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Article published In: Revista Española de Lingüística Aplicada/Spanish Journal of Applied Linguistics
Vol. 35:2 (2022) ► pp.650–674

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New considerations for variable clitic placement in Spanish

Findings from Atlanta, Georgia

ORCiD logo with link | Centre College
Published online: 13 September 2022
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/resla.20026.lim
Abstract
The current study examines variable clitic placement (CP) in Spanish in a Mexican community in the metropolitan Atlanta area. By employing sociolinguistic interview data from 20 first-generation Mexican speakers, clitic frequencies and constraints are analyzed. Tokens of proclisis and enclisis were coded for linguistic and social factors that potentially influence clitic usage (e.g., topic persistence, specific clitic used, English proficiency, age, gender), and a logistic regression analysis was carried out using Rbrul (Johnson, D. E. (2009). Getting off the GoldVarb standard: Introducing Rbrul for mixed-effects variable rule analysis. Language and Linguistics Compass, 3(1), 359–383. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar). Results indicate a proclisis rate of 64%, which is comparable to other varieties of Mexican Spanish. The regression analysis revealed that CP is sensitive to the particular construction used, the specific clitic, the presence of a pause, and the speaker’s gender. Additionally, English proficiency showed no effect on CP. This analysis supports previous research that CP is impermeable to contact-induced change and also reveals new conditioning factors (specific clitic, presence of a pause) that have not been examined in previous literature.
Resumen
Nuevas consideraciones para la colocación variable de los clíticos en español: Hallazgos de Atlanta, Georgia
El presente estudio examina la colocación variable de los clíticos (CC) en una comunidad mexicana en el área metropolitana de Atlanta. Mediante el empleo de datos de entrevistas sociolingüísticas de 20 hablantes mexicanos de primera generación, se analizan las frecuencias y restricciones de los clíticos. Se codificaron ejemplos de proclisis y enclisis según factores lingüísticos y sociales que potencialmente influyen en el uso del clítico (ej., la persistencia del tema, el clítico específico utilizado, el dominio del inglés, la edad, el género) y se llevó a cabo un análisis de regresión logística utilizando Rbrul (Johnson, D. E. (2009). Getting off the GoldVarb standard: Introducing Rbrul for mixed-effects variable rule analysis. Language and Linguistics Compass, 3(1), 359–383. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar). Los resultados indican una tasa de proclisis del 64%, la cual es comparable a otras variedades de español mexicano. El análisis de regresión reveló que la CC es sensible a la construcción particular utilizada, al clítico específico, a la presencia de una pausa y al género del hablante. Además, el dominio del inglés no mostró ningún efecto sobre la CC. Este análisis apoya investigaciones previas de que la CC es impermeable al cambio inducido por contacto y también revela nuevos factores condicionantes (clíticos específicos, pausas) que no se han examinado en la bibliografía previa.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Previous research on variable CP in Spanish
    • 2.1Finite verb and construction
    • 2.2Topic persistence
    • 2.3Two new factors to consider: Specific clitic and presence of a pause
    • 2.4Social factors
    • 2.5CP in U.S. Spanish
  • 3.Methodology
    • 3.1Data collection
    • 3.2The speakers
    • 3.3The variable context
    • 3.4Linguistic variables
    • 3.5Social variables
    • 3.6Statistical methods
  • 4.Results and analysis
    • 4.1Conditioning factors for variable CP
      • 4.1.1Particular construction
      • 4.1.2Specific clitic
      • 4.1.3Presence of a pause
      • 4.1.4Gender
      • 4.1.5Interactions between gender and other factors
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
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