1887
Volume 8, Issue 1
  • ISSN 1571-0718
  • E-ISSN: 1571-0726
USD
Buy:$35.00 + Taxes

Abstract

We conduct a quantitative analysis of conversational speech from native speakers of Puerto Rican Spanish to test whether optional non-inversion of subjects in wh-questions (¿qué tú piensas?) is indicative of a movement in Spanish from flexible to rigid word order (Morales 1989; Toribio 2000). We find high rates of subject expression (51%) and a strong preference for SV word order (47%) over VS (4%) in all sentence types, in line with assertions of fixed SVO word order. The usage-based examination of 882 wh-questions shows non-inversion occurs in 14% of the cases (25% of wh-questions containing an overt subject). Variable rule analysis reveals subject, verb and question type significantly constrain interrogative word order, but we find no evidence that word order is predicted by perseveration. SV word order is highest in rhetorical and quotative questions, revealing a pathway of change through which word order is becoming fixed in this variety.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1075/sic.8.1.02bro
2011-01-01
2025-02-11
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

/content/journals/10.1075/sic.8.1.02bro
Loading
  • Article Type: Research Article
Keyword(s): Caribbean Spanish; interrogative constructions; language change; word order
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was successful
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error