Subject Pronouns Research Articles

Age of Onset and Dominance in the Choice of Subject Anaphoric Devices: Comparing Natives and Near-Natives of Two Null-Subject Languages.

Several studies have highlighted the role of cross-linguistic influence in determining the over-use of overt subject pronouns in near-native speakers of a null-subject language as Italian. In this work we inquire on the role of factors different from cross-linguistic influence in the choice of anaphoric devices in near-natives, such as age of onset of exposure and dominance. In order to do so, comparing the productions of two groups of natives speakers, we first single out two null-subject languages, Italian and Greek, which do not differ significantly as far as subject anaphoric devices are concerned and thus instantiate a suitable language combination to investigate the role of factors other than cross-linguistic influence in bilingual speakers of these two languages (Study 1). In Study 2, we compare the productions of a group of native speakers and two groups of near-native speakers in Italian: Greek-Italian bilinguals from birth and L2ers of Italian with Greek as an L1. Results reveal that over-use of overt pronouns in near-natives occurs in the absence of cross-linguistic influence and that age of onset of exposure is a relevant factor: while bilinguals from birth do not differ from native speakers, L2ers over-use overt pronouns compared to both native speakers and bilinguals from birth. In order to establish whether dominance is a possible factor determining bilinguals’ choice of subject anaphoric devices, in Study 3, we compare two groups of Greek-Italian bilinguals from birth: bilinguals living in Greece (whose predominant language is Greek) and bilinguals living in Italy (whose predominant language is Italian). Results reveal no effect of dominance in the production of overt subject pronouns. We found, however, an unexpected effect in the predominant language of one group: bilinguals living in Greece produce significantly more null pronouns and less lexical DPs in Greek compared to bilinguals living in Italy. We interpret this effect as stemming from the need to differentiate the two languages that these bilingual speakers have to handle in everyday life. Interestingly, this effect is found in the predominant language rather than in the non-predominant one.

Evidential strategies in receiver-directed talk: The case of English inferential adverbs

The aim of this paper is to examine the types of evidential meaning expressed by clearly and obviously in receiver-directed talk, and to identify their interpersonal functions. It focuses on their uses in utterances containing the second person pronoun subject, excerpted from the British National Corpus. This study demonstrates that clearly and obviously are used to express inference, conjecture, assumption and self-evidence. The four notions can be organised on a cline, each showing a different degree of (inter)subjectivity, which is why this study argues that (inter)subjectification is responsible not only for their development from adverbs of manner into evidential adverbs (which is generally agreed on), but also for the different types of evidential meaning they express. It also argues that self-evidence is a post-evidential meaning of the two adverbs. This paper demonstrates that inferences, conjectures and assumptions function as strategies for eliciting a response from the addressee. Inferences and assumptions serve as prompts; conjectures have a challenging function. Inferences are also used to provide justification for the speech act performed by the speaker, while assumptions prepare the ground for the speaker's talk. Self-evidence is connected with the interpersonal functionality of concurrence and with textual functions performed by the two adverbs.

Bilingualism in the community: Code-switching and grammars in contact by Rena Torres Cacoullos and Catherine Travis

