languages (see also Andersen, 1986; Shirai
and Kurono, 1998). Accordingly, a substantial amount of research has now been gathered about
the use of past tense verbal morphology in a variety of languages (e.g., Andersen, 1986; Bardovi
Harlig, 1995,2000; Bardovi-Harlig and Bergstrom, 1996;Hasb?n, 1995;Liskin-Gasparro, 1996,
2000; Slabakova and Montrul; Robison, 1990; Salaberry, 1998, 1999, 2000a; Salaberry and
Shirai, 2002; Shirai and Kurono, 1998). The present study analyzes data from Spanish L2
acquisition to investigate the possible effect of text type (operationalization of personal versus
fictional narratives) on the use of past tense markers. The paper is organized as follows: Section
2 presents a brief overview of the Spanish verbal system to mark past tense aspect; Section 3
provides a summary of the most relevant studies on the development of past tense verbal
morphology; Section 4 presents the research methodology; Finally, sections 5 and 6 describe the
findings and offer possible interpretations of the outcome of the present study, and evaluate
potential lines of inquiry that could be developed in future empirical studies.

2.0 Tense and Aspect in Verbal Morphology

Both preterite and imperfect verbal endings in Spanish signal past tense. The choice between
them is determined by an aspectual contrast: perfective or imperfective respectively. For instance,
sentences (la) and (lb) present an aspectual contrast of the same situation. The different choice
of verbal ending reflects the speaker's perspective about the relevant way to describe the event.

(la) El hombre fue a un restaurante.

The man went-PRET to a restaurant
(lb)El hombre iba a un restaurante.
The man went-IMP (was going) to a restaurant

Salaberry, Rafael
"Tense Aspect in Verbal Morphology"
Hispania 86.3 (2003): 559-573

This content downloaded from 193.61.135.112 on Tue, 17 Nov 2015 12:22:11 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
560 H?spanla 86 September 2003
Comrie defines aspect as the "way of viewing the internal temporal constituency of a situation"
(1976: 5). Thus, aspect is concerned with situation-internal time, whereas tense is relative to
situation-external time. Not only situations can be defined in terms of aspect, but verb phrases also
may convey certain aspectual properties. Vendler (1967) classified verb phrases into four classes:
states be, have, activities teach, run, paint), run a mile,
(e.g., love), (e.g., accomplishments (e.g.,

paint a house, build a bridge), and achievements (e.g., reach the peak, break a stick, notice
something). The following theoretical definitions of the lexical aspectual classes exemplified
above take into account some modifications introduced by Comrie (1976): States have no input
of energy, activities have arbitrary beginning and end points (atelic), accomplishments are
durative but possess an inherent end point (telic), and, finally, achievements have an inherent end
point, but have no duration (punctual).

2.1 Inflectional Morphology and Narrative Discourse

It is important to differentiate the aspect of a sentence from the temporal schema of a situation:
lexical aspect does not determine grammatical aspect (cf., Smith, 1991). Silva-Corval?n (1983)
claims that in a normal narrative text there exists a partial correspondence between the temporal
order of the reported events and the order of presentation of those events (Labov, 1972). In the
following example from Silva-Corval?n, however, the series of events did not necessarily occur
in sequential order (in fact, it is likely that they all overlapped or they occurred repeatedly in
rums):

A: ?Y c?mo lo pasaste en la fiesta?

So how was (PRET) theparty?
B: Estupendo. Bail?, cant? y com? montones
Great. I danced (PRET), sang (PRET) and ate (PRET) a lot

Notice, however, that if we try to replace the preterit with the imperfect the result is ungram
matical. This is true in spite of the fact that the notion of coexistence has been postulated as one
of the defining features of the imperfect (e.g., Guitart, 1978).1

A: ?Y c?mo lo pasaste en la fiesta?

*
B: Estupendo. Bailaba, cantaba y com?a montones

Silva-Corval?n argues that verbal forms in isolation (cf., aspectual morphology) do not have
specific meanings, but rather general referential meaning that becomes specific in accordance
with the type of speech event inwhich they are embedded. For instance, the structure of a narrative
may be composed of the following elements: abstract, orientation, complicating action, evalua
tion, resolution and coda (Labov 1972). Silva-Corval?n claims that the distribution of aspectual
markers will vary from section to section of the narrative: the distribution of the perfective is
higher in the abstract, the complicating action, and the resolution and coda. In contrast, the
orientation and evaluation sections show higher use of the imperfective (235-41). For instance,
in Silva-Corval?n's data, the imperfect appears in 70% of the clauses of the orientation section.
The functional use of the imperfect in the orientation section corresponds to the notion of back
ground (Hopper 1982). In such a context, Silva-Corval?n claims that "the imperfect frequently
conveys the meaning of coexistence with narrative events rather than that of repeated habitual
actions" (240). Moreover, Vet and Vetters (1994: 1) claim that the meaning of tense and aspect
forms "strongly depends on contextual factors and probably on the type of text as well." Similarly,
Hopper (1982: 16) argues that the nature of aspectual distinctions in languages like Spanish
cannot be characterized by semantics in a consistent way; the adequate reference may only come
from a global discourse function. The above-mentioned discussion justifies Bardovi-Harlig's
(1998) claim that text-type should be "as important a variable as task-type" for the analysis of

This content downloaded from 193.61.135.112 on Tue, 17 Nov 2015 12:22:11 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 Tense Aspect inVerbal Morphology 561
inflectional morphology in L2 acquisition studies.
In general, narrative texts can be divided into two types: fictional and personal narratives (or
impersonal and personal narratives). Noyau (1990) claims that personal narratives?unlike
impersonal narratives?allow for a departure from the chiefly chronological series of events
typical of the movie narratives that have been used by most previous studies of L2 acquisition.2
Furthermore, Tomlin (1984) claims that non-native speakers will normally incorporate few
narrative details to the basic story line of a fictional narrative. Thus, it appears that fictional or
impersonal narratives should be considered of limited significance to generalize findings from
studies based on one type of narrative only. Indeed, Blyth (1997) argues that non-native speakers
must leam to pay attention to foreground/background contrasts in narratives. Pedagogically
speaking, Blyth entertains the hypothesis that first-person narratives, more so than traditional
(impersonal) cloze-type tests, give learners the opportunity to bypass the tendency to follow the
lexical aspect hypothesis. That is, it is possible that text type (e.g., fictional versus personal) has
an overall effect in the selection of verbal morphological endings. For instance, for any given verb
type (e.g., a stative) a second-language learnermay be prone tomark itwith the preterit in amovie
narrative, but with the imperfect in a personal narrative. In sum, the type of discourse structure
may have a significant effect on the use of past tense markers.

