Subject pronoun expression in Andean Colombian Spanish: the PRESEEA-Cali corpus

Abstract

This preliminary investigation explores subject pronoun expression in the PRESEEA-Cali corpus. We explore the effects of five predictor variables (2 social 3 linguistic) on 4425 tokens. Findings reveal the highest pronominal rate (29.7%) found in a continental Latin American speech community. The linguistic conditioning uncovers that grammatical person and number of the subject exerts the strongest conditioning force among all the predictor variables explored. Specifically, uno constitutes the pronoun that most strongly favors overt subjects. The social conditioning reveals that women promote overt subjects, as occurs in the Caribbean region, but contrary to findings in Medellín. Moreover, the effects of age show that our youngest speakers favor null subjects whereas older speakers promote overt subjects. This finding may have cognitive implications given that younger speakers would be expected to have higher pronominal rates.