Reviewed by: Bilingualism in the community: Code-switching and grammars in contact by Rena Torres Cacoullos and Catherine Travis Ricardo Otheguy Bilingualism in the community: Code-switching and grammars in contact. By Rena Torres Cacoullos and Catherine Travis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018. Pp. 254. ISBN 9781108415828. $110 (Hb). Linguists have long asked whether one finds in bilinguals, in addition to lexical transfer, crosslinguistic influences in morphosyntax. The familiar answer given in most places is: yes (see e.g. Thomason & Kaufman 1988). But in this book the answer, in a revealing dissent, is pursued by Rena Torres Cacoullos and Catherine E. Travis (TC&T) with such seriousness and rigor as to make this substantial volume indispensable. Their answer to the question is that there is no morphosyntactic convergence in bilinguals. Not, at least, in this painstakingly carried out case study of the use of subject personal pronouns by fluent English-Spanish bilinguals in the state of New Mexico in the United States. Subject personal pronouns in Spanish (yo, tú, ella, él, etc. 'I, you, she, he', etc.) and especially the difference between expressed versus unexpressed pronominal subjects in finite clauses (ella camina ∼ camina, both 'she walks') represent a mature research topic (Carvalho et al. 2015). Most studies, like the authors', have been conducted on the basis of speech data under the quantitative variationist paradigm first established by William Labov (1966). Also comprising a large variationist literature is the related matter of the possible influence of English on the use of these pronouns in the Spanish of bilinguals. But scholars plowing this field have mostly concentrated on the presumed target of contact influence, Spanish, and not enough on the presumed source, English. This is because while the expression of subjects is obviously variable in Spanish, it is typically assumed to be essentially categorical in English. Yet TC&T make a point that is no less crucial for its being obvious: unexpressed subjects are also found in English (e.g. He .. took off for .. Big Bear. // You're kidding. // 0 Had no idea where he was going (112); the '0' indicates an unexpressed pronoun). There are other important differences between this book and most work on English-Spanish bilingualism in the US. First, the speakers here are almost all US-born and belong to a 150-year-old bilingual community, thus differing from those of the relatively recent immigrant settings studied in most US bilingual research. This speaker profile facilitates conclusions about long-term linguistic change that are harder to reach when a time depth of only two or three generations is considered. Second, the very frequent code-switching that marks the normal speech mode of many bilingual settings is especially noticeable in the corpus utilized here. This allows TC&T to analyze pronominal use in stretches of both languages produced by the same speakers. In this way the authors take into account more directly than other investigators the familiar dictum that the true locus of crosslinguistic influence is the bilingual individual. And since, more than in [End Page 575] other studies, English here thrives in the mind of a single speaker as much as does Spanish, the authors can expose their central claim of no contact effects to the highest risk of falsification, increasing the value of their conclusions. Moreover, the authors can dismiss the claim that the incidence of crosslinguistic influence of English on Spanish is greater in stretches of Spanish located in the vicinity of English stretches. And of special interest to the wider field of bilingual studies, the characteristics of the corpus lead TC&T to note that our confidence is misplaced in such notions as 'the native language', 'the matrix language', 'the second language', or more generally in what they correctly discount as the belief in 'the regime of ordered first and second language acquisition' (66). A third distinctive trait of the study is that the corpus comes with a prosodic transcription, crucially incorporating into the analysis intonational units, or IUs, that are not always found in this literature. A fourth and final differentiating feature is that the English and Spanish stretches of the bilingual corpus are contrasted with two different English...

Discourse Factors Involved in Distribution of Null-Subject Phenomenon in Mandarin Chinese

This paper aims to examine the null-subject phenomenon in Mandarin Chinese, a discourse-oriented radical pro-drop language, and the factors that contribute to the presence/absence of overt subject pronouns in the language. A questionnaire survey was conducted among 11 Chinese high school students to collect data regarding the usage of null subjects by native Mandarin Chinese speakers. Three discourse factors that affect the distribution of null subjects, namely: 1) register, 2) speakers’ agency, and 3) nature of information conveyed by subject pronouns, are identified and analysed based on the collected data. Therefore, we should pay more attention to pragmatic factors when refining syntactic theories regarding null-subjecthood in future studies.

The First Person

Many languages have a first person singular subject pronoun (‘I’ in English). Fewer also have a first person singular object pronoun (‘me’ in English). The term ‘I’ is commonly used to refer to the person using the term. It has a variety of other uses. A normal person is able to refer to theirself and think about their self and this is of course an important feature of being a person. For any person x, no one other than x can possibly think about x and by that alone, qualify as thinking about theirself. Perhaps this is special. However, there is a strong tendency to conflate this important capacity with capacities of grammar, such as thinking first person thoughts or ‘I thoughts.’ This leads to attempts to establish necessary truths about persons on the basis of rules of grammar which are not logically necessary. Thinking about oneself does not logically require a first person linguistic capacity. This essay is criticizing various tendencies to overlook this.

Applied Linguistic-Tú and Usted Spanish Personal Subject Pronouns

While the simple phonetics of Spanish language makes it easier to learn and speak irrespective of its grammar complexity, acquiring a good command of this language requires a serious and disciplined study of its grammar. The use of null and overt pronouns and their different grammar related forms in Spanish elevates the level of complexity when it comes to second language acquisition (SLA). In this regard, the teaching and learning of Spanish grammar still remains a subject of interest among linguists. Thereby, the article aimed to provide a guideline through which English language native speakers would gain an insight about language traits, associated with two pronouns and how they should be used in the speaking and writing context of Spanish language communication.

