Abstract
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.
Highlights
This paper expands on recent research on the variable alternation between null and overt pronominal subjects in Spanish (Hurtado & Ortega-Santos 2019; Orozco 2016, 2018a, 2018b; Orozco & Hurtado 2020; inter alia)
The answer to our first research question (How does Medellín Spanish compare with other varieties of Spanish in terms of subject pronoun expression?) reveals that Medellín’s overt pronominal rate of 28% is both the lowest found in Colombia and the highest in a highland Hispanic community
Answering our second research question (How does the internal conditioning on subject pronoun expression (SPE) including the lexical effect of the verb in Medellín Spanish compare to what is found throughout the Hispanic World?), we find an internal conditioning congruent with what occurs across the board, as attested in the rich body of SPE literature (Carvalho et al 2015)
Summary
This paper expands on recent research on the variable alternation between null and overt pronominal subjects in Spanish (Hurtado & Ortega-Santos 2019; Orozco 2016, 2018a, 2018b; Orozco & Hurtado 2020; inter alia). With this study of SPE in Medellín, we seek to answer some questions opened by Orozco & Hurtado (2020) Among other things, this analysis explores the role of uno ‘one’ as a subject pronoun and the effect of kinesis as a verb classification. The highest overall overt pronominal expression rates have been found in the Caribbean, ranging from 33% (Cuban newcomers to New York City, Otheguy & Zentella 2012) to 45% (San Juan, Puerto Rico, Cameron 1993), with an average of 38% (Orozco & Hurtado 2020:2). High pronominal expression with psychological verbs has been explained as an indicator of the speaker’s stance towards the utterance (Travis 2007:117) This conceptualization is supported by the fact that singular pronouns (especially yo ‘I’ and uno ‘one’) register higher overt pronominal rates and probabilistic weights across Spanish varieties (Orozco & Hurtado 2020:3). Pronominal rates indicated that that effect advanced in the same direction, and the pronoun with the highest rates of expression was uno
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