| The Spanish verbs ser and estar (to be) have been studied extensively with regard to syntax, semantics and pragmatics, both in the contexts of written and spoken Spanish. These studies have included the perspectives of native speakers as well as those speaking Spanish as a second language.;The present investigation expands upon the literature base by analyzing the development of the verbal forms of ser and estar according to their functioning, structure, mood, tense and person marking. The forms from both verbs (2330 tokens) were obtained from an oral corpus originated from 50 transcriptions of conversations with 50 monolingual Mexican children: 25 boys and 25 girls representing five age groups (3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 years old).;Results from the linguistic analysis indicated that at age 3 children used both verbs according to their essential structures within most of the contexts observed in adult speech. These constructions continued to develop incrementally and in complexity throughout the child's developmental cycle. The group of 7 year olds showed initial use of the passive constructions of the verb ser.;In sum, the progressive linguistic development of the usage of the verbs ser and estar is evident throughout the five age periods studied. Differences in structure type and frequency of usage appear across age groups for both verbs; however, the contexts in which they appear are similar to those observed in adult speech of Mexican Spanish. |
