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Article published In:
Spanish in Context
Vol. 20:3 (2023) ► pp.574–598

First person singular subject pronoun expression of young Spanish speakers from Quito, Ecuador

ORCID logo | Indiana University Bloomington

This variationist study analyzes the first-person subject pronoun expression (SPE) of speakers from Quito, Ecuador. To date, this morphosyntactic variable has not been explored in this Andean variety of Spanish. The data consists of 20 sociolinguistic interviews. Results reveal an SPE rate of 17%, comparable to other Andean Spanish varieties. As per Rbrul’s quantitative analysis, the predictors that promote the presence of the ‘yo’ in this variety of Spanish are co-referential Priming, switch reference, ambiguous TMA endings and main clauses. In addition, following Orozco and Hurtado (2021), lexical effects of the verb were observed by analyzing the verb lemma. This predictor revealed similarly opposing tendencies between verbs in the same lexical category. This study adds to the growing body of SPE research by examining which linguistic variables influence the use of ‘yo’ in this Ecuadorian Andean Spanish (EAS) variety and comparing these results to those of other Andean Spanish varieties.

Keywords: Subject pronoun expression, Quito, Ecuador, morphosyntactic variation
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Theoretical framework
  • 3.Methodology
    • 3.1Data and participants
    • 3.2Envelope of variation
    • 3.3Predictor variables examined
      • 3.3.1Verb class
      • 3.3.2Reference connection
      • 3.3.3Ambiguity of the TMA ending
      • 3.3.4Co-referential priming
      • 3.3.5Reflexive use of the verb
      • 3.3.6Clause type
      • 3.3.7Verb lemma
  • 4.Results
    • 4.1Reference connection
    • 4.2Ambiguity of TMA
    • 4.3Clause type
    • 4.4Verb lemma
  • 5.Discussion
  • 6.Conclusions
  • Acknowledgements
  • References
Published online: 14 November 2023
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/sic.21015.del
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