ACCESSIBILITY THEORY IN A VARIABLE SYNTAX OF SPANISH

Authors
Citation
R. Cameron, ACCESSIBILITY THEORY IN A VARIABLE SYNTAX OF SPANISH, Journal of pragmatics, 28(1), 1997, pp. 29-67
Citations number
80
Categorie Soggetti
Language & Linguistics","Language & Linguistics
Journal title
ISSN journal
03782166
Volume
28
Issue
1
Year of publication
1997
Pages
29 - 67
Database
ISI
SICI code
0378-2166(1997)28:1<29:ATIAVS>2.0.ZU;2-M
Abstract
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.