scholarly journals Subject pronoun expression in Mexican Spanish: ¿Qué pasa en Xalapa?

2016 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rafael Orozco
Keyword(s):  
Personal Pronoun ◽  
Null Subjects ◽  
Mexican Spanish ◽  
Lexical Frequency ◽  
Verb Semantics ◽  
Subject Pronoun ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Grammatical Number ◽  
Effect Of Age

This study is the first variationist analysis of subject personal pronoun expression (SPE) in the Spanish of Xalapa, Mexico. The overall pronominal rate (25%)—the highest such rate found in Mexican Spanish so far—also constitutes one of the highest in a mainland Spanish variety. Six predictors—four internal and two external—significantly condition SPE. The internal conditioning—congruent with what occurs elsewhere—reveals grammatical number and person of the subject as the strongest predictor. It also shows that verb class has tendencies similar to those found in other communities. However, further analysis uncovers that lexical frequency provides more definite answers regarding how verbs condition SPE, as within the copulative verb class category ser ‘be’ favors overt subjects but estar ‘be’ favors null subjects. Moreover, the unusually robust effect of age sets Xalapa Spanish apart from most other varieties. Interestingly, the pronominal rate among teenagers (11%)—below the lowest overall pronominal rate anywhere—is consistent with what occurs in other Spanish varieties such as Colombian, European, Dominican, and Mexican. These findings call for further research on the effects of verb semantics and age on SPE.

scholarly journals Variable subject pronoun expression revisited: This is what the Paisas do

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 713
Author(s):  
Rafael Orozco ◽  
Luz Marcela Hurtado
Keyword(s):  
Null Subjects ◽  
Lexical Effect ◽  
Depth Analysis ◽  
Subject Pronoun ◽  
Conditioning Effect ◽  
Cognitive Verbs ◽  
Effect Of Age

We explore subject pronoun expression (SPE) in Medellín, Colombia using 4,623 tokens to test eight predictors. The 28% overall pronominal rate found is significantly higher than those in other mainland communities. Grammatical person exerts the greatest conditioning effect, with uno ‘one’ strongly favoring overt subjects. Findings for verb class reveal that speech and cognitive verbs promote overt subjects. However, our in-depth analysis unveils opposing tendencies between different pronominal subject + verb collocations for the same verb. E.g., whereas (yo) soy ‘I am’ strongly favors overt subjects, (ellos) son ‘they are’ favors null subjects. These findings suggest that analyses focusing on infinitives do not constitute the most accurate way to explore verb effects on SPE. Moreover, the effect of age reveals a low pronominal rate among the youngest speakers, a finding that appears to have cognitive and acquisitional implications, as younger speakers would be expected to have higher pronominal rates. In general, this study contributes to expand our knowledge of SPE. Further, the findings regarding age and the lexical effect of the verb open promising research paths.

scholarly journals Condicionantes sociolingüísticos en la expresión del sujeto pronominal en el corpus PRESEEA-Sevilla: el sociolecto alto

2020 ◽  
Vol 22 ◽  
pp. 397-423
Author(s):  
Doina Repede
Keyword(s):  
Spanish Language ◽  
External Factors ◽  
Personal Pronoun ◽  
Semantic Class ◽  
Verbal Form ◽  
Subject Pronoun ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Coding Guidelines ◽  
The City

Este trabajo se propone analizar la variable presencia / ausencia del pronombre personal sujeto junto a un verbo conjugado en el español hablado de la comunidad urbana de Sevilla. En concreto, intentamos establecer cuáles son los factores internos y externos que determinan el empleo del sujeto pronominal en una muestra de 24 entrevistas semidirigidas correspondientes al sociolecto alto y que forman del corpus PRESEEA en la ciudad. Para ello, seguimos la guía de codificación propuesta por Bentivoglio, Ortiz y Silva-Corvalán (2011) para el proyecto panhispánico PRESEEA. Los resultados muestran que el pronombre sujeto se utiliza un 24,8%, y parece estar condicionado, entre otros, por criterios como persona gramatical, especificidad, ambigüedad de la forma verbal, clase semántica del verbo, correfencialidad, edad, etc. This study aims to analysis the variable presence/absence of the personal pronoun subject with a conjugated verb in Spanish language spoken in the city of Seville. Specifically, we try to stablish which internal or external factors are involved in the pronominal subject use in a sample of 24 semi-controlled interviews corresponding to the high sociolect and taken from the PRESEEA-Seville corpus. For this, we base our analysis on the coding guidelines proposed by Bentivoglio, Ortiz and Silva-Corvalán (2011) for the PRESEEA panhispanic project. The results show that the subject pronoun is used in 24,8% and it is conditioned by different criteria, such as grammatical person, specificity, ambiguity of the verbal form, semantic class of the verb, co-reference or age.

