Subject pronoun expression in Mexican Spanish: ¿Qué pasa en Xalapa?

Abstract

Abstract. This study is the first variationist analysis of subject personal pronoun expression (SPE) in the Spanish of Xalapa, Mexico. The overall pronominal rate (25%)-the highest such rate found in Mexican Spanish so far-also constitutes one of the highest in a mainland Spanish variety. Six predictors-four internal and two external-significantly condition SPE. The internal conditioning-congruent with what occurs elsewhere-reveals grammatical number and person of the subject as the strongest predictor. It also shows that verb class has tendencies similar to those found in other communities. However, further analysis uncovers that lexical frequency provides more definite answers regarding how verbs condition SPE, as within the copulative verb class category ser 'be' favors overt subjects but estar 'be' favors null subjects. Moreover, the unusually robust effect of age sets Xalapa Spanish apart from most other varieties. Interestingly, the pronominal rate among teenagers (11%)-below the lowest overall pronominal rate anywhere-is consistent with what occurs in other Spanish varieties such as Colombian, European, Dominican, and Mexican. These findings call for further research on the effects of verb semantics and age on SPE.

Subject expression in a Southeastern U.S. Mexican community

“…Younger and middle-aged speakers slightly disfavoured the use of overt SPs (24%), while older speakers showed a favouring of overt SPs (34%). This finding corroborates previous research that has reported a distinction between younger and older speakers (Orozco & Guy 2008;Carvalho & Child 2011;Alfaraz 2015;Lastra & Martín Butragueño 2015;Orozco 2015Orozco , 2016. This observation in the current data could be an incidental reflection of the differing regional origins of the speakers according to age.…”

“…This distinction between older and younger speakers is generally in line with previous studies (e.g. Orozco & Guy 2008;Carvalho & Child 2011;Alfaraz 2015;Lastra & Martín Butragueño 2015;Orozco 2015Orozco , 2016, including those of other Mexican Spanish varieties (Lastra & Martín Butragueño 2015;Orozco 2016).…”

“…19 This finding deserves further discussion, specifically as it relates to language continuity and dialect contact in Roswell. As similar age effects have been observed in monolingual Mexican varieties (Lastra & Martín Butragueño 2015;Orozco 2016), it could be the case that this pattern in the Roswell data simply reflects a continuation of trends that began in Mexico. Contact with other Mexican Spanish-speakers may be reinforcing the age effect, resulting in the maintenance of this trend for Roswell speakers and an inhibiting of the type of pronoun increases among younger speakers that might be expected in more established U.S. Spanish varieties.…”

“…It was found that the first two variables in the hierarchy were the same and in the same order according to importance: Person/number ranked 1 st and switch-reference ranked 2 nd in both studies; style was ranked last, showing the least amount of importance for both varieties; and the two varieties shared the lack of influence of specificity on SP variation. More importantly, upon comparing the constraint hierarchies (ordering of constraints within each variable), it was demonstrated that Roswell and Mexico City speakers share the same 21 Michnowicz (2015): 57 vs. 31; Solomon (1999): 43 vs. 11;Orozco (2016): 50 vs. 28 for verb class [switch-reference was not included in Orozco's study; verb class was the second strongest predictor]. 22 It may also be the case that differences in data distribution and configuration between the current analysis and that of Lastra and Martín Butragueño (2015) are motivating these constraint divergences in terms of strength of effect.…”

A Variationist Study of Subject Pronoun Expression in Medellín, Colombia

“…Since its inception into pronombrismo by Enríquez (1984), the lexical content of the verb classification has been used by many scholars, most notably Zentella (2007, 2012) in their monumental study of SPE in New York City Spanish. The detailed lexical content description provided by Otheguy and Zentella (2012) in their SPE coding manual -a pronombrista guidebook which they generously shared ahead of its publication-prompted many other researchers (Carvalho and Child 2011;Erker and Guy 2012;Flores-Ferrán 2002Orozco 2015aOrozco , 2016Orozco , 2018aOrozco , 2018bOrozco and Guy 2008;among others) to explore the effect of verbs on SPE using this classification. Overall, the lexical content of the verb tendencies tell us that (a) stative verbs favor overt subjects; (b) both mental activity verbs and estimative verbs moderately favor overt subjects-this explains why many studies have examined these two types of verbs jointly (e.g., Erker and Guy 2012; Otheguy and Zentella 2012; Orozco and Guy 2008; among others); and (c) external activity verbs favor null subjects.…”