3. The Selection and Use of Verbal Morphology among L2 Learners

The most recent research on the development of past tense verbal morphology in second
language acquisition follows the pioneering work of Andersen (1986, 1991), Bardovi-Harlig
(1992, 1995), Robison (1990), and Shirai (1991), among others. Among the above-mentioned
studies, the role of lexical aspect has become prominent. In effect, even though the effect of the
lexical aspectual classes of verbal morphology has been investigated from several perspectives?
including more encompassing perspectives that also take into account discursive factors and input
biases?the basic claim that underlies such proposals is embodied in the lexical aspect
hypothesis. This hypothesis claims that the learners' selection of verbal morphology will be
associated with the inherent lexical semantics of the verb phrase. Andersen and Shirai (1994,
1996) claim that the hypothesis is composed of four basic tenets:

1. Learners use perfective past marking (e.g., preterit) first on telic events, and they later
extend its use to verbs from other lexical aspectual classes
2. The imperfective marker (e.g., imperfect) will appear later than the preterite in associa
tion with atelic events (states and activities), eventually extending to telic events
3. The use of the periphrastic progressive will initially appear in association with activity
verbs and then extend to telic events
4. The use of the periphrastic progressive will not overextend to stative verbs

The last principle represents, in essence, an extension of principle (3). Furthermore, principle (4)
is adduced to be operative in LI acquisition only (Shirai and Kurono 1998).3 Several studies
subsequent to Andersen (1986, 1991) have provided either direct or indirect evidence to
substantiate the effect of the inherent lexical aspectual value of the verb on the development of
past tense verbal morphology (e.g., Andersen and Shirai 1994,1996; Bardovi-Harlig 1992,1995;
Bardovi-Harlig and Bergstr?m 1996; Bardovi-Harlig and Reynolds, 1995; Robison 1990,1995).
Due to conflicting empirical findings, however, there have been proposals for some modifications
of the basic claim of the hypothesis (Wiberg 1996; Salaberry 2000b).
Among recent studies, Lubbers-Quesada (1999) analyzed written personal narratives from
32 university students after they had spent one month and a half in a language immersion program
inMexico (plus another year of previous study in a classroom environment). The analysis showed
that the preterit surpassed the use of the imperfect in a proportion of 3 to 1 (cf., Hasb?n 1995;
Salaberry 2000b). More importantly, the use of the imperfect in association with achievements

This content downloaded from 193.61.135.112 on Tue, 17 Nov 2015 12:22:11 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
562 H?spanla 86 September 2003
(non-prototypical) occurred only six times (out of 589 possible occasions), but the use of the im
perfect with statives (the other end of the spectrum of non-prototypical marking of verbal endings)
was in competition with the use of the preterit. In another study, Salaberry (1999) analyzed oral
narratives at two different times (two months apart) from sixteen students from four different
levels of proficiency. His results revealed that the learners at the lowest proficiency level never
used the imperfect (even after having received explicit instruction and practice on its use).
Moreover, the data showed that the effect of lexical aspectual classes increased constantly as a
function of proficiency and experience with the language. Salaberry proposed that LI English
speakers might be using the Spanish preterit as a default marker of past tense across lexical
aspectual classes in L2 Spanish (although his claim is to be restricted to data from classroom
learners only). This may happen if the Spanish preterit were to be equated with the prototype of
simple past tense in English (i.e., transfer). That is, the learner may rely on the One to One
Principle (Andersen 1989) and use the preterit to convey past tense reference with verb phrases
of all lexical aspectual classes. In contrast, the imperfect may be used for atemporal functions
such asmaking excuses (for LI acquisition see Antinucci andMiller, 1976; for L2 acquisition see
Schmidt and Frota, 1986). Additionally, the learner may rely on the use of imperfect to mark
temporality in association with particular lexical items (lexical learning).
Liskin-Gasparro (2000) analyzed both personal and movie narratives from eight fairly
advanced students of Spanish. In addition, she interviewed them right after they produced their
narratives and asked them to explain various selections of verbal morphology (recall protocols).
Her analysis shows the effect of various factors on the selection of past-tense verbal endings:
lexical aspect, narrative task (text type), previous academic instruction and the role of the narrator
as a raconteur. Interestingly, the influence of lexical semantics in the selection of verbal
morphology for some of these advanced students appears to be categorical. Liskin-Gasparro
mentions the case of Jason's "default settings": "for state verbs?he opted for the imperfect"
(836) and Rick's "safety things": "certain verbs are always to be encoded in the imperfect, and
others in the preterit" (837).4 Furthermore, the accuracy rates in the selection of preterit and
imperfect (her Table 5) reveals that some learners may have been using a default marker of past
tense. In effect, two of the eight learners (Gregg and Kate) were significantly more prone to use
preterit rather than imperfect in the fictional narratives (but markedly less so in the personal
narrative). More specifically, these two learners showed the highest spread of accuracy rates
between preterit and imperfect: 0.58 and 0.41 (on a scale of 0 to 1) in fictional and personal
narratives respectively. In other words, whenever the use of preterit was obligatory these two
learners were prone to supply that ending (0.79 and 1.00 respectively), but much less sowhen the
obligatory marker was the imperfect (0.21 and 0.59 respectively). The degree of discrepancy in
accuracy between preterite and imperfect marking for the other six learners fluctuated between
0.00 and 0.08. The study conducted by Liskin-Gasparro with the use of retrospective protocols
from learners provides a number of interesting leads.