VARIATION IN SUBJECT PRONOMINAL EXPRESSION IN L2 CHINESE

2013 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-68 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaoshi Li
Keyword(s):  
Native Speaker ◽  
First Language ◽  
Null Subjects ◽  
Russian Speakers ◽  
Language Groups ◽  
Overt Pronouns ◽  
Comparison Results ◽  
Subject Pronoun ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Null Pronoun

This study investigates subject pronominal expression in second language Chinese and compares learner usage with patterns found in their first language. The results show that (a) overt pronouns are used more for singular, +animate subjects than plural, –animate ones; (b) switch in subject surface form favors overt pronouns; (c) English and Russian speakers use overt pronouns more than Korean and Japanese speakers; (d) statements favor overt pronouns most, followed by questions and then imperatives; (e) females use overt pronouns more than males; (f) conversations slightly favor overt pronouns, whereas narratives favor null pronouns; (g) higher proficiency learners across language groups use more null subject referents than do lower proficiency learners; and (h) nonspecific subject referents promote null subjects. Comparison results show that learner patterns are similar to those of their native speaker peers on most dimensions explored except that they tend to overuse overt pronouns. That is, the learners have acquired the subject pronoun use pattern in Chinese rather successfully but need to further develop their sociolinguistic competence regarding null pronoun usage.

Nochmals zur Kataphora im Älteren Ägyptisch

2019 ◽  
Vol 27 ◽  
pp. 237-242
Author(s):  
Carsten Peust
Keyword(s):  
Personal Pronoun ◽  
Semantic Constraint ◽  
The Subject

“Once more on Earlier Egyptian cataphora” -- This is a supplement to Uljas’ recent paper on cataphora in Earlier Egyptian. Opposing his suggestion of a semantic constraint in the use of cataphora, I argue that the principal constraint in Egyptian cataphora is a syntactic one: A personal pronoun may only receive a cataphoric interpretation if it refers to the subject of the clause.

scholarly journals A Variationist Study of Subject Pronoun Expression in Medellín, Colombia

Languages ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 5
Author(s):  
Rafael Orozco ◽  
Luz Marcela Hurtado
Keyword(s):  
Latin American ◽  
Random Effect ◽  
Routine Activities ◽  
Null Subjects ◽  
Functional Categories ◽  
Lexical Effect ◽  
Spanish Speaking ◽  
Baseline Knowledge ◽  
Subject Pronoun ◽  
Reflexive Verbs

This variationist study of subject pronoun expression (SPE) in Medellín, Colombia uses multivariate regressions to probe the effects of ten predictors on 4623 tokens from the Proyecto para el Estudio Sociolingüístico del Español de España y de América (PRESEEA) corpus. We implement analytical innovations by exploring transitivity and the lexical effect of the verb, which we analyze by testing infinitives and subject pronoun + verb collocations, respectively, as standalone, random-effect factors. Our results reveal the highest pronominal rate (28%) found in a mainland Spanish-speaking community. Additionally, we uncover that pronominal rates increase with age, a finding which appears to have cognitive implications. The internal conditioning contributes to pronombrista studies by showing the effects of discourse type and transitivity. Narratives and opinion statements favor overt subjects, but statements indicating routine activities favor null subjects. Whereas unergative verbs promote overt subjects, reflexive verbs favor null subjects. The lexical effect of the verb reveals opposing tendencies between verbs in the same category as well as within different collocations of the same verb, providing more definitive answers than the semantically guided approaches used for the last four decades and showing that verb groupings do not constitute functional categories with regard to SPE. Overall, this study contributes to expand our baseline knowledge of SPE in mainland Latin American communities and opens interesting research avenues.