Grammaire du sms by Aurélia Robert-Tissot

Reviewed by: Grammaire du sms by Aurélia Robert-Tissot Amanda Dalola Robert-Tissot, Aurélia. Grammaire du sms. PU de Vincennes, 2018. ISBN 978-2-84292-809-4. Pp. 384. This book explores the timely question of how the grammar used in SMS (text messages) differs structurally from the grammar of normative French. The inquiry focuses specifically on the omission of grammatical subjects (pro-drop), which it explores via an analysis of the French-language section of the Swiss SMS Corpus (sms4science.ch). Employing an innovative methodology that pairs variationist methods with formal syntactic analysis from the generative framework, the study yields a comprehensive glimpse of the distribution of subject pronoun omission, from both the top down and bottom up, in a nascent genre of hybrid language. The book begins with a justification for SMS-language as an object of formal analysis, which the author argues is more closely related to spoken language, and, therefore, more revealing of ongoing changes than other genres more closely tied to written language and bound by presentation. Five chapters follow, the first of which establishes the body of previous sociolinguistic analyses of SMS and lays the conceptual generative groundwork for defining a grammatical subject and the process by which it might be omitted. Subsequent sections frame the study by presenting the research hypotheses, [End Page 252] introducing the test corpus, and articulating the methodologies to be applied sequentially. The variationist analysis is discussed first, yielding certain probabilistic findings: subject omission, although attested, happens in less than ten percent of SMS but is conclusively conditioned by pragmatic, syntactic and phonological factors, such as the referentiality of the subject, the overt expression of a conjugated verb in the same utterance, and the appearance of a weak syllable at the beginning of an intonation group, respectively. The generative analysis picks up where the variationist one left off—with the assumption that omitted referential subjects can be equated to familiar topics called"null morphemes"—and provides theoretical support for the quantitative findings. The finale sees the delicate emulsification of quantitative and theoretical outcomes to propose omission of the referential subject as a specific type of topic-drop featuring post-syntactic erasure of the familiar topic in the left periphery. The hybrid yet specialized nature of this text makes it valuable for syntacticians and sociolinguists alike, as a model for not only applying the methodologies native to one's subdiscipline, but for observing how well the other informs your own in its ability to disassemble the data in some other way. The format of this work, although divided into chapters, is not ideal for piece-meal consumption—instead, the book reads like a multi-stage experiment née dissertation that is most digestible as a whole. The pinnacle of the study—the researcher's ability to thoughtfully and impactfully marry quantitative and theoretical methods into a single multi-faceted discussion—is both noteworthy and one linguists in all sub-disciplines and language-families should strive to emulate. Published in a linguistic landscape where text messages now far outnumber calls and emails, this inquiry paves the way for future linguists of all stripes to examine language change by mining the hyper-evolving genre of SMS. Amanda Dalola University of South Carolina Copyright © 2019 American Association of Teachers of French

Reflexivity in English, French and Kinshasa Lingala: Similarities and Differences

Dunker [15] asserts that “linguistic reflexivity is a feature of the communication process, and it essentially depends on situated participants and time. It is a defining characteristic of the human language but despite its obvious importance, it is not very well understood theoretically, and it is strangely under-researched empirically”. Reflexivity exists in English, French, and Kinshasa Lingala. In all these languages, reflexivity is expressed by reflexive pronouns, reciprocal pronouns, reflexive verbs, and ergative verbs. The position and use of these pronouns and verbs differ from one language to another. Therefore, this article attempts to examine reflexivity in each of these languages in order to point out similarities and differences. The focus is on the use of reflexive pronouns, reciprocal pronouns, reflexive verbs, and ergative verbs in English, French, and Kinshasa Lingala. This article is based on observation, interview, and contrastive analysis which allows to sort out similarities and differences between languages. Observation was used during people’s talk on buses, at markets, on radios, and in avenues. An interview was prepared for some people in the Kinshasa community especially teachers. The results show that English, French, and Kinshasa Lingala use pronouns to express reflexivity. Reflexivity is expressed through the use of reflexive pronouns which have different positions in these three languages. In English, they occur in the object position. In French, they occur after a personal pronoun subject and before the verb. In Kinshasa Lingala, they occur in the verbal prefix position. As far as reciprocal pronouns are concerned, in English a reciprocal pronoun is used without reflexive pronoun whereas in French, reciprocal pronoun is optional and it is used with reflexive pronoun. In Kinshasa Lingala, the reciprocal pronoun is suffixed to the verb. It is a bound morpheme. Reflexivity is expressed by ergative verbs in English, French, and Kinshasa Lingala. In English, no reflexive pronoun is used with ergative verbs. In French, ergative verb is used with a reflexive pronoun “se”. In Kinshasa Lingala, the ergativity is expressed by the bound morpheme –ma or –mi. In conclusion, the similarities are at the level of the use of reflexive pronouns, reciprocal pronouns, and ergative verbs. Whereas the differences appear in the position occupied by the reflexive components. In English, reflexive pronouns and reciprocal pronouns occur in the object position. In French, they occur between the subject and the verb. In Kinshasa Lingala, the reflexive pronoun occurs in the verbal prefix position. Reciprocal pronoun occurs in the suffix position. Ergativity is expressed by –ma/-mi in the suffix position.

