Interpretable and uninterpretable features in the acquisition of Spanish past tenses

This chapter deals with the acquisition of the aspectual contrasts conveyed by Spanish preterito indefinido and preterito imperfecto in relation to Vendler's (1967) four types of predicates: states, activities, accomplishments and achievements. presents an analysis of experimental written data from 70 subjects at two different levels. It offers a sketch of the different L1 aspectual systems under investigation. It concentrates on the interaction between interpretable features and uninterpretable features, particularly as it pertains to the relationship between compositional aspect and aspectual verb classes. The chapter formulates the hypotheses to be tested against the data. It presents the overall results of the language groups for the different aspectual classes. It argues that all language groups will experience difficulty with activities and accomplishments because the determination of telicity depends on the interaction of interpretable features with uninterpretable features.