| 3 |
On the position of subjects in Spanish: Evidence from code-switching
|
|
|
|
In: Glossa: a journal of general linguistics; Vol 6, No 1 (2021); 73 ; 2397-1835 (2021)
|
|
Abstract:
Some languages have a fixed subject position, while others are more flexible. Languages like English require pre-verbal subjects; languages like Spanish allow subjects in postverbal position. Because this difference clusters with several linguistic properties distinguishing the two languages, subjects in Spanish and English have been a perennial issue in linguistic theory, touching central problems like the EPP, the nature of cross-linguistic variation, and the relationship between core functional heads. Our project contributes a novel source of evidence to these debates: Spanish/English code-switching. Code-switching, the use of two languages in one utterance, combines the languages’ lexical items and their attendant syntactic features in a single derivation. Because code-switching, like all natural language, is rule-governed, researchers can exploit judgments about the well-formedness of code-switched sentences to draw conclusions about the combinations of features they represent. We report on a formal judgment experiment testing subject position in Spanish/English code-switching as a function of the presence of two functional heads known (from monolingual evidence) to affect subject placement: the C(omplementizer) and T(ense) heads. By manipulating which head appears in which language, we test the availability of post-verbal subjects under different feature combinations. Our results show that post-verbal subjects are only available when both C and T are in Spanish; neither Spanish head alone is sufficient. This finding suggests that the features regulating subject position stem from neither head alone, which is problematic for traditional approaches to the EPP as a feature of T but in line with other recent research on null subjects.
|
|
Keyword:
bilingualism; code-switching; EPP; experimental syntax; Feature Inheritance; Spanish; subject position; syntax
|
|
URL: https://www.glossa-journal.org/jms/article/view/1449
https://doi.org/10.5334/gjgl.1449
|
|
BASE
|
|
Hide details
|
|
|
| 5 |
On the position of subjects in Spanish: Evidence from code-switching ...
|
|
|
|
BASE
|
|
Show details
|
|
|
| 6 |
Object focus marking in Spanish: An investigation using three tasks
|
|
|
|
In: Glossa: a journal of general linguistics; Vol 5, No 1 (2020); 70 ; 2397-1835 (2020)
|
|
BASE
|
|
Show details
|
|
|
| 8 |
Methodological considerations in code-switching research
|
|
|
|
In: Faculty Publications (2008)
|
|
BASE
|
|
Show details
|
|
|
|
|