Variable subject pronoun expression in Andean Spanish: a drift from the acrolect

This study is one of the first variationist accounts of subject pronoun expression (SPE) in Andean Spanish, in particular, in the variety spoken in Huancayo, Peru. The data analyzed consist of sociolinguistic interviews of sixteen participants, equally divided by sex. The results show that the overt subject personal pronoun (SPP) rate in Huancayo Spanish is the lowest one attested: 16.2%, even lower than that of Lima, the capital (16.8%), which situates Andean Spanish among conservative varieties regarding SPE. In order to determine if Huancainos are following Limenos as a model in their SPE use and therefore sharing the same constraints, I conducted two separate regression analyses: one for Huancayo and one for the Limeno acrolect using Goldvarb X. The results show that Lima’s dialect is sensitive to two factor groups that are neutralized in Huancayo, which suggests that Huancainos do not take Limenos as a role model for their overt SPP production

Lexical frequency and syntactic variation

Abstract With the rise of exemplar theory, the role of lexical frequency in language variation has been the object of considerable study. Recently, Erker and Guy (2012) extended the analysis of frequency to morphosyntactic variation and examined the role of frequency in variation between null and overt subject personal pronouns (SPPs) in Spanish. Their results suggest that frequency either activates or amplifies the effects of other constraints, such as co-reference. This study extends the study of frequency effects on SPP variation to Mandarin Chinese. Results of multivariate analysis of 6,691 tokens collected from Mandarin speakers in Harbin, China indicate that the effect of frequency on Chinese SPP variation is less than that of other well-established constraints such as co-reference and person and number. The results suggest that the role of frequency in this area of the grammar has been considerably exaggerated. Rather, well-established linguistic constraints provide a better explanation for SPP variation than frequency.

Osebni zaimki v funkciji osebka: pragmatični vidiki slovnične kategorije

S korpusno analizo je mogoče pridobiti relevantne podatke o slovničnih pojavih, na podlagi katerih se lahko oblikujejo poglobljeni slovnični opisi. Korpusna metodologija je posebej uporabna za slovnične raziskave, ki se osredotočajo na pragmatiko in variacije v rabi izbranih slovničnih elementov. Namen pričujoče raziskave je analizirati rabo osebnih zaimkov v funkciji osebka v slovenščini s pragmatičnega vidika in tako pridobiti nove podatke za bolj podroben opis rabe osebnega zaimka kot osebka v slovenščini. Slovenščina je jezik z opustljivim osebkom, kar pomeni, da osebka stavka v njej ni treba eksplicitno izraziti. Raziskava temelji na korpusni analizi korpusov Kres in Gos; narejena je bila s pomočjo spletne programske aplikacije za analizo besedil NoSketch Engine. Rezultati pokažejo precejšnjo razliko v pogostosti rabe osebnih zaimkov kot osebkov med govornim in pisnim diskurzom. Rezultati prav tako pokažejo, da število osebnih zaimkov upada z naraščanjem formalnosti. N podlagi funkcijske analize so izraženi osebni zaimki v najširšem smislu klasificirani v kategoriji razdvoumljanja in poudarjanja. V okviru razdvoumljanja na rabo osebnih zaimkov kot osebkov vplivajo oblikoslovni, skladenjski in diskurzni dejavniki, in tudi prenosnik. V kategoriji poudarjanja je prenosnik posebej relevanten dejavnik. Analiza pokaže, da je tematika osebnega zaimka kot osebka v slovenščini mnogo kompleksnejša, kot bi lahko sklepali iz dosedanjih opisov. Izsledki raziskave odpirajo nekatera zanimiva vprašanja glede rabe osebnega zaimka kot osebka v slovenščini v zvezi z dialektalno specifiko in v hibridnih internetnih žanrih, prav tako pa tudi vprašanja o vplivu lektorskih posegov in o vplivu usvajanja pismenosti.