4.0 Present Study: Hypotheses and Research Design

The present study represents a quantitative investigation of the effects of text type and lexical
aspectual class on the use of past tense inflectional morphology in L2 Spanish. The null hypothe
sis states that the selection of past tense morphological marking in L2 Spanish among adult
tutored learners (LI English) is independent of the effect of inherent lexical aspectual value of
verbal predicates across different levels of experience with the L2. The analysis will focus on two
different narrative environments operationally defined as text types: a text based on a personal
narrative and another one based on a fictional narrative (movie recounting).
From a strictly research-design perspective, the use of fictional narratives has several
advantages over personal narratives. In fictional narratives the researcher selects the content of
the narrative to be recounted, thereby controlling the types of events to be included in the chosen
excerpt. Moreover, because the researcher already knows the story, the latter can identify what

This content downloaded from 193.61.135.112 on Tue, 17 Nov 2015 12:22:11 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 Tense Aspect in VerbalMorphology 563
was left out from the story (it is likely that students with limited control of the target language will
be selective in the descriptions of a story). Furthermore, the collection of several narratives based
on a fixed story allows for the creation of a large database on any given item identified in the story
(i.e., verb type and token). Finally, the collection of more data for any given item allows for the
use of more powerful statistics. Considering that the advantages of fiction-based narratives
become inherent limitations for the analysis of data from personal narratives, it is possible to look
for amixed approach thatwill provide a distinction between any two given narratives according
to the variable text type, at the same time that the researcher maintains some control over the
choice of verb types and tokens. One possible way to accomplish this research objective is to use
a sample passage from each type of narrative (i.e., fictional and personal) and use a multiple
choice test. Keeping inmind potential limitations of validity inherent to highly-controlled studies
in general, this type of research design can help us gather important conclusions.

Subjects

The participants in the study were 105 college-level adult native speakers of English enrolled
in Spanish language courses in aMidwest public university in theU.S. The students were divided
into three groups according to course placement: second quarter (n=33), fourth quarter (n=37)
and sixth quarter (n=35). All students are normally placed according to successful completion of
the immediately previous course in the sequence or through a placement exam if coming from
outside the university. Additionally, instructors make necessary adjustments during the first week
of classes to compensate for potential strengths or weaknesses not taken into account by regular
course grades or placement tests. Even though this is an indirect way of defining proficiency
levels, it is reasonable to assume that the spacing of two course levels between any two given
groups of learners provides enough discrimination among levels of proficiency. All students from
any given group were tested during regular class hours and were given the option of doing other
classroom assignments if they did not want to participate in the study (but no student declined).
There was also a baseline group composed of near-native and native speakers of Spanish (n=10
and n=9 respectively). The near-native speakers were graduate students in Spanish. The latter two
groups provided baseline data to compare the performance of themain group of subjects. Table
1 presents a summary of the academic experience of the main group of L2 Spanish students.

Table 1
Summary of Academic Background from Each Group of Students

HS College Study Self-rate

2nd quarter (n=33) 1.84 1.80 4.5 2.41

4th quarter (n=37) 2.49 3.20 4.0 3.00

6th quarter (n=35) 2.53 4.13 4.0 3.31

HS: Years of reported study of Spanish inHigh School

College: Semesters of Spanish study in College
Study: Reported number of hours that students spent studying Spanish preparing for class
Self-rate: Reported proficiency level on a scale of 1 (lowest) to 5 (highest)

This content downloaded from 193.61.135.112 on Tue, 17 Nov 2015 12:22:11 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 564 H?spanla 86 September 2003
Students in all groups appear to dedicate a similar amount of time to the study of Spanish.
Additionally, it seems that the more exposure that students have to Spanish through academic
instruction, the more confident they are in their linguistic abilities. This serves to confirm the
above-mentioned assumption about the potential correlation between (perceived) level of
proficiency and course placement.

Materials and Procedure

All participants had to complete two multiple-choice tasks based on two different texts of
similar lengths (177 and 147 words including the choices provided for each verb). The sequence
of presentation of both texts was counterbalanced across sections to avoid extraneous effects on
the analysis of the selected independent variables. The participants were asked to select one
option, among four choices, for specific verbs (present, preterit, imperfect, and infinitive). The
first text had 26 items and was based on a fictional narrative from an original student account from
the study carried out by Salaberry (1999; see Appendix A). The student's narrative was slightly
edited tomake it similar in length and difficulty of vocabulary to the second narrative text. To
provide students with a better understanding of the chronology of the events that make up the
fictional story, and tomake it comparable to similar data collected in previous studies, themovie
excerpt was shown once (the length of the excerpt is 5 minutes and 20 seconds). Afterwards,
students were asked to read the text that recounted the story they had just seen and choose among
four different options for the 26 selected verbs (17 corresponded to the category of telic events,
4 to the category of atelic events and 5 to the category of statives). The students were provided
with a time limit of 6 minutes to complete the task (an average of 23 seconds to complete each
item). The coefficient of reliability of the test was very high (Cronbach's alpha: 0.996). The
second text was based on an original student personal narrative from the study carried out by
Liskin-Gasparro (2000; see Appendix B). The original personal narrative was also slightly edited
tomake it similar in length and difficulty of vocabulary to themovie narrative. The proportion of
verb types used in the student's narrative was by and large maintained except for some indirect
changes caused by the elimination of long sentences that did not addmuch content to the story (see
Bardovi-Harlig 1992 for a similar procedure to edit a student-written text). The second text
contained 22 items with four choices each (8 corresponded to the category of telic events, 5 to the
category of atelic events, and 9 to the category statives). It should be pointed out that the
differences in distribution of lexical aspectual classes across texts reflect inherent differences in
text types that determine the nature of the operationalized independent variable (see Blyth 1997;
Liskin-Gasparro 1996, 2000). The students were provided with a time limit of 5 minutes to
complete the second task (an average of 22 seconds per item). As with the first test, the coefficient
of reliability of the test was very high (Cronbach's alpha: 0.992). It is important to point out that
the text types labeled fictional and personal were operationalized in the form of the narratives
described above. In other words, the differences in, for instance, number of telic types of verbs
across narratives is actually one of the operational distinctions that served to distinguish these two
text types. The potential limitations of the methodological procedure selected for this study are
discussed in the discussion section.

