Two subjunctives or three?
A multimodel analysis of subjunctive tense variation in complement clauses in Spanish
This paper examines the use of the three non-periphrastic subjunctives in Spanish in embedded clauses under obligatory subjunctive predicates in the past tense in three Spanish varieties: Argentinean, Mexican and Peninsular Spanish. By means of random forest and logistic regression analyses, I demonstrate that a grammar where the two “past” subjunctives make up one group, such that the variation can be modeled on a binary opposition between (morphologically) past vs. (morphologically) present, achieves better prediction accuracy and goodness-of-fit parameters than a grammar with a three-way split. The results suggest that, at least in complement clauses of obligatory subjunctive predicates, there appear to be no semantic differences between the two past subjunctives but there are still relatively large differences in how the three subjunctive forms are used across the three Spanish varieties studied. [1] 1
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.The Spanish subjunctive
- 2.1Concordantia temporum or sequence of tense in the subjunctive
- 2.2The evolution of the two past subjunctives
- 2.3Previous accounts of the distinction between -se and -ra
- 3.Data and methodology
- 3.1The data
- 3.2Statistical analysis
- 4.Results
- 4.1Descriptive statistics
- 4.2Random forest models
- 4.2.1The multiclass model
- 4.2.2The binary model
- 4.3Regression analyses
- 4.3.1The multiclass logistic regression
- 4.3.2The binary logistic regression
- 5.Discussion
- 5.1The main findings
- 5.2The present subjunctive in Argentinean Spanish
- 6.Conclusion
- Notes
-
References
References (56)
Baayen, R. H., Hendrix, P., & Ramscar, M.
(
2011a,
January 6–9).
Sidestepping the combinatorial explosion: Towards a processing model based on discriminative learning [Paper presentation]. Annual Meeting of the Linguistic Society of America. Pittsburgh, USA.
Baayen, R. H., Milin, P., Filipovic Durffevic, D., Hendrix, P., & Marelli, M.
(
2011b)
An amorphous model for morphological processing in visual comprehension based on naive discriminative learning.
Psychological Review, 118(3). 438.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Baayen, R. H., Endresen, A., Janda, L. A., Makarova, A., & Nesset, T.
(
2013)
Making choices in Russian: Pros and cons of statistical methods for rival forms.
Russian Linguistics, 37(3), 253–291.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Bates, D., Mächler, M., Bolker, B., & Walker, S.
(
2014)
Fitting linear mixed-effects models using lme4.
Journal of Statistical Software, 671, 1–48.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Bello, A., & Cuervo, R. J.
(
1970)
Gramática de la lengua castellana [
A Grammar of the Spanish Language]. Sopena Argentina.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Branco, P., Ribeiro, R. P., & Torgo, L.
(
2016)
UBL: An R Package for Utility-Based Learning [Computer software].
[URL]
Breiman, L.
(
2001)
Random forests.
Machine Learning, 45(1), 5–32.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Bybee, J., & Thompson, S.
(
2000)
Three frequency effects in syntax.
Berkeley Linguistics Society, 23(1), 378–388.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Carrasco Gutierrez, A.
(
1998)
La correlación de tiempos en español [Sequence of Tense in Spanish]. Universidad Complutense de Madrid dissertation.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Chawla, N. V., Japkowicz, N., & Kotcz, A.
(
2004)
Special issue on learning from imbalanced data sets.
ACM Sigkdd Explorations Newsletter, 6(1), 1–6.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Comrie, B.
(
1985)
Tense. Cambridge University Press.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Crespo del Río, C.
(
2014)
Tense and Mood Cariation in Spanish Nominal Subordinates: The Case of Peruvian Varieties [Doctoral dissertation, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign). IDEALS.
[URL]
Davies, M.
(
2016)
Corpus del Español/ Web Dialects 2 billion words. Available online at
[URL]
Davis, J., & Goadrich, M.
(
2006)
The relationship between Precision-Recall and ROC curves. In
Proceedings of the 23rd International Conference on Machine Learning (pp. 233–240). ACM.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Day, M.
(
2011 June 21).
Variation in the use of the –ra and –se forms of the imperfect subjunctive in Modern Spoken Peninsular Spanish [Paper presentation]. NWAV 40, Georgetown University.
Debeer, D., & Strobl, C.
(
2019)
permimp: (Conditional) Permutation Importance (
R package version 0.1–01) [Computer software].
[URL]
DeMello, G.
(
1993)
–ra vs. –se subjunctive: A new look at an old topic.
Hispania, 76(2), 235–243.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Fox, J.
(
1987)
Effect displays for generalized linear models.
Sociological Methodology, 171, 347–361.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Fox, J.
(
2003)
Effect displays in R for generalised linear models.
Journal of Statistical Software, 8(15), 1–27.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Fox, J., & Hong, J.
(
2009)
Effect displays in R for multinomial and proportional-odds logit models: Extensions to the effects package.
Journal of Statistical Software, 32(1), 1–24.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Fox, J., & Weisberg, S.
(
2018)
Visualizing fit and lack of fit in complex regression models with predictor effect plots and partial residuals.
Journal of Statistical Software, 87(9), 1–27.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Fox, J., & Weisberg, S.
(
2019)
An R Companion to Applied Regression (3rd ed.). Sage.
[URL]
García, V., Mollineda, R. A., & Sánchez, J. S.
(
2010)
Theoretical analysis of a performance measure for imbalanced data. In
20th International Conference on Pattern Recognition (pp. 617–620). IEEE.
[URL].
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
Gili Gaya, S.
(
1983)
Curso superior de sintaxis española [
Advanced Course on Spanish Syntax]. Colton Book Imports.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Goldberg, A. E.
