Variable subject pronoun expression in Cabo-Verdean Creole

2021 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Adrián Rodríguez-Riccelli
Keyword(s):  
Subject Domain ◽  
Third Person ◽  
Subject Pronoun ◽  
Subject Clitics ◽  
Subject Expression ◽  
Person Agreement ◽  
Formal Category ◽  
Person Marking

Abstract The Cabo-Verdean Creole (CVC) subject domain has clitic and tonic pronouns that often amalgamate in double subject pronoun constructions; the possibility of a zero-subject and the formal category underlying subject clitics are disputed (Baptista 1995, 2002; Pratas 2004). This article discusses five variable constraints that condition subject expression across three descriptive and inferential analyses of a corpus of speech collected from 33 speakers from Santiago and Maio. Double subject pronoun constructions and zero-subjects were promoted by a persistence effect, though for the former this applied across nonadjacent clauses since double subject pronoun constructions are switch reference and contrastive devices resembling the doubling of agreement suffixes by independent pronouns in languages traditionally classified as pro-drop. Zero-subjects were favored in third-person contexts as previously observed by Baptista and Bayer (2013), and when a semantically referentially deficient (Duarte & Soares da Silva 2016) DP antecedent was in an Intonational Unit that was prosodically and syntactically linked to the Intonational Unit containing the target anaphor (Torres Cacoullos & Travis 2019). Results support reclassification of CVC subject clitics as ambiguous person agreement markers (Siewierska 2004) and suggest that CVC is developing a split-paradigm for person marking and subject expression (Wratil 2009; Baptista & Bayer 2013).

First-Person Plural Subject Pronoun Expression in Mexican Spanish Spoken in Georgia

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 411-432
Author(s):  
Philip P. Limerick
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Language Variation ◽  
First Person ◽  
Mexican Spanish ◽  
Language Variation And Change ◽  
Person Plural ◽  
Third Person ◽  
Subject Pronoun ◽  
Subject Expression ◽  
First Person Plural

Abstract Variationist research on subject pronoun expression (SPE) in Spanish typically incorporates all grammatical persons/numbers into the same analysis, with important exceptions such as studies focusing exclusively on first-person singular (e.g., Travis, Catherine E. 2005. The yo-yo effect: Priming in subject expression in Colombian Spanish. In Randall Gess & Edward J Rubin (eds.), Selected papers from the 34th Linguistic Symposium on Romance Languages (LSRL), 329–349. Amsterdam, Salt Lake City: Benjamins 2004; Travis, Catherine E. 2007. Genre effects on subject expression in Spanish: Priming in narrative and conversation. Language Variation and Change 19. 101–135; Travis, Catherine E. & Rena Torres Cacoullos. 2012. What do subject pronouns do in discourse? Cognitive, mechanical and constructional factors in variation. Cognitive Linguistics 23(4). 711–748), third-person singular (Shin, Naomi Lapidus. 2014. Grammatical complexification in Spanish in New York: 3sg pronoun expression and verbal ambiguity. Language Variation and Change 26. 303–330), and third-person plural subjects (Lapidus, Naomi & Ricardo Otheguy. 2005. Overt nonspecific ellos in Spanish in New York. Spanish in Context 2(2). 157–174). The current study is the first variationist analysis (to the best of my knowledge) to focus solely on first-person plural SPE. It is well-established that nosotros/nosotras exhibits one of the lowest rates of SPE relative to the other persons/numbers; however, factors conditioning its variation are less understood. Conversational corpus data from Mexican Spanish are employed to examine tokens of first-person plural SPE (n=660) in terms of frequency and constraints, incorporating factors such as TMA, switch reference, and verb class in logistic regression analyses. Results suggest that nosotros, like other subjects, is strongly impacted by switch reference and tense-mood-aspect (TMA). However, the TMA effect is unique in that preterit aspect is shown to favor overt nosotros relative to other TMAs, diverging from previous studies. Furthermore, verb class — a factor found to be repeatedly significant in the literature — is inoperative for nosotros. These results suggest that nosotros does not respond to the same factors as other persons/numbers. Additionally, the findings lend support to researchers regarding the importance of studying individual persons/numbers in subject variation research.

scholarly journals Categories and Frequency: Cognition Verbs in Spanish Subject Expression

Languages ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 126
Author(s):  
Catherine E. Travis ◽  
Rena Torres Cacoullos
Keyword(s):  
High Frequency ◽  
Fixed Effects ◽  
Variable Structure ◽  
Semantic Classes ◽  
Variation Patterns ◽  
Subject Pronoun ◽  
Subject Expression ◽  
Linguistic Categories ◽  
Analysis Of Variation ◽  
New Evidence