scholarly journals Conceptual effects on agreement: A corpus study of mismatch in English copular constructions

2012 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 3
Author(s):  
Cecily Jill Duffield
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Information ◽  
Corpus Study ◽  
Number Agreement ◽  
Verb Agreement ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Agreement Morphology ◽  
Grammatical Number ◽  
Verb Number ◽  
Conceptual Relationship

Research on the production of subject-verb agreement has focused on the features of the subject rather than the larger construction in which subject-verb agreement is produced or how the conceptual relationship between subjects and predicates may interact in affecting subject-verb agreement patterns. This corpus study describes subject-verb number agreement mismatch in English copular constructions which take the frame of (SEMANTICALLY LIGHT) N + [REL] + COP + (SPECIFIC) PRED NOM, where the copula reflects the grammatical number of the predicate. Results suggest that speakers make use of conceptual information from the entire construction, and not just the subject, when formulating agreement morphology.

scholarly journals Revealing the Meanings of Prince Harry’s First Speech after Royal Split: Systemic Functional Grammar Analysis

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 362-375
Author(s):  
Widi Handayani
Keyword(s):  
Personal Pronoun ◽  
Mental Process ◽  
Functional Grammar ◽  
Mental Processes ◽  
Systemic Functional Grammar ◽  
The People ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Grammar Analysis ◽  
Media Power

The speech is delivered by Prince Harry. Three areas of SFG are applied to analyze the speech. The result shows that in terms of ideational metafunction, material, and mental processes are 2 highest occurrences in the speech. It happens since the speaker displays all his concrete actions including doing charity and meeting many people of his country. Through mental process, it shows that he involves his senses to communicate the language in his mind. Three types of mental process, namely cognition, affection, and perception are found in the speech indicating his empathy to the people towards the news of the royal split. The interpersonal metafunction shows that he does take sides on the wife and family. Using modality, he employs that the media power force creates huge speculations among the citizens. They accuse his wife for bringing bad impacts for him. By applying high commitment of modality, he reassures people that his wife is not the cause of the split. He also requests the people to love her as much as they love him. The modality shows that the split will not change the commitment he has for serving the country. The polarity displays a clarification that the decision of splitting is taken after long consideration. The personal pronoun ‘I’ shows that the speaker is the subject matter of the speech. The textual metafunction in the speech shows that unmarked theme deploys the idea that it is a declarative speech which functions to give information or clarification. The additional conjunction is used to explore detailed information people must know.

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 The interpretation of German personal pronouns and d-pronouns

2019 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 155-190
Author(s):  
Markus Bader ◽  
Yvonne Portele
Keyword(s):  
Bayesian Theory ◽  
The Other ◽  
Production Data ◽  
Personal Pronoun ◽  
Personal Pronouns ◽  
Two Factors ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Syntactic Function

Abstract Three experiments investigated the interpretation and production of pronouns in German. The first two experiments probed the preferred interpretation of a pronoun in contexts containing two potential antecedents by having participants complete a sentence fragment starting either with a personal pronoun or a d-pronoun. We systematically varied three properties of the potential antecedents: syntactic function, linear position, and topicality. The results confirm a subject preference for personal pronouns. The preferred interpretation of d-pronouns cannot be captured by any of the three factors alone. Although a d-pronoun preferentially refers to the non-topic in many cases, this preference can be overridden by the other two factors, linear position and syntactic function. In order to test whether interpretive preferences follow from production biases as proposed by the Bayesian theory of Kehler et al. (2008), a third experiment had participants freely produce a continuation sentence for the contexts of the first two experiments. The results show that personal pronouns are used more often to refer to a subject than to an object, recapitulating the subject preference found for interpretation and thereby confirming the account of Kehler et al. (2008). The interpretation results for the d-pronoun likewise follow from the corresponding production data.

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