Generational differences in pronominal usage in Spanish reflecting language and dialect contact in a bilingual setting
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Ricardo Otheguy
Abstract
The alternation between presence and absence of subject personal pronouns in Spanish is studied in the bilingual setting of New York City with data extracted from the Otheguy-Zentella corpus. The speech of newcomers to NYC shows that the Caribbean and the Latin American Mainland resemble each other but that there are statistically significant differences between the two regions in occurrence rates of overt pronouns and in the role played by the different person-numbers of the verb in motivating their use. Clear changes in usage are observed in the second, NY-raised generation, consisting of large increases in occurrence rates and in changes in the role played in the selection of overts by the different person-numbers of the verb.
Abstract
The alternation between presence and absence of subject personal pronouns in Spanish is studied in the bilingual setting of New York City with data extracted from the Otheguy-Zentella corpus. The speech of newcomers to NYC shows that the Caribbean and the Latin American Mainland resemble each other but that there are statistically significant differences between the two regions in occurrence rates of overt pronouns and in the role played by the different person-numbers of the verb in motivating their use. Clear changes in usage are observed in the second, NY-raised generation, consisting of large increases in occurrence rates and in changes in the role played in the selection of overts by the different person-numbers of the verb.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Acknowledgements vii
- Introduction 1
- Ethnolects as a multidimensional phenomenon 7
- Applying language technology to detect shift effects 27
- Generational differences in pronominal usage in Spanish reflecting language and dialect contact in a bilingual setting 45
- Personal pronoun variation in language contact 63
- Turkish in the Netherlands 87
- The reflection of historical language contact in present-day Dutch and Swedish 103
- The impact of German on Schleife Sorbian 119
- Detecting contact effects in pronunciation 131
- Language contact and phonological contrast 155
- Translating cultures within the EU 181
- Name index 219
- Subject index 223
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Acknowledgements vii
- Introduction 1
- Ethnolects as a multidimensional phenomenon 7
- Applying language technology to detect shift effects 27
- Generational differences in pronominal usage in Spanish reflecting language and dialect contact in a bilingual setting 45
- Personal pronoun variation in language contact 63
- Turkish in the Netherlands 87
- The reflection of historical language contact in present-day Dutch and Swedish 103
- The impact of German on Schleife Sorbian 119
- Detecting contact effects in pronunciation 131
- Language contact and phonological contrast 155
- Translating cultures within the EU 181
- Name index 219
- Subject index 223