Coding Criteria

The selected dependent variable for the analysis of data was represented by the verbal morph
ological endings chosen by the students among the four options provided in the text. Four
categories were considered: present, preterit, imperfect, infinitive. Three categories were con
sidered for the variable represented by verb type according to lexical aspectual value: statives,
atelic events (i.e., activities), and telic events (i.e., accomplishments and achievements). Fol
lowing the rationale presented in previous theoretical and empirical studies (e.g., Dowty 1986,
Klein 1994; Salaberry 2000b), telic events were not sub-classified into punctual and non-punctual

This content downloaded from 193.61.135.112 on Tue, 17 Nov 2015 12:22:11 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 Tense Aspect in Verbal Morphology 565

events (accomplishments and achievements).5 The classification of each verb in terms of inherent
semantic aspect was done by the researcher in accordance with two major criteria: felicity and
stativity. Two operational tests were used to distinguish lexical aspectual classes: The test of
stativity distinguished stative versus non-stative verbs (If the verb cannot have a habitual inter
pretation it is a stative verb), and the test of felicity, or entailment test, distinguished telic versus
atelic verbs (Ify ou stop in themiddle ofV-ing have you done the act ofV?). These two operational
tests are widely used in experimental studies (e.g., Dowty 1979; Hasbun 1995; Shirai 1991) due
to their relatively robust results compared to similar tests.

5. Data Analysis

A grand total of 5,928 tokens were analyzed for the present study. The analysis from the
native and near-native speakers was based on a total of 418 and 494 tokens respectively.

Test based on thefictional narrative. A summary of the descriptive data from the text based
on the fictional narrative is presented inTable 2. The data were computed in terms of percentages
of use of each specific verbal ending within each lexical aspectual class. Near-native and native
speakers used only past tense verbal endings.6

Table 2
Percentage of use of verbal endings in the fictional narrative

Verb type Group Preterite Imperfect Present Infinitive Total % Tokens

States 2nd quarter 50.3 30.3 14.3 1.6 96.5

165

4th quarter 37.7 31.3 27.6 0.6 97.2

185

6th quarter 42.3 48.0 8.0 0.6 98.9

175

Near-natives 62.2 37.8 0 100 0 50

Natives 62.0 38.0 0 1000 45

Atelic events 2nd quarter 65.9 24.0 5.7 4.1 13299.7

4th quarter 51.4 25.7 19.4 1.8 98.2

148

6th quarter 68.2 27.1 3.9 0.4 99.6

140

Near-natives 72.3 27.8 0 100 0 40

_Natives_5^0_45.0 0_0 100_36_

Telic events 2nd quarter 67.0 21.2 7.4 3.2 561
98.8

4th quarter 55.3 20.4 20.6 2.5 98.8

629

6th quarter 83.8 10.1 4.5 0.8 695

99.2

Near-natives 94.7 5.9 00 100 170

Natives 94.0 6.0 0 153 100

This content downloaded from 193.61.135.112 on Tue, 17 Nov 2015 12:22:11 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
566 H?spanla 86 September 2003
The analysis of the data from themultiple-choice test based on the fictional narrative revealed two
main findings. First, for all groups of non-native speakers of Spanish, the use of the preterit is
highest with telic events and lowest with the category statives. In contrast, the use of the imperfect
is highest with statives and lowest with telic events. For instance, Table 2 shows that learners from
the 2nd quarter course level selected the preterite 50.3%, 65.9% and 67% of the time for statives,
atelic events and telic events respectively. In contrast, the same learners selected the imperfect
30.3%, 24% and 21.2% of the time for statives, atelic events and telic events respectively. The
data from the native speakers conform to the above-mentioned generalization, except that the
lowest use of the imperfect occurred with atelic events instead of statives. At first, this finding
provides evidence to support the basic claim of the lexical aspect hypothesis. The statistical analy
sis of these data, however, reveals that the effect of the independent variable "lexical aspectual
class" was not significant for the selection of either preterit or imperfect (see Table 3).We should,
however, consider the possibility that the above-mentioned trend (Table 2) will not be strong
enough if one of the values of the dependent variable (i.e., preterit and imperfect) were to be
relatively high across all lexical aspectual classes. Indeed, a careful review of the descriptive data
shown in Table 2 confirms that the use of preterit was relatively high across all lexical aspectual
classes (whereas the use of imperfect was low across all verb types). This is an important finding
because, according to the lexical aspect hypothesis, the use of the imperfect is expected to be
higher than the use of the preterit with statives?especially so at the beginning stages of
acquisition. Notice, however, that, from the lowest to the highest level of proficiency, the preterite
was used 50.3%, 37.7%, 42.3%, 62.2% and 62% with the category statives. This stands in contrast
with a consistently low use of the imperfect within the same category (i.e., statives): from the
lowest to the highest level of proficiency 30.3%, 31.3%, 48%, 37.8% and 38% (the only exception
are
sixth-quarter students).

Table 3
Results of ANO VA test of statistical significance
(Test based on fictional narrative)

SSSource DF MS F-ratio p-value

Dep. variable: Preterite

lexical aspect 13.475 2 6.737 1.546 0.217

L2 proficiency 236.405 4 59.101 13.565 0.001*

interaction 195.600 8 24.450 5.612 0.001*

error 501.045 115 4.357

Dep. variable: Imperfect

lexical aspect 8.333 2 4.166 1.000 0.371

L2 proficiency 469.856 4 117.464 28.182 0.001*

interaction 177.802 8 22.225 5.332 0.001*

error 479.328 115 4.168

This content downloaded from 193.61.135.112 on Tue, 17 Nov 2015 12:22:11 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 Tense Aspect in Verbal Morphology 567

Turning now to the analysis of the effect of the independent variable defined by level of
proficiency in the same data, we discover that there was a statistically significant difference in the
selection of verbal endings across levels of proficiency. This stands in contrast with the non
significant effect of the variable "lexical aspect." In essence, near-native and native speakers?
and to some extent themore advanced students enrolled in the sixth semester?categorically used
past tense markers (i.e., preterit or imperfect), whereas learners at beginning stages of acquisition
wavered between using past-tense markers and other verbal endings. This difference across levels
of proficiency appears to be responsible for the significant effect of level of proficiency in the
selection of verbal endings.

Test based on the personal narrative

The analysis of the data from the multiple-choice test based on the personal narrative text
(Table 4) appears in principle to contradict the analysis of the data of the fiction-based narrative
reviewed above.

