The limits of dialectal variation: the case of Dominican Spanish

The limits of dialectal variation: the case of Dominican Spanish
Cristina Martínez Sanz
Univ. Ottawa
The present investigation examines the variable null and overt subject patterns
displayed by Dominican Spanish (DS). In doing so, it aims to build on recent work
that explores the potential of bridging quantitative and formal paradigms for defining
the limits of cross-linguistic and cross-dialectal syntactic variation (Adger & Smith
2005, Barbiers 2005, among others). Within this approach, the study of varieties
within languages aims not only to describe the distribution of syntactic variables, like
in traditional dialect syntax, but also to formally define the limits of language
variation.
DS has been described as a variety that departs significantly from Non-Caribbean
Spanish in its subject licensing grammar: rates of overt pronominal subjects are much
higher that in Non-Caribbean, prototypical pro-drop dialects; furthermore, these
expressed subjects arise in a specific set of syntactic environments; for instance, overt
subjects typically bear a Topic interpretation, as in (1); interrogatives may not display
subject-verb inversion, as in (2); non-finite constructions may bear a Nominative
preverbal subject, as in (3); and overt expletive constructions, featured in (4), are
attested. Interestingly, these overt subject constructions coexist in the speakers’
grammars with the null subject structures that constitute the unmarked option in NonCaribbean dialects. In theoretical work, this apparent ‘optionality’ has been explained
by arguing for diachronic change in progress (Toribio 2000). However, no agreement
has been reached in previous work regarding the distribution of subject expression
variants (Ordóñez and Olarrea 2006), which has made difficult arriving at an accurate
definition of the DS syntactic variation as well as providing a full-fledged assessment
of its theoretical implications.
In light of the findings and challenges in previous work, two main goals articulate this
study:
First, the accurate description of the Dominican subject grammar. A large corpus of
spontaneous speech (6000 tokens) was gathered in two geographical areas in the
Dominican Republic, the city of Santo Domingo and a rural area located a few
kilometers away from the Haitian border. When data are submitted to statistical
analysis, the results show that in spite of marked phonological differences, which
have been taken in previous work as evidence for tearing apart Dominican dialects
(Núñez Cedeño 1983), the constraints that regulate null and overt subject insertion cut
across geographical lines. In other words, urban and rural speakers share an
underlying grammar of subject expression. These results lend support to the
hypothesis of the permeability of syntactic structures (Labov 1994).
Second, the assessment of the relative power of variationist and standard syntactic
methodology for defining the limits of dialectal variation. It is argued in this
investigation these approaches, far from being excluding, neatly complement each
other: the quantitative analysis of spontaneous speech, in that allows one to “catch a
glimpse of grammatical structure” (Meechan and Foley 1995:82), is well suited to
arrive at a fine-grained description of attested patterns of variation. Theoretical
Limits and Areas in Dialectology
Lisboa • 2011
implications drawn from both quantitative and qualitative evidence, in turn, may
contribute to our understanding of the limits of syntactic variation afforded by formal
grammars.
(1)
Cuando yo vine a la ciudad, fue porque mi tía me rescató de allá como quien
dice. Yo era chiquitico, yo tenía aproximadamente ocho años.
‘When I came to the city, it was because my aunt rescued me from back there.
I was tiny, I was about 8’.
(2)
¿A qué
hora ustedes
cierran?
at what time you.2PPL close.3PPL
‘At what time do you guys close?’
(3)
Tenía que acostarme antes pa’ yo dormirme porque con los ronquidos de ellos
no podía dormir.
‘I had to go bed before the others so I could fall asleep, because with their
snores I couldn’t fall asleep.’
(4)
Vamos
ahí
que
ello hay
go.1PPL there that EXP is
‘Let’s go there where there are chairs’
sillas
chairs
Limits and Areas in Dialectology
Lisboa • 2011