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Language Variation and Contact-Induced Change: Spanish across space and time
Edited by Jeremy King and Sandro Sessarego
[Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 340] 2018
► pp. 85–110

Chapter 4
Afro-Hispanic contact varieties at the syntax/pragmatics interface

Pro-drop phenomena in Chinchano Spanish

The Null Subject Parameter (NSP) has been the focus of much debate in the syntactic and pragmatic literature. Within the realm of Spanish and Portuguese, the analysis of two dialects that do not follow its predictions (Dominican Spanish (DS) and Brazilian Portuguese (BP)) has led to the postulation of new hypotheses to account for their unexpected syntactic patterns. The present study pays attention to yet another dialect of Spanish that does not conform to the NSP, Chinchano Spanish (CS), an Afro-Hispanic variety spoken in Chincha, Peru. In so doing, this paper provides an analysis of null and overt subjects that partially deviates from previous accounts of similar pro-drop phenomena. Additionally, this study proposes a model of contact-induced language transmission that explains why CS – as well as many other Afro-Hispanic languages of the Americas (AHLAs) – presents patterns that do not align this dialect with either null-subject languages (NSLs) like Italian or non-null-subject languages (NNSLs) like English.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The null-subject parameter (NSP)
  • 3.A look at two “partial pro-drop systems” in Romance
    • 3.1Dominican Spanish
    • 3.2Brazilian Portuguese
    • 3.3Chinchano Spanish
  • 4.The proposal: Differential specification of functional heads
  • 5. On the origin of Chincha Spanish partial pro-drop system
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 13 March 2018
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/cilt.340.05ses
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