Exploring factors that influence the accusative/dative experiencer alternation in Spanish psych verbs: data from three types of Spanish–English bilinguals

Abstract Despite a significant body of research on the acquisition of Spanish psych verbs in adult bilingual populations, little attention has been given to the accusative/dative experiencer alternation that occurs in a subset of object experiencer psych verbs; namely, Class II verbs (e.g., sorprender ‘to surprise’). This syntactic alternation, which is relatively unique cross-linguistically, provides an opportunity to examine the factors at play when bilinguals are faced with optionality in argument structure. The present study explores experiencer preferences (accusative vs. dative) in three groups of bilingual Spanish-English speakers – L2 Spanish (L1 English late acquirers of L2 Spanish), heritage Spanish (early childhood acquirers of English), and L1 Spanish (late acquirers of L2 English). Participants completed an acceptability judgment task and a preference task, both designed to examine the role of context (eventive vs. stative) in experiencer choice. The results can be characterized as follows: L2 Spanish participants display a preference for dative experiencers, while L1 and heritage Spanish participants prefer accusative experiencers, regardless of context. Overall, the data patterns observed through both inter- and intra-group analyses are best explained in terms of overall language experience, including participants’ lifetime exposure to naturalistic input as well as language activation and use.