Variable Subject Pronoun Expression in the Spanish of Londombia: A study of language contact in Canada
Abstract
According to the extended projection principle, subjects are mandatory in tensed clauses (Chomsky 1982). Languages, however, vary in their use of null and overt subjects. Languages like English, which are [-null subject] languages, require overt subjects (1a), rendering phrases with null subjects ungrammatical (1b), while languages like Spanish, which are [+ null subject] languages, allow for both overt (2a) and null subjects (2b).
(1) a. She wants bread.
b. *Ø wants bread.
(2) a. Ella quiere pan.
b. Ø quiere pan.
“(She) wants bread”
In Spanish the variable use of Spanish subject personal pronouns (SPPs) has been studied in monolingual (Cameron 1992; Orozco 2015) and bilingual populations (Otheguy et al. 2007, Montrul 2004), and studies have shown that the rate of use of null vs. overt subject pronouns varies between different varieties of Spanish. In bilingual populations, an increase in use of overt SPPs has been documented in some populations (Otheguy et al. 2007). However, it is debated whether this is due to contact with English, a [- null subject] language, or with other varieties of Spanish which show a higher rate of use of overt SPPs such as Caribbean varieties of Spanish (Flores-Ferrán 2004).
In this dissertation, the results of an investigation regarding the variable use of SPPs in two generations of Colombian Spanish speakers (N(1Gen)=10, N(2Gen)=10) living in London, Ontario are reported. A total of 2366 tokens from 20 sociolinguistic interviews are used to calculate frequency of use of overt SPPs for each generation, and to determine the social (generation, age, gender, and interview modality), and linguistic factors (pronoun person and number, switch reference, semantic verb type, clause negation, position of pronoun in relation to verb, verb tense, verb mood, and clause type) that condition variable use of SPPs in this population. In addition, this study adopts an embedded mixed-methods approach by also considering the data from a qualitative perspective to examine whether the attitudes, language use habits, and ties to cultural identity of Colombian speakers align with factors known to favour heritage language maintenance across generations. This approach also provides valuable contextual information for the quantitative analyses.