Volume 16, Issue 1

Speakers make assumptions regarding the informativeness and saliency of referents in discourse and about their addressee’s cognitive status (memory and attention) regarding those referents. These assumptions, in turn, determine the forms (e.g., pronouns, NPs) speakers use when referring to entities. Gundel, Jeanette K., Nancy Hedberg & Ron Zacharski. 1993. Cognitive status and the form of referring expressions in discourse. Language 69(2). 274–307 proposed a set of implicationally related cognitive statuses in the Givenness Hierarchy that predict the forms speakers use to refer to entities in discourse. Greater levels of attention and memory predict the use of phonetically minimal referential forms and lesser levels predict more phonetically elaborate forms. Blackwell, Sarah E. & Margaret Lubbers Quesada. 2012. Third-person subjects in native speakers’ and L2 learners’ narratives: Testing (and revising) the Givenness Hierarchy for Spanish. In Kimberly Geeslin & Manuel Díaz-Campos (eds.), 14th Hispanic linguistics symposium , 142–164. Somerville: Cascadilla tested the predictive power of the Hierarchy for referring expressions in Spanish oral film-retell narratives. Results showed that speakers use the most minimal forms possible (e.g., null pronouns) even when the hierarchy predicts more elaborate forms. Assuming writers make fewer assumptions regarding readers’ level of attention and memory, the present study examines whether the revised Hierarchy proposed by Blackwell, Sarah E. & Margaret Lubbers Quesada. 2012. Third-person subjects in native speakers’ and L2 learners’ narratives: Testing (and revising) the Givenness Hierarchy for Spanish. In Kimberly Geeslin & Manuel Díaz-Campos (eds.), 14th Hispanic linguistics symposium , 142–164. Somerville: Cascadilla is valid for predicting referring forms in Spanish written film retell narrative discourse. The data corroborate that participants select subject forms as predicted, but also reveal an increased use of definite NPs, suggesting that the Hierarchy has a stronger predictive power for oral narratives where attention and memory play a greater role in referent identification.

Resumen El presente estudio examina si el refuerzo de los fonemas /b d ɡ/ en posición intervocálica afecta a la percepción de estos sonidos como acento no nativo en español. Se parte de la hipótesis de que los alófonos más aproximantes de /b d ɡ/ serán percibidos como variantes más nativas del español, mientras que los alófonos más reforzados serán percibidos como menos nativos del español ya que la lenición o espirantización de estos fonemas en posición intervocálica se ha descrito como un fenómeno prácticamente sistemático en español, pero no en otras lenguas como el inglés (Hualde, José Ignacio. 2014. Los sonidos del español . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press). El refuerzo fue operacionalizado en función del grado de oclusión y duración de /b d ɡ/. Se crearon 54 estímulos que contenían instancias de /b d ɡ/ intervocálicas con diferentes grados de oclusión y duración, los cuales fueron transferidos a una tarea de percepción que fue completada por 22 participantes dominicanos y 51 participantes estadounidenses matriculados en programas universitarios de español tanto de posgrado como de grado. Los participantes evaluaron cuán nativo o extranjero sonaba cada estímulo usando una escala de Likert. Los resultados confirman nuestra hipótesis, y las implicaciones de estos resultados se comentan en detalle en este artículo.

This paper analyzes the temporal relationship between a pluperfect verb in a main clause and a following subordinate clause introduced by mientras (‘while’) with an imperfect verb. The specific lexical and aspectual properties of the components lead to clashing expectations concerning the temporal relationship within the structure. The issues are three-fold. First, the subordinating conjunction lexically expresses the co-temporality of the subordinate clause with regard to another eventuality. Second, this may be possible when the pluperfect verb has an eventive reading, but what happens if it asserts a post-state? Third, the widely recognized discourse structural description (coming from DRT) of an imperfect verb is that its location time includes a previously introduced reference time. However, in traditional terms, the reference time involved in the meaning of a pluperfect verb is posterior to the event the pluperfect verb expresses. We address these issues and present a dataset collected from various corpora which underlines that the temporal relationships within the structure show a surprising variability. We discuss the different possibilities in depth, taking Aktionsart and subject reference into account. We also focus on the theoretical issue of the concept of reference time. On the basis of our data, and counter to the traditional approach, we argue that a temporal discourse structure should account for pluperfect verbs by means of secondary reference times.

This paper studies the interpretive properties of emphatic possessives in Spanish (e.g., El apartamento tiene su cocina y todo ‘The flat has its own kitchen and all’), focusing on a feature that distinguishes this type of possessives from canonical prenominal possessives: their reflexive status. It is first claimed that emphatic possessives are consistently used in order to confirm and reinforce a pre-existent possession relation. Certain cases that prima facie might cast doubts on the characterization of emphatic possessives as reflexives are further addressed, showing that possessives with an emphatic meaning always behave like anaphors. The role reflexivity plays in the expression of emphasis is finally discussed, arguing that emphatic possessives belong to a group of optional non-core reflexive pronouns with an emphatic import, which also includes emphatic pronouns and the aspectual dative.

