Volume 5, Issue 1

This paper presents variationist sociolinguistics research on the copula estar with predicate adjectives in Cuban Spanish, a variety in which it appears to have gone largely uninvestigated. To examine its social and linguistic distribution, a real-time study with data from the 1960s and 1990s was coupled with an apparent-time study with data from the 1990s. Findings showed that generation and adjective type were significant factors constraining the variation. The comparison of different generations in real and apparent time suggested that the frequency of estar had increased significantly in the younger generation compared to older ones, and it had remained stable for the two age cohorts studied in real time. Results for following adjective showed that the extension of estar was favored in two of eight adjective classes. These findings suggest that Cuban Spanish has experienced a change over time in the frequency and distribution of innovative estar with predicate adjectives.

This article discusses the semantic changes inherent in the grammaticalization process that have led to the ditransitive construction [NP V NP para NP] in Brazilian Portuguese. We have tried to demonstrate that the high complexity of these changes cannot be conceived of solely as the result of a process of desemantization. As an alternative hypothesis, we propose that the conceptual structure of this construction is caused by a specific type of blending called doublescope blending. This type of blending is especially suitable for explaining one of the key features of the conceptual structure of [NP V NP para NP], namely the fact that this structure is composed of semantic aspects from different conceptual domains.

It is the purpose of this paper to analyze the grammatical behavior of two elements of Southern Cone Spanish described in the relevant literature as affixes: re and ité. Both share a number of morphological, syntactic, and semantic properties. For instance, they may be combined with different categorial classes (adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, verbs, nouns, and sentences) and they receive a similar appreciative meaning (‘very’, ‘much’, ‘certainly’, ‘great’ or ‘true’, depending on the categorial combination). Besides, both are used in informal speech, in the Rio de la Plata Spanish, mainly among the young people (re), and in the Paraguaian Spanish in contact with Guarani (ité). The proposed analysis of these elements follows the lines of Distributed Morphology, intending to reduce both the number of lexical entries and the inventory of formal features in syntax. Additionally, we expect to make a contribution to the general discussion about the concepts of quantification and intensification.

While previous studies have investigated the acquisition of Spanish vowels by English speakers, none has examined how sequences of vowels are acquired. This study considers the developmental path of acquisition of diphthongs and hiatus by English-speaking learners of Spanish. Previous studies have found that duration is a robust acoustic cue to the difference between a diphthong and a hiatus (Face & Alvord 2004, Hualde & Prieto 2002). This study investigates how the durational difference is manifest in the speech of L2 learners of Spanish and how its realization changes as a function of proficiency in Spanish. In addition, transfer of a phonological constraint in English barring homorganic consonant-glide (CG) onset clusters (Davis & Hammond 1995, Ohala & Kawasaki-Fukumori 1997) and phonetic transfer of the relative intensity values of English glides, which have been found to be lower in English (MacLeod 2008), onto production of Spanish glides are also investigated. A delayed-repetition task with English and Spanish tokens tested 4 groups of speakers: beginning learners, intermediate learners, native Spanish speakers, and native English speakers. The results show that the learners produce a durational difference similar to the native speakers (in that hiatus were, on average, longer than diphthongs), but that the duration of the individual vowels was longer in the speech of the learners as compared to the native speakers. Transfer of the phonological constraint against homorganic CG clusters was found to some extent since glides in homorganic CG clusters were marginally statistically significantly longer than those in non-homorganic clusters in the speech of the beginning learners, but not for native Spanish speakers. In contrast, phonetic transfer of the relative intensity norms of English onto Spanish was not found since the learners produced Spanish glides with a higher relative intensity than the native Spanish speakers. The salience of duration and intensity for English speakers are discussed in concert with general articulatory concerns, both of the vocalic sequences themselves and in terms of the surrounding consonants.

Although both constituent order and variation in the expression of pronominal subjects are well-established research topics in Hispanic and Lusophone linguistics, the placement of pronominal subjects has received relatively little attention in previous research. The goal of the present study is to fill this gap by examining postverbal pronominal subjects in spoken Peninsular Spanish and European Portuguese using data from the Corpus del Español and Corpus do Português, taking into account such factors as verb semantics and transitivity. It is shown that the factors affecting the placement of pronominal subjects differ from those related to nominal subjects, as pronouns typically represent old information in discourse. Pronominal subjects are relatively uncommon in the postverbal position in both languages, but especially in European Portuguese where they appear mostly in grammaticalized constructions (e.g. quotatives). The postverbal placement of pronominal subjects is often related to non-topical status of the subject and serves a backgrounding function in discourse. It is most frequently associated with twoargument verbs characterized by low transitivity.

This sociolinguistic study explores linguistic attitudes of Salvadorans and Hondurans living in the United States towards the use of voseo, a distinguishing feature of Central American Spanish. Using sociolinguistic interviews and ethnographic observations, the Central American experience in Oregon and Washington is examined regarding linguistic attitudes toward voseo and tuteo and how these influence Salvadoran and Honduran identity in U.S. communities that are primarily Mexican-American. Initial findings point to participants developing ethnolinguistic masks and an expanded use of tú as a strategic approach to integration into the established Mexican-American community, while at the same time maintaining a sense of Central American identity.