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Children’s Spanish subject pronoun expression

A developmental change in tú?
  • Naomi Shin
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Spanish Language and Sociolinguistic Analysis
Ein Kapitel aus dem Buch Spanish Language and Sociolinguistic Analysis

Abstract

This study explores children’s acquisition of structured morphosyntactic variation by examining Spanish subject pronoun expression. Analyses of 5,923 verbs produced by 154 Mexican children, ages 6 to 16, show that the variables that most strongly constrain the oldest children’s pronoun usage – Person, Reference, Priming – are acquired first during childhood. These variables exert similar effects across age, with the exception of second-person singular, which favors tú expression among younger children and tú omission among older children. The developmental trajectory from more to less tú expression is explained as the result of (a) increasing production of nonspecific reference, which in turn decreases rates of tú, and (b) abundant reported speech in the younger children’s data, which rendered tú expression pragmatically appropriate.

Abstract

This study explores children’s acquisition of structured morphosyntactic variation by examining Spanish subject pronoun expression. Analyses of 5,923 verbs produced by 154 Mexican children, ages 6 to 16, show that the variables that most strongly constrain the oldest children’s pronoun usage – Person, Reference, Priming – are acquired first during childhood. These variables exert similar effects across age, with the exception of second-person singular, which favors tú expression among younger children and tú omission among older children. The developmental trajectory from more to less tú expression is explained as the result of (a) increasing production of nonspecific reference, which in turn decreases rates of tú, and (b) abundant reported speech in the younger children’s data, which rendered tú expression pragmatically appropriate.

Kapitel in diesem Buch

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents vii
  3. Acknowledgments ix
  4. Introduction xi
  5. Part I. Cutting-edge Methodologies in Sociolinguistics
  6. Quantitative analysis in language variation and change 3
  7. Combining population genetics (DNA) with historical linguistics 33
  8. Part II. Bilingualism
  9. Los Angeles Vernacular Spanish 91
  10. On the tenacity of Andean Spanish 109
  11. Spanish and Valencian in contact 135
  12. Part III. Language Acquisition
  13. Children’s Spanish subject pronoun expression 157
  14. The role of social networks in the acquisition of a dialectal features during study abroad 177
  15. Lexical frequency and subject expression in native and non-native Spanish 197
  16. Part IV. Phonological Variation
  17. On glottal stops in Yucatan Spanish 219
  18. Vowel raising and social networks in Michoacán 241
  19. Bilingualism and aspiration 261
  20. Part V. Morpho-Syntactic Variation
  21. Spanish and Portuguese parallels 285
  22. The tuteo of Rocha, Uruguay 305
  23. A corpus-based sociolinguistic study of contact-induced changes in subject placement in the Spanish of New York City bilinguals 323
  24. Part VI. Lexical Variation
  25. Social factors in semantic change 345
  26. Attitudes towards lexical Arabisms in sixteenth-century Spanish texts 363
  27. “Trabajar es en español, en ladino es lavorar” 381
  28. Index 401
https://doi.org/10.1075/ihll.8.06shi

Kapitel in diesem Buch

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents vii
  3. Acknowledgments ix
  4. Introduction xi
  5. Part I. Cutting-edge Methodologies in Sociolinguistics
  6. Quantitative analysis in language variation and change 3
  7. Combining population genetics (DNA) with historical linguistics 33
  8. Part II. Bilingualism
  9. Los Angeles Vernacular Spanish 91
  10. On the tenacity of Andean Spanish 109
  11. Spanish and Valencian in contact 135
  12. Part III. Language Acquisition
  13. Children’s Spanish subject pronoun expression 157
  14. The role of social networks in the acquisition of a dialectal features during study abroad 177
  15. Lexical frequency and subject expression in native and non-native Spanish 197
  16. Part IV. Phonological Variation
  17. On glottal stops in Yucatan Spanish 219
  18. Vowel raising and social networks in Michoacán 241
  19. Bilingualism and aspiration 261
  20. Part V. Morpho-Syntactic Variation
  21. Spanish and Portuguese parallels 285
  22. The tuteo of Rocha, Uruguay 305
  23. A corpus-based sociolinguistic study of contact-induced changes in subject placement in the Spanish of New York City bilinguals 323
  24. Part VI. Lexical Variation
  25. Social factors in semantic change 345
  26. Attitudes towards lexical Arabisms in sixteenth-century Spanish texts 363
  27. “Trabajar es en español, en ladino es lavorar” 381
  28. Index 401
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Heruntergeladen am 12.9.2025 von https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1075/ihll.8.06shi/html
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