This paper discusses the lateral /l/ in coda in Principense Portuguese (PP). Based on an elicited corpus recorded in situ , composed of 852 occurrences of 78 lexical items, we found that the lateral /l/ in coda can be vocalized or deleted. For instance, bolso ‘pocket’ can be pronounced as [ˈbow.sʊ] or [ˈbo.sʊ], as reported in some Brazilian Portuguese varieties. In PP, vocalization and deletion are phenomena that arise from a confluence of factors. It gathers characteristic features of the formative grammatical structure of Portuguese. At the same time, it reflects the linguistic contact scenario in which PP is inserted, since the lenition of consonants in semivowels, as well as strategies to avoid codas, are also reported in Lung’Ie (LI), a language in synchronic contact and present in the constitution of the PP (Agostinho, Ana Lívia. 2015. Fonologia e método pedagógico do lung’Ie [Phonology and pedagogical method of Lung’Ie]. São Paulo: University of São Paulo dissertation). Both Portuguese and Lung’Ie support vocalization and deletion in their grammars, fostering a relevant overlap of features to the alternation [ɫ] ∼ [w] ∼ ∅ in PP. We conclude that, in addition to specific features of Portuguese grammatical structure, PP’s linguistic contact situation must be considered as a relevant factor for the deletion and vocalization of laterals in coda in PP.

Resumen En situaciones de contacto intenso entre dos comunidades lingüísticas, es probable que surjan varios cambios lingüísticos debido al contacto. Este estudio expande la investigación del español en contacto con el maya kaqchikel mediante la examinación de la glotalización de las vocales iniciales de palabra, un fenómeno que ocurre obligatoriamente en kaqchikel. Empleando la sociolingüística comparativa, se investigaron no solo los factores lingüísticos y extralingüísticos que influyen la cantidad de glotalización (i.e., presencia de una oclusivas glotal sorda o voz rechinada), sino también su calidad (i.e., porcentaje de glotalización presente en el segmento). Los resultados indican que hay diferencias significativas entre los hablantes bilingües y monolingües, ya que los bilingües tienen una tasa de glotalización más alta; además, la separación de los datos monolingües de los bilingües revela que la glotalización de las vocales iniciales es estable en la comunidad bilingüe, pero hay un cambio en progreso en la población monolingüe. Aparte de analizar los hallazgos en el contexto socioecológico de Guatemala, también se contrastan con otras dos situaciones de contacto (i.e., Paraguay y el Yucatán) para examinar el efecto del nivel de bilingüismo en la sociedad con respecto a la tasa de glotalización.

This paper explores the hypothesis that devoicing and deletion of /-d/ can index Madrilenian localness in part because of how these variants are experienced when they happen in the city’s name. Drawing on the notions of enregisterment and metapragmatic stereotypes, this study examines how sociolinguistic variation and linguistic ideology contribute to this indexicality. The data set consists of readings, sociolinguistic interviews, and metalinguistic talk produced by 35 participants from multiple neighborhoods in Madrid. Quantitative analyses examine how /-d/ allophony in the word  Madrid  patterns with speakers’ characteristics and speech style. A qualitative analysis explores the explicit form-meaning links that emerge in participants’ evaluative comments about various ways of saying Madrid , as well as the underlying ideologies these associations reveal. Results show correlations in usage and recurrent discursive patterns that support the study’s hypothesis. When the word Madrid is used and talked about, the social deixis of /-d/ allophony interacts with the place deictic function of the word to conjure up certain indexicalities that can be exploited to construct locally meaningful personae. By exploring the interaction between phonetic variation and the pragmatic practice of place naming, this study expands our understanding of the development of social meaning, specifically localness.

The current study investigates pronunciation of Spanish <ll> and <y> by intermediate L1 English learners of L2 Spanish ( N  = 31). Third- ( n  = 17) and fifth-semester ( n  = 14) learners completed read-aloud and picture-naming tasks. Each contained items with <ll> and <y> in stressed position after pause or nasal, and in unstressed intervocalic position. Recordings were made and analyzed with PRAAT. First, target segments were categorized based on spectrographic evidence (e.g., contour and intensity of formants, frication, burst) and aural review. Subsequently, intensity differences between the target segments and following vowel were computed. Results show minimal production of affricates/stops, even in contexts favoring them in some dialects (i.e., stressed position after pause, nasal). Nevertheless, both learner levels did produce significantly more constricted sounds in this context than in unstressed position between vowels, as measured by both analyses, with post-pausal position leading to the greatest constriction. Significant effects also emerged for letter, with <ll> more frequently deleted or pronounced as a lateral, and for task, with the more formal task leading to greater constriction in the first analysis. No significant difference emerged based on learner level.