One prediction and one extension derived from Accessibility Theory are
explored in response to questions concerning the variable alternation
of personal pronominal and null subjects in dialects of Spanish. Firs
t, are split antecedents to personal plural subjects informationally i
nferior to antecedents which are not split? Second, why do the categor
ies of specific and nonspecific second person singular subjects show d
iffering frequencies of null subject expression? With respect to the f
irst question, the answer is no. This contradicts a prediction of Acce
ssibility Theory and calls for a reappraisal of the issue of inferior
antecedents. With respect to the second question, the criterion of inf
ormativity is extended from its initial scope of specific reference to
that of nonspecific reference in order to account for the statistical
favoring of pronominal subject expression by nonspecific tu, usted, a
nd uno. However, where Accessibility Theory is unable to account for a
favoring of null subjects by nonspecific second person singular tli i
n Iberian dialects, research from generative treatments of pro(arb), p
rovides a basis for, if not explaining, then strongly expecting this p
articular pattern, Also included, is an analysis of nonspecific second
person reference in Latin American dialects which reveals paradigm le
veling of the nonspecific tu constraint on subject pronoun expression
in the Latin American dialects by analogy to that of nonspecific uno o
r usted, a direction of change which Accessibility Theory would predic
t.