Are semantic classes of verbs genuine or do they merely mask idiosyncrasies of frequent verbs? Here, we examine the interplay between semantic classes and frequent verb-form combinations, providing new evidence from variation patterns in spontaneous speech that linguistic categories are centered on high frequency members to which other members are similar. We offer an account of the well-known favoring effect of cognition verbs on Spanish subject pronoun expression by considering the role of high-frequency verbs (e.g., creer ‘think’ and saber ‘know’) and particular expressions ((yo) creo ‘I think’, (yo) no sé ‘I don’t know’). Analysis of variation in nearly 3000 tokens of unexpressed and pronominal subjects in conversational data replicates well-established predictors, but highlights that the cognition verb effect is really one of 1sg cognition verbs. In addition, particular expressions stand out for their high frequency relative to their component parts (for (yo) creo, proportion of lexical type, and proportion of pronoun). Further analysis of 1sg verbs with frequent expressions as fixed effects reveals shared patterns with other cognition verbs, including an association with non-coreferential contexts. Thus, classes can be identified by variation constraints and contextual distributions that are shared among class members and are measurably different from those of the more general variable structure. Cognition verbs in variable Spanish subject expression form a class anchored in lexically particular constructions.

scholarly journals The Interaction of Functional Predictors and the Mechanical Predictor Perseveration in a Variationist Analysis of Caribbean Spanish Heritage Speaker Subject Pronoun Expression

Languages ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 36
Author(s):  
Ana de Prada Pérez
Keyword(s):  
Mixed Effects ◽  
Reference Tracking ◽  
Heritage Speaker ◽  
Functional Predictors ◽  
Caribbean Spanish ◽  
Third Person ◽  
Subject Pronoun ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Rule Analysis

Subject pronoun expression (SPE) in Spanish has been widely studied across monolingual and bilingual varieties, showing a consistent effect of functional predictors. In recent papers, the role of the mechanical predictor priming, or perseveration, has been the source of debate. Additionally, little is known about the interaction of perseveration and significant functional predictors (e.g., grammatical person). In this paper, we expand on previous research by examining first-person singular (1sg) and third-person singular (3sg) data from sociolinguistic interviews with Spanish–English bilinguals from Florida to explore the possible difference in priming in deictic vs. referential subjects. The results from a mixed-effects variable rule analysis only offered clear evidence of priming in 1sg. We hypothesize that this result could be due to either surprisal (1sg overt pronominal subjects are rarer in the corpus that 3sg overt pronominal subjects) or to 3sg involving reference-tracking and perseveration only being evident in contexts where the subject form does not signal for pragmatic content.

scholarly journals Referential hierarchies: A new look at some historical and typological patterns

Linguistics ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 54 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Spike Gildea ◽  
Fernando Zúñiga
Keyword(s):  
First Person ◽  
Historical Sources ◽  
Second Person ◽  
Case Marking ◽  
Asymmetrical Pattern ◽  
Third Person ◽  
Grammatical Change ◽  
Formal Properties ◽  
Constituent Ordering ◽  
Person Marking

AbstractThis paper proposes a diachronic typology for the various patterns that have been referred to as Hierarchical Alignment or Inverse Alignment. Previous typological studies have tried to explain such patterns as grammatical reflections of a universal Referential Hierarchy, in which first person outranks second person outranks third person and humans outrank other animates outrank inanimates. However, our study shows that most of the formal properties of hierarchy-sensitive constructions are essentially predictable from their historical sources. We have identified three sources for hierarchical person marking, three for direction marking, two for obviative case marking, and one for hierarchical constituent ordering. These sources suggest that there is more than one explanation for hierarchical alignment: one is consistent with Givón’s claim that hierarchical patterns are a grammaticalization of generic topicality; another is consistent with DeLancey’s claim that hierarchies reflect the deictic distinction between present (1/2) and distant (3) participants; another is simply a new manifestation of a common asymmetrical pattern, the use of zero marking for third persons. More importantly, the evolution of hierarchical grammatical patterns does not reflect a consistent universal ranking of participants – at least in those cases where we can see (or infer) historical stages in the evolution of these properties, different historical stages appear to reflect different hierarchical rankings of participants, especially first and second person. This leads us to conclude that the diversity of hierarchical patterns is an artifact of grammatical change, and that in general, the presence of hierarchical patterns in synchronic grammars is not somehow conditioned by some more general universal hierarchy.

The discursive distribution of subject pronouns in Spanish spoken in Georgia: A weakening of pragmatic constraints?

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 97-126
Author(s):  
Philip P. Limerick
Keyword(s):  
Contact Hypothesis ◽  
First Person ◽  
Contrastive Focus ◽  
Subject Pronouns ◽  
Overt Pronoun ◽  
Subject Pronoun ◽  
Subject Expression

AbstractThis study examines subject expression from a pragmatic perspective in an emerging bilingual community of Roswell, Georgia, an exurb of Atlanta. Using sociolinguistic interviews conducted in Roswell, first-person singular subject pronoun (SP) usage is analyzed among 10 Mexican speakers within five distinct pragmatic contexts: salient referent, switch focus, contrastive focus, pragmatic weight, and epistemic parentheticals. A comparison is made between Georgia speakers and monolingual Mexican speakers in Querétaro in order to explore the possible weakening of pragmatic constraints due to English contact. Results indicate that a contact hypothesis is not supported in terms of overall overt pronoun usage as evidenced by similar frequencies when compared to monolingual Mexican varieties. However, an increased use of overt SPs in the context of salient referent as well as a diminished use of overt SPs in switch focus contexts is found, suggesting a potential weakened sensitivity to such pragmatic constraints.