Transfer of variable grammars in third language acquisition

ABSTRACTResearch on linguistic variation suggests that usage patterns are deeply embedded in native and non-native speakers’ knowledge of grammar. This study explores the transfer of these variable sociolinguistic patterns at the initial stages of third language acquisition. We elicited narratives in Portuguese from two mirror-image groups of sequential Spanish-English bilingual early learners of Portuguese. Their production of variable subject pronoun expression was analysed. When comparing the two groups with regards to the linguistic factors that constrain subject pronoun expression, evidence of transfer from Spanish and not from English is consistent for both groups. We conclude that variable linguistic information is accessible in L3 transfer at beginning stages of acquisition and it is successfully predicted by holistic models of L3 acquisition.

Optimality Analysis of Vowel Harmony in ÀÍKA

This paper gives an Optimality Theory (Henceforth OT) account of advanced tongue root (ATR) vowel harmony in ÀÍKA[1], an Edoid[2] language that consists of four speech forms spoken in Akoko-Edo area in Nigeria. The ATR harmony manifests within as well as across morpheme boundaries. The ATR harmony across morphemes affects the subject pronouns, prefixes as well as demonstrative pronouns because they are underspecified for ATR value while object pronouns are underlyingly specified. It is further noted that ATR has a morphological effect on the items it affects as it triggers phonological allomorphy in them. In addition to right-to-left spreading analysis in the literature (Abiodun 1999, Ibikunle 2014, and 2016), this research further reveals that there are pieces of evidence for left-to-right spreading of harmonic value. More importantly, this analysis shows that OT is viable and problem-solving efficient compared with the Non-Linear or traditional generative account on Vowel Harmony system of the language.

Optimality Analysis of Vowel Harmony in ÀÍKA

This paper gives an Optimality Theory (Henceforth OT) account of advanced tongue root (ATR) vowel harmony in ÀÍKAan Edoid language that consists of four speech forms spoken in Akoko-Edo area in Nigeria. The ATR harmony manifests within as well as across morpheme boundaries. The ATR harmony across morphemes affects the subject pronouns, prefixes as well as demonstrative pronouns because they are underspecified for ATR value while object pronouns are underlyingly specified. It is further noted that ATR has a morphological effect on the items it affects as it triggers phonological allomorphy in them. In addition to right-to-left spreading analysis in the literature (Abiodun 1999, Ibikunle 2014, and 2016), this research further reveals that there are pieces of evidence for left-to-right spreading of harmonic value. More importantly, this analysis shows that OT is viable and problem-solving efficient compared with the Non-Linear or traditional generative account on Vowel Harmony system of the language.
 
 

Detecting clauses and their dependencies in signed utterances: A syntactico-semantic approach

Investigating the syntactic structure of utterances with multiple predicates in sign languages requires a clear understanding of how many finite and infinitival clauses they contain and which syntactic dependencies exist between them. Since the sign language literature currently lacks a standardized methodology for identifying clause boundaries, this paper discusses syntactico-semantic diagnostics of clausehood and clause size and analyzes their applicability to American Sign Language (ASL) and German Sign Language (DGS). First, I discuss tests that distinguish coordinated clauses from dependent clause structures; specifically negation, A’-movement, and subject pronoun copy. Limitations of wh- and topic fronting as clausehood diagnostics are identified and a modified subject pronoun copy test is proposed. Determining whether a given utterance contains coordinated or dependent clauses is only half the battle, however; we also want to know the approximate “size” of the constituent an embedded predicate projects. The present study takes a first pass at filling this gap by introducing rightward wh-movement and confirming center-embedding as diagnostics that can discriminate between finite and infinitival clauses in signed languages. Based on acceptability judgments from 13 native signers of DGS and ASL, I show that wh-subjects can move across infinitival control complements and the secondary predicates of resultative constructions, but they cannot cross a finite complement clause. The diagnostic thus provides empirical evidence for the existence of various types of embedded clauses in signed languages that differ in their functional structure.