Table 4
Percentage of use of verbal endings in the personal narrative

Verb type Group Preterite Imperfect Present Infinitive Total % Tokens

States 2nd quarter 21.2 46.1 10.8 4.0 83.2

267

4th quarter 31.7 52.7 14.0 1.2 99.6 333

6th quarter 40.3 53.3 6.4 0 301

100

Near-natives 22.2 77.8 0 0 90

100

_Natives_26j0_74.0 0_0 100_8j_

Atelic events 2nd quarter 29.1 46.1 6.7 2.4 84.2
165

4th quarter 37.8 39.3 20.7 0.7 98.5 185

6th quarter 61.0 32.0 5.7 1.2 100

175

Near-natives 40.0 60.0 0 0 100

50

Natives 46.0 54.0 0 0 100

45

Telic events 2nd quarter 31.4 41.7 9.1 1.9 84.1

264

4th quarter 42.6 41.7 13.4 0.9 98.6 296

6th quarter 70.4 26.4 2.2 0 98.9 280

Near-natives 87.5 12.5 0 0 100

80

Natives 81.0 19.0 0 0 72

100

More specifically, for the lowest levels of proficiency (second quarter), the use of the imperfect
is higher than the use of the preterit across all lexical aspectual classes. Indeed, there was a signif
icantly higher use of imperfect than preterit for statives (46.1 % versus 21.2% respectively), atelic

This content downloaded from 193.61.135.112 on Tue, 17 Nov 2015 12:22:11 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
568 H?spanla 86 September 2003
events (46.1% versus 29.1% respectively), and telic events (41.7% versus 31.4% respectively).
This outcome reveals that the form competing to become a default marker is the imperfect and not
the preterit. On the other hand, for themore advanced students (i.e., sixth quarter), the use of the
imperfect is significantly lower than the preterit for both telic and atelic events: a ratio of
approximately 3 to 1 in favor of the use of the preterit for both atelic and telic events. Interestingly,
the data from the intermediate students (i.e., fourth quarter) seem to fall between the two extremes
of proficiency reported above. That is, the use of imperfect and preterit with atelic and telic events
among fourth quarter students is split proportionally (approximately 40% of use of each marker).
The use of the imperfect is favored for statives among both fourth and sixth quarter students.

Table 5
Results of ANO VA test of statistical significance
(Test based on personal narrative)

SS
Source DF MS F-ratio p-value

Dep. variable: Preterite

lexical aspect 315.247 2 157.624 19.047 0.001*

L2 proficiency 106.615 4 26.654 3.221 0.016*

interaction 104.127 13.016 8 1.573 0.143

error786.173 95 8.276

Dep. variable: Imperfect

lexical aspect 288.835 2 144.418 17.246 0.001*

L2 proficiency 23.817 5.954 4 0.711 0.586

interaction 120.691 8 15.086 1.802 0.086

error795.538 95 8.374

Not surprisingly, the statistical analysis of the data from the test based on the personal
narrative text reveals that the independent variable "lexical aspectual class" does have an effect
on the selection of past tense verbal morphology. A Scheff? post-hoc test, however, reveals that
the effect of lexical aspectual values is not significant for the lower-level learners. The analysis
of the descriptive data shows that the use of imperfect with statives, atelic events and telic events
for this group was 46.1 %, 46.1 % and 41.7% respectively, whereas the use of preterit with statives,
atelic events and telic events was 21.2%, 29.1 %, and 31.4% respectively. Hence, the selection of
past tense marker by this group does not seem to be affected by the lexical aspectual class of the
verb. In contrast, for the other two groups, as shown above, the effect of lexical aspectual values
is the one brought about by the distinction between statives and (atelic and telic) events.

6.0 Discussion

The results of the present study provide empirical evidence about the use of past tense
markers under relatively controlled testing conditions. The findings support the claim that

This content downloaded from 193.61.135.112 on Tue, 17 Nov 2015 12:22:11 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 Tense Aspect inVerbal Morphology 569
learners may use a default marker of past tense during the beginning stages of acquisition (cf.
Salaberry 2000b for Spanish data andWiberg 1996 for Italian data), with the caveat that theremay
be an effect of text type (as determined by discursive constraints operationalized by the relative
density of verbs of particular lexical aspectual classes). Furthermore, these data also show support
for the basic claim of the lexical aspect hypothesis with regards to the data from the more ad
vanced learners in keeping with the claim made by Robison ( 1990) that such an effect may happen
at "some" stage of development.
As mentioned above, the effect of lexical aspectual class did not show a statistically signif
icant effect on the selection of Spanish past- tense endings in the test based on a fictional narrative.
It appears that learners were relying on the use of a default marker of past tense represented in the
Spanish preterite form (cf., Liskin-Gasparro 2000; Salaberry 1999, 2000b; Wiberg 1996). In
contrast, the effect of lexical aspectual class was statistically significant in the analysis of data
from the test based on a personal narrative (cf., Robison 1995). A post-hoc analysis of the data,
however, indicated that only the advanced learners discriminated the use of the imperfect
preterite contrast according to lexical aspectual classes. These results support the claim that
lexical aspect will have an increasing effect as learners become more proficient in the second
language (cf. Robison 1990). In contrast, beginning learners were not affected by lexical as
pectual class, even though the default marker used to signal past tense was the opposite of the one
they used in the fictional narrative text. As mentioned above, while processing the personal
narrative text, beginning learners (i.e., second quarter) showed a tendency to use the imperfect
more often than the preterit across all lexical aspectual classes. This, in effect, reverses the
tendency to use the preterit as a default marker of past tense (analysis of fiction-based test) and
replaces itwith the imperfect. In passing, note that the latter proposal does not appear to be in
conflict with the data from Liskin-Gasparro's study: in her study the participants were fairly
advanced L2 learners with significant exposure to Spanish. In fact, the findings from Liskin
Gasparro (based on a free-production narrative) appear to be corroborated by the findings for the
more advanced students and the near-native and native speakers from the present study.
Given that themain findings reported above were unexpected, I can only offer a speculative
assessment of this outcome beyond the conclusion that the null hypothesis was rejected but only
for the advanced learners (data from the personal narrative only). Even though there is a clear
contrast in the selection of the form thatmay be used as the default marker of past tense in each
type of text represented in this study (i.e., imperfect versus preterit), it is possible that learners
base their decision?in both types of context?on a single principle of cognitive economy: Mark
past tense with the most prevalent past tense marker found in the specific narrative context in
which verbal predicates are embedded. What is not clear, however, iswhat specific features of this
type of narrative context trigger the preferred use of the imperfect or the preterit. For instance, the
preference for the imperfect in the personal narrative context may be brought about by the
discursive nature of the narrative text itself: a personal narrative brings about extended descrip
tions, background information, etc. In rum, such events are marked with the imperfect and it is
conceivable that?based on the research on grounding (mentioned in the first section)?learners
are able to seize on that type of knowledge about narrative structure. Alternatively, it is possible
to consider stochastic models brought about by the verb types, which are prevalent in different
types of narratives. That is,we may consider the aggregate effect of using a substantially higher
number of statives than (especially telic) events that are normally found in the skeletal plot-line
of most fictional stories narrated by second-language learners (e.g., Lubbers-Quesada 1999).
This aggregate effect may allow beginning learners to use a cognitively economical way tomark
past tense and save precious time to processing other semantic and syntactic features of the
narrative event (see also the analysis of the recall protocols from Liskin-Gasparro 2000). In effect,
ifwe analyzed the first ten verb phrases used in each narrative text, we can see that, most likely,
native speakers would mark eight out of the ten verbs with the preterit in the fictional narrative,
but the reverse would be the case for the so-called personal narrative: eight out of ten would
probably be marked with imperfect.7 Arguably, the above-mentioned interpretation represents an

