Microvariation in the Null Subject Parameter
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Ashlee Dauphinais Civitello
Abstract
Spanish has been traditionally classified by grammatical descriptions as a language with free variation in terms of Subject-Verb order (SV versus VS), with certain syntactic-semantic and syntactic-pragmatic restrictions governing each order. This supposed free variation appears to be facing resistance in Caribbean Spanish, since available data have demonstrated a tendency towards a more fixed SV order. However, this property has been less researched compared to other properties of the Null Subject Parameter (NSP) (Ortiz-López 2010; Otheguy & Zentella 2012). For this study, 2968 tokens from a corpus recorded in Cuba were coded according to different factors (subject type, NP complexity, unaccusativity), preferring SV order in 91% of the analyzed cases, while there is a sharp distinction between behavior in pronominal versus nominal NP, the unaccusative/unergative distinction was not a significant factor. Little variation was found in cases of subject pronouns and simple or less-heavy noun phrases, evidencing an almost fixed SV order. The results evidence a different typology within the NSP in Cuban Spanish (and possibly Caribbean Spanish), challenging many previous proposals for Spanish, leaving space for typological debate.
Abstract
Spanish has been traditionally classified by grammatical descriptions as a language with free variation in terms of Subject-Verb order (SV versus VS), with certain syntactic-semantic and syntactic-pragmatic restrictions governing each order. This supposed free variation appears to be facing resistance in Caribbean Spanish, since available data have demonstrated a tendency towards a more fixed SV order. However, this property has been less researched compared to other properties of the Null Subject Parameter (NSP) (Ortiz-López 2010; Otheguy & Zentella 2012). For this study, 2968 tokens from a corpus recorded in Cuba were coded according to different factors (subject type, NP complexity, unaccusativity), preferring SV order in 91% of the analyzed cases, while there is a sharp distinction between behavior in pronominal versus nominal NP, the unaccusative/unergative distinction was not a significant factor. Little variation was found in cases of subject pronouns and simple or less-heavy noun phrases, evidencing an almost fixed SV order. The results evidence a different typology within the NSP in Cuban Spanish (and possibly Caribbean Spanish), challenging many previous proposals for Spanish, leaving space for typological debate.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Preface vii
- Introduction ix
- Towards a theory of assertion structure 1
- Towards a theory of pronominal verb constructions in Spanish 21
- On the grammaticality of recomplementation in Spanish 39
- Synchronic change in a multidialectal Spanish community 53
- Exploring the syntax-semantics-prosody interface 73
- Generalized gradability and extremeness in Puerto Rican Spanish 95
- On the mistaken identity of negated epistemics 111
- The mestizo speech 131
- Stressed clitics in Argentine Spanish 149
- On the simplification of a prosodic inventory 171
- Segmental anchoring in Peruvian Amazonian Spanish intonation 191
- The prosody-pragmatics interface in the pragmaticalization of ¡Hombre! as a discourse marker 211
- Sociolinguistic implications on perception 241
- Vosotros , ustedes , and the myth of the symmetrical Castilian pronoun system 263
- Microvariation in the Null Subject Parameter 281
- An analysis of subjunctive frequency and semantic predictors of mood in Central Argentinian Spanish 301
- The future is in the past 317
- Double possession in Peruvian Amazonian Spanish 335
- Index 355
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Preface vii
- Introduction ix
- Towards a theory of assertion structure 1
- Towards a theory of pronominal verb constructions in Spanish 21
- On the grammaticality of recomplementation in Spanish 39
- Synchronic change in a multidialectal Spanish community 53
- Exploring the syntax-semantics-prosody interface 73
- Generalized gradability and extremeness in Puerto Rican Spanish 95
- On the mistaken identity of negated epistemics 111
- The mestizo speech 131
- Stressed clitics in Argentine Spanish 149
- On the simplification of a prosodic inventory 171
- Segmental anchoring in Peruvian Amazonian Spanish intonation 191
- The prosody-pragmatics interface in the pragmaticalization of ¡Hombre! as a discourse marker 211
- Sociolinguistic implications on perception 241
- Vosotros , ustedes , and the myth of the symmetrical Castilian pronoun system 263
- Microvariation in the Null Subject Parameter 281
- An analysis of subjunctive frequency and semantic predictors of mood in Central Argentinian Spanish 301
- The future is in the past 317
- Double possession in Peruvian Amazonian Spanish 335
- Index 355
