Home Chapter 1. Cross-dialectal productivity of the Spanish subjunctive in nominal clause complements
Chapter
Licensed
Unlicensed Requires Authentication

Chapter 1. Cross-dialectal productivity of the Spanish subjunctive in nominal clause complements

  • Scott A. Schwenter and Mark R. Hoff
View more publications by John Benjamins Publishing Company
Search
Variation and Evolution
This chapter is in the book Variation and Evolution

Abstract

We performed a large-scale corpus study of the subjunctive across Argentine, Mexican, and Peninsular Spanish, in order to determine possible differences in productivity across dialects. Our data (N = 6,822) from the web/dialects section of Davies’ (2016–) Corpus del Español were collected through random sampling of 22 matrix verb governors. All three dialects were significantly different from one another in type:token ratio, whereas only Spain differed from the others in terms of hapax legomena:type ratio. Furthermore, only eight verbs showed the same behavior across all dialects. Subjunctive productivity thus varies by both dialect and governor, thereby revealing the critical importance of both inter- and intra-dialectal variation for the correct analysis of morphosyntactic phenomena. The conditioning of the variation across dialects, nevertheless, was similar: mixed-effects logistic regression in R revealed that negated governors and cases of non-coreferentiality between main and subordinate clause subjects select significantly more subjunctive.

Abstract

We performed a large-scale corpus study of the subjunctive across Argentine, Mexican, and Peninsular Spanish, in order to determine possible differences in productivity across dialects. Our data (N = 6,822) from the web/dialects section of Davies’ (2016–) Corpus del Español were collected through random sampling of 22 matrix verb governors. All three dialects were significantly different from one another in type:token ratio, whereas only Spain differed from the others in terms of hapax legomena:type ratio. Furthermore, only eight verbs showed the same behavior across all dialects. Subjunctive productivity thus varies by both dialect and governor, thereby revealing the critical importance of both inter- and intra-dialectal variation for the correct analysis of morphosyntactic phenomena. The conditioning of the variation across dialects, nevertheless, was similar: mixed-effects logistic regression in R revealed that negated governors and cases of non-coreferentiality between main and subordinate clause subjects select significantly more subjunctive.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents vii
  3. Social and linguistic factors shaping language dynamics across the Spanish-speaking world 1
  4. Part I. Morpho-syntax & semantics
  5. Chapter 1. Cross-dialectal productivity of the Spanish subjunctive in nominal clause complements 11
  6. Chapter 2. Mood selection in a contact variety 33
  7. Chapter 3. A corpus analysis of the structural elaboration of Spanish heritage language learners 55
  8. Chapter 4. Evidentiality and epistemic modality in the Andean Spanish verb 75
  9. Part II. Phonetics & phonology
  10. Chapter 5. Realizations of /b/ in the Spanish of Lima, Peru 107
  11. Chapter 6. Did you say peso or beso ? 127
  12. Chapter 7. Sheísmo in Montevideo Spanish 163
  13. Part III. Language attitudes & choice
  14. Chapter 8. ‘Debemos aprender y manejar un poco mejor el español’ 189
  15. Chapter 9. Language choice and use by bilingual preschoolers 211
  16. Chapter 10. Decolonial sociolinguistics gestures of Andean Quechua-Spanish bilingual college students promoting Quechua 231
  17. Chapter 11. New Mochica and the challenge of reviving an extinct language 253
  18. Index 275
https://doi.org/10.1075/ihll.29.01sch

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents vii
  3. Social and linguistic factors shaping language dynamics across the Spanish-speaking world 1
  4. Part I. Morpho-syntax & semantics
  5. Chapter 1. Cross-dialectal productivity of the Spanish subjunctive in nominal clause complements 11
  6. Chapter 2. Mood selection in a contact variety 33
  7. Chapter 3. A corpus analysis of the structural elaboration of Spanish heritage language learners 55
  8. Chapter 4. Evidentiality and epistemic modality in the Andean Spanish verb 75
  9. Part II. Phonetics & phonology
  10. Chapter 5. Realizations of /b/ in the Spanish of Lima, Peru 107
  11. Chapter 6. Did you say peso or beso ? 127
  12. Chapter 7. Sheísmo in Montevideo Spanish 163
  13. Part III. Language attitudes & choice
  14. Chapter 8. ‘Debemos aprender y manejar un poco mejor el español’ 189
  15. Chapter 9. Language choice and use by bilingual preschoolers 211
  16. Chapter 10. Decolonial sociolinguistics gestures of Andean Quechua-Spanish bilingual college students promoting Quechua 231
  17. Chapter 11. New Mochica and the challenge of reviving an extinct language 253
  18. Index 275
Sign up now to receive a 20% welcome discount
Institutional Access
How does access work?
Have an idea on how to improve our website?
Please write us.
© 2025 De Gruyter Brill
Downloaded on 24.9.2025 from https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1075/ihll.29.01sch/html
Scroll to top button