Resumen de Progressive constructions in native-speaker and adult-acquired Spanish
This research documents the acquisition of a range of progressive constructions and their associated predictors of use by English-speaking learners of Spanish in the United States. The few existing studies on acquisition of the Spanish progressive by adult second language learners analyze only the estar ‘be located’ + V-ndo form and little is known about the development of other progressive constructions (e.g., andar ‘go around’ + V-ndo) in interlanguage grammars. At the same time, research on the use and distribution of present progressive constructions by adult native-speakers of Spanish is limited. In order to address these gaps in the literature, the current study provides empirical evidence of native-speaker use of a range of progressive constructions and documents the emergence of these forms in adult-acquired Spanish. Results of the current study indicate that progressive constructions vary by dialect and language type, thus presenting an area of difficulty for learners of Spanish.