This content downloaded from 193.61.135.112 on Tue, 17 Nov 2015 12:22:11 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 570 H?spanla 86 September 2003
interesting theoretical alternative that can be empirically analyzed in future studies.
There are, however, some methodological limitations in the present study that disallow
generalizations from the above-mentioned results. In particular, note that themovie shown with
one of the passages may have introduced a contexrualization effect thatwas not available for the
other passage. The movie was shown tomake the results from this study as comparable as possible
to the conditions under which previous studies were carried out. While this procedure was
intended to increase external validity and replicability of previous findings, the procedure itself
may have affected the internal validity of the analysis. Consequently, itwould be important to
replicate the present findings under conditions inwhich the passage based on the movie excerpt
is presented without providing the participants with the benefit of watching themovie clip. On the
other hand, even if the comparative analysis between the two narratives were to be eliminated, the
results from each passage, especially the personal narrative, can, in principle, be analyzed
independently and integrated to the current framework of analysis of the development of tense
aspect systems. In this respect, the reliance on the imperfect, and not the preterit in the personal
narrative posits interesting questions.
Another potential drawback of the study relates to the use of students' narratives, as opposed
to native speakers' narratives, as carrier passages for the selection of the appropriate marker of
past tense. The above-mentioned methodological decision was justified insofar as students' nar
ratives may better match the level of development of the participants selected for this particular
study. Furthermore, the above-mentioned methodological condition has been implemented in
previous studies as well. For instance, the study carried out by Bardovi-Harlig (1992) was based
on a 14-item passage thatwas amodified version of an original piece written by a student during
a previous examination. The results of the present study, while promising to unravel some of the
intricacies that underlie the development of Spanish past tense markers, need to be validated with
open-ended narratives. Alternatively, it is possible to replicate the present study with a similar
methodological design but introducing some modifications that would address some of the
limitations mentioned above.
Finally, an anonymous reviewer comments that transforming a personal narrative into a
multiple-choice text, in effect, removes any trace of the "personal" in such narrative. This is true
and, as a consequence, no generalization from this study could be made to the actual production
of personal narratives among non-native speakers. On the other hand, the reviewer also out
points
that such decontextualized text looks a lot like the type of pedagogical activities that students do
in their classes. Thus, at the same time that the selected methodological manipulation of the text
may have limited the generalizability of these findings to less-constrained tasks, it does also make
these results eminently valid for the analysis of the type of language processing preeminent in
academic environments, thereby increasing the validity of the present study. In conclusion, the
results of the present study are promising to unravel some of the factors that underlie the
development of Spanish past tense markers. Itwould be important, however, to replicate the
present study with actual personal narratives, or, alternatively with a similar methodological
design with modifications that would address some of the limitations mentioned above.

NOTES

that the lack of sequence

!It is possible is predicated on the fact that all the situations reported above refer to
processes (atelic events) as determined by the inherent lexical value of those verbs.
2Noyau further subdivides personal narratives into action narratives and reported speech narratives.
3Shirai and Kurono claim that the sequence proposed by the lexical aspect hypothesis "arguably has the status of
a universal in SLA" (249).
4Note that, for these learners, it is unlikely that temporality markers are in the process of "spreading" from one
lexical aspectual class to another.
5There are some studies in LI acquisition which have used a similar three-way classification: Cziko and Koda

(1987), Stephany (1981).

6The difference between 100 percent and the percentage reported in the table represents the percentage of items
that were not filled out by the students.

This content downloaded from 193.61.135.112 on Tue, 17 Nov 2015 12:22:11 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 Tense Aspect inVerbal Morphology 571
7I thank one of the anonymous reviewers for pointing out this interesting analysis.

WORKS CITED

Andersen, Roger. 1986. "El desarrollo de lamorfolog?a verbal en el espa?ol como segundo idioma." Adquisici?n del
Lenguaje?Acquisi?ao da Linguagem. Ed. J?rgen Meisel. Frankfurt: Klaus-Dieter Vervuert Verlag. 115-38.
?. 1989. "The Theoretical Status of Variation in Interlanguage Development." Variation in Second Language