Continuity and change

2016 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 103-127 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miguel Ramos
Keyword(s):  
Language Change ◽  
16Th Century ◽  
First Person ◽  
Semantic Class ◽  
Continuity And Change ◽  
Subject Pronoun ◽  
Subject Expression

Based on 2,685 instances of verbs inflected for first-person singular (1sg) drawn from 14th–16th century Spanish texts, the current study offers two main findings on the diachrony of variable subject expression. The results indicate that, in general, the linguistic conditioning of 1sg subject pronoun expression (yo) remains constant throughout the centuries, following the patterns reported for present-day Spanish. We observe an effect of switch reference and of distance between coreferential subjects favoring expression. Additionally found is coreferential subject priming, such that the form of a previous coreferential subject significantly influences subsequent coreferential mentions. Finally, tense-aspect-mood is significant, though both the imperfect and future tenses favor expression. Nevertheless, verb semantic class does not influence these data. In particular, the yo+cognition verb construction, especially the highly frequent yo creo, which leads the cognition-verb category nowadays, is absent here. The study thus both offers evidence of continuity and suggests possible language change.

Choosing between zero and pronominal subject: modeling subject expression in the 1st person singular in Finnish conversation

2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marja-Liisa Helasvuo ◽  
Aki-Juhani Kyröläinen
Keyword(s):  
Statistical Analysis ◽  
Multivariate Statistical Analysis ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Interesting Case ◽  
Multivariate Statistical ◽  
Dominant Type ◽  
Grammatical Agreement ◽  
Anaphoric Pronoun ◽  
Subject Pronoun ◽  
Subject Expression

AbstractThe variability of subject expression has been extensively investigated across languages. We present a large-scale multivariate statistical analysis of the choice of subject expression in the 1st person singular in spontaneous Finnish conversation, with a focus on the choice between pronominal and zero subject. Spoken Finnish represents an interesting case, as the dominant type of subject expression is double marking, i. e. the combination of a pronominal subject marker (subject pronoun) and a verbal subject marker (person marking). Siewierska (1999, From anaphoric pronoun to grammatical agreement marker: Why objects don’t make it.

Subject pronoun doubling in Agul

2016 ◽  
Vol 40 (4) ◽  
pp. 955-987 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timur A. Maisak
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Personal Pronouns ◽  
Clitic Doubling ◽  
Subject Pronoun ◽  
Doubling Construction ◽  
Person Agreement

The paper describes the doubling of free personal pronouns in Agul, an East Caucasian language spoken in Daghestan, Russia. The doubling construction consists of a subject pronoun in the canonical preverbal position, paired with an identical instance of the same pronoun immediately following the verb. The first pronoun is usually adjacent to the “verb–pronoun” combination, though it can optionally be separated by another constituent. In the oral corpus consulted for the analysis, the construction is found most often with the primary verb of speech in clauses introducing a quote (e.g. ‘I said I, …’). I argue that the doubling pattern originated as the conflation of a preverbal subject with a very frequent “verb–subject” word order used with highly topical referents. The function of the doubling construction is therefore postulated to draw additional attention to the referent. A brief comparison of Agul doubling and related phenomena in other languages (e.g. person agreement and clitic doubling) is also offered.

scholarly journals First-person singular and third-person subject pronoun variation: The case of Mexican Spanish in the U.S. state of Georgia

Lenguaje ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 104-134
Author(s):  
Philip P. Limerick
Keyword(s):  
First Generation ◽  
Mexican Immigrants ◽  
First Person ◽  
Regression Analyses ◽  
Mexican Spanish ◽  
Usage Patterns ◽  
Third Person ◽  
Subject Pronoun ◽  
Person Variable ◽  
The U.S

The current study analyzes variable subject pronoun expression (SPE) for first-person singular (1sg) and third-person subjects in a variety of Mexican Spanish spoken by first-generation Mexican immigrants in the state of Georgia, Southeastern U.S. Conversational data from sociolinguistic interviews are employed to examine tokens of 1sg and third-person variable SPE and their usage patterns, considering factors such as tense-mood-aspect (TMA), switch reference, polarity, and verb class by means of logistic regression analyses. Results suggest that all four factors influence 1sg variation, but that third-person variation is restricted to switch reference and TMA. In addition, a significant link between switch reference and TMA is found for third-person subjects, but not for 1sg. The findings lend further support to previous scholars advocating the importance of studying individual grammatical persons in SPE research as this can reveal previously obfuscated nuances in the patterns of subject variation.

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