Bilingualism effects in Basque Subject Pronoun Expression

AbstractTheInterface Hypothesis(IH) (Sorace, 2011;Sorace & Filiaci, 2006;Sorace & Serratrice, 2009) proposes that structures involving an interface between syntax and other modules are less likely to be fully acquired. Whereas some studies have found evidence in favor of theIH(Michnowicz, 2015), others have reported that adult 2L1 and L2 speakers of differing proficiencies are equally efficient in acquiring the pragmatic constraints conditioning Subject Pronoun Expression (SPE) (Carvalho & Bessett, 2015;Prada-Pérez, 2015). In light of these contradictory results, this study tests theIHby exploring the acquisition of Basque SPE using naturally-occurring speech from 25 Basque-Spanish bilinguals. Results show that Basque L2-learners are responsive to discourse-pragmatic constraints. In fact, L2-Basque SPE is conditioned by a more complex set of constraints than native Basque SPE, for which we propose that L2 SPE results from a process ofcomplexification(Dahl, 2004), triggered by transfer effects from Spanish.

The V-2 rule in Old English conjunct clauses

AbstractThis study shows that Old English conjunct clauses, i.e. main declarative clauses introduced by the coordinating conjunctionsandandac, resemble non-conjunct main clauses as far as the V-2 rule is concerned. Most importantly, this study reveals that the mechanism of SV inversion observed in OE conjunct clauses works according to all the principles defined for non-conjunct main clauses. The only difference, driven by the main discourse function of conjunct clauses, is that the clause-initial element in these clauses is usually the subject. However, if the subject is preceded by some other fronted constituent (e.g. an object, a complement, an adverb or a prepositional phrase), SV inversion is typical with nominal subjects, while personal pronoun subjects are only inverted if the clause-initial constituent belongs to a limited set of adverbs, i.e.þaandþonne(‘then’). In this way, this study reveals that the difference between Old English conjunct and non-conjunct main clauses is not as clear-cut as has traditionally been suggested.

When Bilingualism is the Common Factor: Switch Reference at the Junction of Competence and Performance in Both Second Language and Heritage Language Performance

In this paper we take a closer look at the oft-touted divide between heritage language speakers and adult second language (L2) learners. Here, we explore whether some properties of language may display general effects across different populations of bilinguals, explaining, at least partially, why these two groups show some common differences when compared with monolinguals. To test this hypothesis, we adduce data from two unique populations of bilinguals: a moribund variety of heritage German spoken in southwestern Kansas (Moundridge Schweitzer German) and L2 adult learners of Spanish. Empirically, we investigate whether the confound of switch reference adds an additional cognitive burden to these bilinguals in licensing object control predicates in the former and referential subject pronouns in the latter. Our preliminary findings support the view that overarching concepts such as incomplete acquisition cannot capture the variability observed in these populations, thus further supporting approaches that interpret findings such as these to be the result of specific variables.

Efeitos de animacidade do antecedente na resolução de pronomes sujeito

We report two experiments, a self-paced reading task and an off-line questionnaire, that tested if the overt subject pronoun in European Portuguese was sensitive to the animacy (animate vs. inanimate) of the antecedent in object position. We found higher reading times when the overt pronoun was forced to retrieve an inanimate antecedent compared to retrieving an animate one (Experiment 1) and less object choices with inanimate antecedents (compared to animate ones). Our findings show that several factors are taken into account during the resolution of pronominal forms, including animacy features, favouring thus a multifactorial approach to pronoun retrieval (Kaiser & Trueswell, 2008). We propose that there is a hierarchy that considers both syntactic and semantic information in pronoun resolution and that within the syntactic information the prominence of entities varies according to their animacy features. Our results are neither explained by processing theories that only consider syntactic factors (Carminati, 2005), nor by theoretical accounts that associate strong pronouns with animacy features (Cardinaletti & Starke, 1999).

Acquisition, study abroad and individual differences

AbstractThe current study examines the combined effect of type and quantity of contact with the target language on the second language development of a variable structure, ‘subject pronoun expression’ in L2 Spanish. A written contextualized task and a language contact questionnaire were given to 26 second language learners of Spanish before and after a six-week study abroad in Valencia, Spain. Their selection of overt and null subject pronouns was compared to native speakers from the study abroad region as well as to learners and native speakers in previous research in a US university context. Results suggest that learners with higher rates of self-reported contact with native speakers while abroad approximate the Valencian native speaker norms more at the end of study abroad than those who report fewer contact hours. However, differences between the groups at the beginning of study abroad indicate that characteristics other than contact hours also differentiate the two learner groups.