Acquisition Volume II: Psycholinguistic Issues. Ed. Susan Gass, Carolyn Madden, David Preston and Larry
Selinker. Clevedon, Avon: Multilingual Matters. 46-64.
?. 1991. "Developmental Sequences: The Emergence of Aspect Marking in Second Language Acquisition." Cross
currents in Second Language Acquisition and Linguistic Theories. Ed. Thomas Huebner and Charles Ferguson.
Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 305-24.
Andersen, Roger and Yasuhiro Shirai. 1994. "Discourse Motivations for Some Cognitive Acquisition Principles."
Studies in Second Language Acquisition 16: 133-56.
?. 1996. "The Primacy of Aspect in First and Second Language Acquisition: The Pidgin-Creole Connection."
Handbook of Second Language Acquisition, Ed. Bathia Laufer and William Ritchie: Academic Press. 527-70.
Antinucci, Francesco and Ruth Miller. 1976. "How Children Talk about What Happened." Journal of Child Language
3: 169-89.
Bardovi-Harlig, Kathleen. 1992. "The Relationship of Form and Meaning: A Cross Sectional Study of Tense and Aspect
in the Interlanguage of Learners of English as a Second Language." Applied Psycholinguistics 13: 253-78.
?. 1995. "A Narrative Perspective on the Development of the Tense/Aspect System in Second Language Acquisition."
Studies in Second Language Acquisition 17: 263-89.
?. 1998. "Examining the Role of Text Type in L2 Tense-Aspect Research: Broadening our Horizons." Representation
and Process: Proceedings of the 3rd Pacific Second Language Research Forum. Ed. Peter Robinson and Nicholas
Jungheim. Tokyo, Japan: Pacific SLRF. 129-38.
?. 2000. Tense and Aspect in Second Language Acquisition: Form, Meaning and Use. Maiden, MA: Blackwell.
Bardovi-Harlig, Kathleen and Anna Bergstr?m. 1996. "Acquisition of Tense and Aspect in Second Language and
Foreign Language Learning: Learner Narratives in ESL and FFL." Canadian Modern Language Review 52: 308
30.
Bardovi-Harlig, Kathleen and D. Reynolds. 1995. "The Role of Lexical Aspect in the Acquisition of Tense and Aspect."
TESOL Quarterly 29: 107-31.
Bergstr?m, Anna. 1995. "The Expression of Past Temporal Reference by English-speaking Learners of French."
Unpublished Ph.D. Diss., The Pennsylvania State University.
Blyth, Carl. 1997. "A Constructivist Approach to Grammar: Teaching Teachers to Teach Aspect." Modern Language
Journal 81.1: 50-66.
Comrie, Bernard. 1976. Aspect. Cambridge: Cambridge UP.
Cziko, Gary and Keiko Koda. 1987. "A Japanese Child's Use of Stative and Punctual Verbs." Journal of Child
Language 14: 99-111.
Dowty, David. 1979. Word Meaning and Montague Grammar. Dordrecht: D. Reidel.
?. 1986. "The Effects of Aspectual Class on the Temporal Structure of Discourse: Semantics or Pragmatics?"
Linguistics and Philosophy 9: 37-61.
Guitart, Jorge. 1978. "Aspects of Spanish Aspect: A New Look at the Preterit/Imperfect Distinction." Contemporary
Studies in Romance Linguistics, Ed. M. Su?er. Washington, DC: Georgetown UP. 132-68.
Hasbun, Leyla. 1995. "The Role of Lexical Aspect in the Acquisition of the Tense/Aspect System in L2 Spanish."
Unpublished Ph.D. Diss., Indiana University, Bloomington.
Hopper, Paul. 1982. Tense-Aspect: Between Syntax and Pragmatics. Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Klein, Wolfgang. 1994. Time in Language. London: Routledge.
Labov, William. 1972. Sociolinguistic Patterns. Philadelphia: U of Pennsylvania P.
Liskin-Gasparro, Judy. 1996. 2000. "The Acquisition of Temporality in Spanish Oral Narratives: Exploring Learners'
Perceptions." Hispania. 83.4: 830-44.
?. "Narrative Strategies: A Case Study of Developing Skills by a Learner of Spanish." Modern
Storytelling Language
Journal 80: 271-86.
Lubbers-Quesada, Margaret. 1999. "The Acquisition of Aspectual Distinction in Spanish: A Look at Learners in an
Immersion Program." Unpublished Manuscript.
Noyau, Colette. 1990. "The Development of Means for Temporality in the Unguided Acquisition of L2: Cross-linguistic
Perspectives." Current Trends in European Second Language Acquisition Research. Ed. Hans Dechert.
Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. 143-70.
Robison, Richard. 1990. "The Primacy of Aspect: Aspectual Marking in English Interlanguage." Studies in Second
Language Acquisition 12: 315-30.
?. 1995. "The Aspect Hypothesis Revisited: A Cross Sectional Study of Tense and Aspect Marking in Interlanguage."
Applied Linguistics 16: 344-71.
Salaberry, Rafael. 1998. "The Development of Aspectual Distinctions in Classroom L2 French." Canadian Modern
Language Review 54.4: 504-42.
?. 1999. "The Development of Past Tense Verbal Morphology in Classroom L2 Spanish." Applied Linguistics 20: 151

This content downloaded from 193.61.135.112 on Tue, 17 Nov 2015 12:22:11 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 572 H?spanla 86 September 2003
78.
?. 2000a. "The Acquisition of English Past Tense in an Instructional Setting: Irregular and Frequent Morphology."
System 28.1: 135-52.
?. 2000b. Spanish Past Tense Aspect: L2 Development in a Tutored Setting. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John
Benjamins.
Salaberry, Rafael and Yasuhiro Shirai. 2002. The L2 Acquisition of Tense-Aspect Morphology. Amsterdam and
Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Schmidt, Richard and Sylvia Frota.
1986. "Developing Basic Conversational Ability in a Second Language: A Case

Study of an Adult Learner of Portuguese." Talking to Learn: Conversation in Second Language Acquisition, Ed.
Richard Day. Rowley, MA: Newbury House. 237-326.
Shirai, Yasuhiro. 1991. "Primacy of Aspect in Language Acquisition: Simplified Input and Prototype." Unpublished
Ph.D. Dissertation, UCLA, Los Angeles.
Shirai, Yasuhiro and A. Kurono. 1998. "The Acquisition of Tense-Aspect Marking in Japanese as a Second Language."

Language Learning 48.2: 245-79.

Silva-Corval?n, Carmen. 1983. "Tense and Aspect in Oral Spanish Narrative: Context and Meaning." Language 59:
760-80.
Slabakova, Roumyana, and S. Montrul. 2002. "On Viewpoint Aspect Interpretation and Its L2 Acquisition: A UG

Perspective."The L2 Acquisition of Tense-Aspect Morphology. Eds. Rafael Salaberry and Yasuhiro Shirai.
Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Smith, Carlota. 1991. The Parameter of Aspect. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Press.

