Syntactic variation in Colombian Spanish

This article examines some of the syntactic properties of the Focalizing ser (FS) structure in Colombian Spanish. The FS has been reported in only a few dialects of Spanish (Venezuelan, Colombian, Ecuadorian, Dominican, and Panamanian), and it is not stigmatized, despite being dialectally marked. Although the FS shows some resemblance to the pseudo-cleft construction, the syntactic analysis included here is based on the premise that the two forms are syntactically different. Looking at the syntactic contexts in which this form may occur, I show that the FS may precede any kind of phrase, serving any kind of syntactic function, as long as it is post-verbal. Furthermore, I illustrate that the agreement relation between FS ser and certain sentential constituents is not random. At the end, I present compelling evidence to suggest that the FS is in a TP-internal Focus Phrase, generated below TP and above vP. Key words: TP-internal focus; functional projection; information structure; dialectal variation