(
1995)
Constructions: A Construction Grammar Approach to Argument Structure. The University of Chicago Press.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Guajardo, G., & Goodall, G.
(
2019)
On the status of concordantia temporum in Spanish: An experimental approach.
Glossa, 4(1), 116.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
He, H., Bai, Y., Garcia, E. A., & Li, S.
(
2008)
ADASYN: Adaptive synthetic sampling approach for imbalanced learning. In 2008 IEEE International Joint Conference on Neural Networks (IEEE World Congress on Computational Intelligence), 1322–1328. IEEE.
[URL]
He, H. & Garcia, E. A.
(
2009)
Learning from imbalanced data.
IEEE Transactions on Knowledge & Data Engineering, 21(9), 1263–1284.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Hothorn, T., Bühlmann, P., Dudoit, S., Molinaro, A., & Van Der Laan, M. J.
(
2005)
Survival ensembles.
Biostatistics, 7(3), 355–373.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Krawczyk, B.
(
2016)
Learning from imbalanced data: Open challenges and future directions.
Progress in Artificial Intelligence, 5(4), 221–232.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Laca, B.
(
2010)
The puzzle of subjunctive tenses. In
R. Box-Bennema,
B. Kampers-Manhe, &
B. Hollebrandse (Eds.),
Romance Languages and Linguistic Theory 2008: Selected Papers from ‘Going Romance’ Groningen 2008 (pp. 77–104). John Benjamins.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Lapesa, R.
(
1997)
Historia de la Lengua Española [
History of the Spanish Language]. Biblioteca Románica Hispánica.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Lathrop, T. A.
(
1980)
The Evolution of Spanish. Juan de la Cuesta.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Lopez Samaniego, A., & Kempas, I.
(
2018)
Querría que me lo compruebes/comprobaras/comprobases: Verb tense choice after expressions of attenuated volition in European Spanish.
Estudios Filologicos, 611, 35–58.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
López, V., Fernández, A., García, S., Palade, V., & Herrera, F.
(
2013)
An insight into classification with imbalanced data: Empirical results and current trends on using data intrinsic characteristics.
Information Sciences, 2501, 113–141.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Naranjo, M. G.
(
2017)
The se-ra alternation in Spanish subjunctive.
Corpus Linguistics and Linguistic Theory, 13(1), pp.97–134.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Olson, D. L., & Delen, D.
(
2008)
Performance evaluation for predictive modeling. In
Advanced Data Mining Techniques (pp. 137–147). Springer.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Penny, R.
(
1991)
A History of the Spanish Language. Cambridge University Press.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Picallo, C.
(
1984) “
El nudo FLEX y el parámetro del sujeto nulo” [The IP and pro-drop parameter]. In
I. Bosque (Ed),
Indicativo y subjuntivo [
Indicative and Subjunctive] (pp. 202–233). Taurus.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Provost, F.
(
2000)
Machine learning from imbalanced data sets 101. In
Proceedings of the AAAI’2000 Workshop on Imbalanced Data Sets. AAAI Press.
[URL]
Quer, J.
(
1998)
Mood at the Interface. Holland Academic Graphics.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
R Core Team
(
2019)
R: A language and environment for statistical computing (
Version 3.6.1) [Computer software]. R Foundation for Statistical Computing.
[URL]
Raeder, T., Forman, G., & Chawla, N. V.
(
2012)
Learning from imbalanced data: Evaluation matters. In
D. E. Holmes &
J. C. Lakhmi (Eds.),
Data Mining: Foundations and Intelligent Paradigms (pp. 315–331). Springer.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Rosemeyer, M., & Schwenter, S. A.
(
2019)
Entrenchment and persistence in language change: The Spanish past subjunctive.
Corpus Linguistics and Linguistic Theory, 15(1), 167–204.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Sessarego, S.
(
2008)
Spanish concordantia temporum: An old issue, new solutions. In
M. Westmoreland &
J. A. Thomas (Eds.),
Selected Proceedings of the 4th Workshop on Spanish Sociolinguistics (pp. 91–99). Cascadilla Proceedings Project.
[URL]
Sessarego, S.
(
2010)
Temporal concord and Latin American Spanish dialects: A genetic blueprint.
Revista Iberoamericana de Lingüística, 51, 137–169.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Strobl, C., Boulesteix, A. L., Zeileis, A., & Hothorn, T.
(
2007)
Bias in random forest variable importance measures: Illustrations, sources and a solution.
BMC Bioinformatics, 8(1).
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Strobl, C., Boulesteix, A. L., Kneib, T., Augustin, T., & Zeileis, A.
(
2008)
Conditional variable importance for random forests.
BMC Bioinformatics, 9(1).
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Suñer, M., & Padilla-Rivera, J.
(
1987)
Sequence of tenses and the subjunctive.
Hispania, 70(3), 634–642.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Tharwat, A.
(
2020)
Classification of assessment methods.
Applied Computing and Informatics. Advance online publication.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Venables, W. N., & Ripley, B. D.
(
2002)
Random and mixed effects. In
Modern Applied Statistics with S (pp. 271–300). Springer.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Wallace, B. C., & Dahabreh, I. J.
(
2012)
Class probability estimates are unreliable for imbalanced data (and how to fix them). In
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 12th International Conference on Data Mining (International Conference on Data Mining) (pp. 695–704). IEEE Computer Society.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Wurmbrand, S.
(
2014)
Tense and aspect in English infinitives.
Linguistic Inquiry, 45(3), 403–447.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Cited by (1)
Cited by 1 other publications
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 4 july 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers.
Any errors therein should be reported to them.