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

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.

Languages ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 5
Author(s):  
Rafael Orozco ◽  
Luz Marcela Hurtado

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.


2016 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rafael Orozco

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.


Author(s):  
Michael Zimmermann

In view of considerable differences from prototypical null-subject (NS) languages and recent proposals of different types of NS language, this chapter reconsiders the status of Medieval French, generally analysed as a NS language, regarding the NS parameter. It is essentially shown that Medieval French displays traits incompatible with an analysis as a consistent or partial NS language, particularly the existence of overt TP subject expletives, the highly frequent occurrence of overt referential subject pronouns in embedded clauses, and the consistent occurrence of an overt generic subject pronoun. From this and the fundamental insight that, in prototypical non-NS languages such as Modern Standard French, null subjects (NSs) are licit in a restricted number of contexts, the chapter concludes that Medieval French constitutes a non-NS language in which, as in the modern stage, NSs are principally possible in contexts of left-peripheral focalization.


Author(s):  
Aretousa Giannakou ◽  
Ioanna Sitaridou

This paper focuses on subject distribution in Greek and Chilean Spanish, both null subject languages, as evidenced in the oral production of monolingual and bilingual speakers. Narratives elicited from 40 monolinguals and 76 bilinguals of different types, namely, first-generation immigrants, heritage speakers and L2 speakers, were analysed to explore potential differences in expressing subject reference between the groups in monolingual and contact settings. The qualitative analysis of contexts of topic continuity and topic shift showed no overextension of the scope of the overt subject pronoun, expected to be found in the bilingual performance according to the Interface Hypothesis (Sorace, 2011, 2012) and previous research. The findings also show that the redundancy of lexical subjects observed in topic continuity contexts mostly involved felicitous (pragmatically appropriate) constructions. Moreover, while null subjects in topic shift were also found to be felicitous in both monolinguals and bilinguals, cases of ambiguity were observed in the bilingual performance in this discourse context.


2013 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-68 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaoshi Li

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.


Author(s):  
Natalia I. Kikilo ◽  

The paper provides an in-depth analysis of functional features of the analytical first-person singular da-construction in the standard Macedonian language. When it is used in an independent clause, the daconstruction has a wide range of modal meanings, the most common of which are imperative and optative. The interaction of the grammatical categories of person, number and modality in the da-construction leads to changes in its meaning and shows its functional potential to indicate the speaker’s communicative intentions. The chosen semasiological approach to describing the da-construction is combined with the functional analysis and the communicative-pragmatic approach. The research material consists of about 200 examples gathered from contemporary Macedonian literary works and journalistic articles. 1. Da-construction has a full non-defective conjugation paradigm with an imperative meaning, where the first singular verb form has a special status. Directive speech acts, where imperative forms are usually used, are not supposed to combine a speaker and an addressee in one person, which causes semantic modification of the da-construction with a 1Sg verb: initially related to the imperative analytical paradigm, it describes the speaker’s intention to perform an action which he / she considers necessary. In addition, this type of construction marks a point in decision- making that is followed by the change of the speaker’s cognitive status; the only exception is the da-construction including verbs of perception, which points to an indirect causation of the addressee. 2. Independent 1Sg da-constructions with speech verbs and cognitive verbs tend to become idiomatic in meaning, which causes their use as discourse markers. Functioning as metacommentary, they help the speaker to direct the dialogue according to his/her communicative intentions. 3. The interaction of grammatical categories in the optative da-construction transforms curses to vows that have a function to confirm the truth of the speaker’s words and his / her commitment to face consequences in case of lying.


Author(s):  
Gejing Li ◽  
D. R. Peacor ◽  
D. S. Coombs ◽  
Y. Kawachi

Recent advances in transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and analytical electron microscopy (AEM) have led to many new insights into the structural and chemical characteristics of very finegrained, optically homogeneous mineral aggregates in sedimentary and very low-grade metamorphic rocks. Chemical compositions obtained by electron microprobe analysis (EMPA) on such materials have been shown by TEM/AEM to result from beam overlap on contaminant phases on a scale below resolution of EMPA, which in turn can lead to errors in interpretation and determination of formation conditions. Here we present an in-depth analysis of the relation between AEM and EMPA data, which leads also to the definition of new mineral phases, and demonstrate the resolution power of AEM relative to EMPA in investigations of very fine-grained mineral aggregates in sedimentary and very low-grade metamorphic rocks.Celadonite, having end-member composition KMgFe3+Si4O10(OH)2, and with minor substitution of Fe2+ for Mg and Al for Fe3+ on octahedral sites, is a fine-grained mica widespread in volcanic rocks and volcaniclastic sediments which have undergone low-temperature alteration in the oceanic crust and in burial metamorphic sequences.


2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (44) ◽  
pp. 24478-24488 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Gleditzsch ◽  
Marc Jäger ◽  
Lukáš F. Pašteka ◽  
Armin Shayeghi ◽  
Rolf Schäfer

In depth analysis of doping effects on the geometric and electronic structure of tin clusters via electric beam deflection, numerical trajectory simulations and density functional theory.


2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 312-321 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diana Moreira ◽  
Fernando Barbosa

Abstract. Delay discounting (DD) is the process of devaluing results that happen in the future. With this review, we intend to identify specificities in the processes of DD in impulsive behavior. Studies were retrieved from multiple literature databases, through rigorous criteria (we included systematic reviews and empirical studies with adult human subjects), following the procedures of the Cochrane Collaboration initiative. Of the 174 documents obtained, 19 were considered eligible for inclusion and were retained for in-depth analysis. In addition, 13 studies from the manual search were included. Thus, a total of 32 studies were selected for review. The objectives/hypotheses, results, and the main conclusion(s) were extracted from each study. Results show that people with pronounced traits of impulsivity discount rewards more markedly, that is, they prefer immediate rewards, though of less value, or postponed losses, even though they worsen in the future. Taken together, the existing data suggest the importance of inserting DD as a tool for initial assessment in conjunction with measures of addiction and stress level, as well as the consideration of new therapies.


1958 ◽  
Vol 3 (6) ◽  
pp. 145-148
Author(s):  
ROBERT R. HOLT
Keyword(s):  

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