Not One of the Usual Suspects: The History of an Anomalous Prescriptive Rule in Spanish

This article draws attention to an anomalous prescriptive rule in Spanish. Although research shows that native speakers use both the indicative and the subjunctive with expressions of emotion in Spanish, text books and grammars of Spanish insist that only the subjunctive may be used with these expressions. This creates confusion for students, teachers, and linguists because the rule does not reflect reality. The purpose of this paper is to answer two important questions: 1) What is the origin and history of mood use with expressions of emo tion? 2) How did a rule prescribing exclusive use of the subjunctive with expressions of emotion become established? The answers to these questions are enlightening and serve to highlight a unique example of a prescriptive rule with no legitimate claim to being that nevertheless has attained such a degree of influence over the standard language that it effectively limits the creative possibility of nuance.