Teaching Subject Position in Spanish: Gustar Verbs, Unaccusatives and the Impersonal Passive

Abstract

This paper explores a misunderstood and frequently ignored topic in the literature dealing with teaching Spanish as an L2: subject position (VanPatten & Cadierno, 1993). Native speakers of English, and other languages whose subjects have a fixed position in the sentence, find it difficult to acquire the patterns that govern subject placement in Spanish, which may either precede or follow the verb. This difficulty is due in part to cross-linguistic differences associated to the argument structure of certain expressions, but it is also caused by the inadequate treatment of this topic in many textbooks and dictionaries. Subject inversion, i.e. the placement of the subject in postverbal position, is not a random phenomenon, and its occurrence is often limited to specific constructions. This paper examines three structures that are frequently associated with postverbal subjects: verbs of psychological affection, the impersonal passive and unaccusative verbs. Several communicative task-based activities are also presented, in order to ensure that L2 learners of Spanish are able to recognize postverbal subjects as a common phenomenon.