Stephany, Ursula. 1981. "Verbal Grammar inModern Greek Early Child Language." Child Language: An International
Perspective. Ed. Phillip Dale and David Ingram.. Baltimore: University Park Press. 45/57.
Tomlin, Richard. 1984. "The Treatment of Foreground-background Information in the On-line Descriptive Discourse
of Second-Language Learners." Studies in Second Language Acquisition 6: 115-42.
Vendler, Zeno. 1967. Linguistics in Philosophy. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP.
Vet, Co and Carl Vetters. 1994. Tense and Aspect inDiscourse. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Wiberg, E. 1996. "Reference to Past Events inBilingual Italian-Swedish Children of School Age." Linguistics 34: 1084
1114.

APPENDIX A: Text based on a student's movie narrative

Please, select the best option according to the context. You will have 6 minutes to complete the task. You will be told
when 2 minutes are left.

Ayer una mujer joven y bonita (camina/camin?/caminaba/caminar) por la calle y (tiene/tuvo/ten?a/tener) mucha
hambre y ella (toma/tom?/tomaba/tomar) un pan de una panader?a sin pagar y entonces otra mujer vieja le (dice/dijo/

dec?a/decir) al due?o de la panader?a y el due?o (llama/llam?/llamaba/llamar) a la polic?a y entonces el polic?a (viene/

vino/ven?a/venir) y (persigue/persigui?/persegu?a/perseguir) a lamujer. Pero otro hombre que le (gusta/gust?/gustaba/

gustar) la mujer, (quiere/quiso/quer?a/querer) proteger a la mujer, entonces el hombre (dice/dijo/dec?a/decir) que ?l

(toma/tom?/tomaba/tomar) el pan y entonces el polic?a (toma/tom?/tomaba/tomar) al hombre pero cuando la mujer

vieja (ve/vio/ve?a/ver) esta situaci?n ella (dice/dijo/dec?a/decir) al polic?a que no (es/fue/era/ser) el hombre y entonces
el polic?a (toma/tom?/tomaba/tomar) a la mujer a un autob?s de polic?a. El hombre (va/fue/iba/ir) a un restaurante y

(come/comi?/com?a/comer) mucho pero no (paga/pag?/pagaba/pagar) la cuenta. Entonces el polic?a (viene/vino/

ven?a/venir) y (toma/tom?/tomaba/tomar) al hombre a un autob?s de polic?a. En el autob?s el hombre (encuentra/

encontr?/encontraba/encontrar) a lamujer joven, pero (hay/hubo/hab?a/haber) un accidente y lamujer, el hombre y el

polic?a (saltan/saltaron/saltaban/saltar) del autob?s y la mujer y el hombre (corren/corrieron/corr?an/correr) y

entonces los dos (est?n/estuvieron/estaban/estar) libres.

Yesterday a young and beautiful woman (to walk) on the street and (to be) very hungry and she (to take) a loaf of bread
from a bakery without paying for it, and then an old lady (to tell) the owner of the bakery and he (to call) the police, so
a policeman (to come) and (to chase) the young woman. But a man who (to like) the woman, (to want) to protect the
woman, so the man (to say) that he (to take) the loaf of bread, so the policeman (to take) the man, but when the old lady
(to see) this situation she (to say) to the policeman that it is not the man, so the policeman (to take) the woman to a police
van. The man (to go) to a restaurant and (to eat) a lot but he (not to pay) the check. So the policeman (to come) and (to
take) the man to a police van. In the van theman (tomeet) the young woman, but there (to be) an accident and the woman,
the man and the policeman (to jump) from the van and the woman and the man (to run) and then both (to be) free.

This content downloaded from 193.61.135.112 on Tue, 17 Nov 2015 12:22:11 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 Tense Aspect inVerbal Morphology 573

APPENDIX B: Text based on a student's personal narrative

Please, select the best option according to the context. You will have 5 minutes to complete the task. You will be told
when 1 minute is left.

A personal story from childhood:

Cuando (soy/fui/era/ser) ni?a de once o doce a?os, un d?a (decido/decid?/decid?a/decidir) que no (quiero/quise/quer?a/
querer) ir a la escuela. Durante este tiempo mi familia (vive/vivi?/viv?a/vivir) en el campo y mi madre no me (permite/
permiti?/permit?a/permitir) mirar la televisi?n. Por eso (estoy/estuve/estaba/estar) un poco deprimida porque (quiero/
quise/quer?a/querer) jugar. Entonces le (digo/dije/dec?a/decir) a mi madre que me (duele/doli?/dolia/doler) el est?
mago y que no (puedo/pude/pod?a/poder) ir a la escuela. Y ella me (dice/dijo/dec?a/decir) que (est?/estuvo/estaba/
estar) bien. Despu?s del almuerzo, mi madre y mi hermanita (est?n/estuvieron/estaban/estar) durmiendo y yo (decido/
decid?/decid?a/decidir) ir afuera y montar mi caballo. Y (monto/mont?/montaba/montar) el caballo toda la tarde. A las
tres y media (veo/vi/ve?a/ver) el autob?s de la escuela en el camino y (trato/trat?/trataba/tratar) de volver a mi casa. El
chofer del autob?s (para/par?/paraba/parar) y me (lleva/llev?/llevaba/llevar) a mi casa. Pero despu?s de casi tres horas
yo (recuerdo/record?/recordaba/recordar) que mi madre (est?/estuvo/estaba/estar) muy enojada conmigo. (Es/Fue/
Era/Ser) un d?a horrible.

When I (to be) a girl of eleven or twelve years old, one day (to decide) that I (not to want) to go to school. During that
time my family (to live) in the country and my mother (not to allow) me to watch television. Because ofthat I (to be) a
little depressed, because I (to want) to play. So, I (to say) to my mother that my stomach (to ache) and that I (not to be
able) to go to school. So she (to say) that it (to be) okay. After lunch, my mother and my little sister (to be) sleeping and
I (to decide) to go outside and to ride my horse. And I (to ride) the horse all afternoon long. At three thirty I (to see) the
school bus on the road and I (to try) to go back home. The bus driver (to stop) and he (to take) me home. But, after almost
three hours I (to remember) that my mother (to be) very angry with me. It (to be) a bad day.

This content downloaded from 193.61.135.112 on Tue, 17 Nov 2015 12:22:11 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions