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Part of
Contemporary Trends in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics: Selected papers from the Hispanic Linguistic Symposium 2015
Edited by Jonathan E. MacDonald
[Issues in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics 15] 2018
► pp. 355–372

Chapter 16
Testing English influence on first person singular “yo” subject pronoun expression in Sonoran Spanish

| University of Texas Rio Grande Valley

The present investigation seeks to explore the impact that contact with English has on the variation of first person singular “yo” subject pronoun expression in Sonoran Spanish by analyzing sociolinguistic interviews from sixteen monolinguals from Sonora, Mexico and sixteen bilinguals from Arizona, United States from Sonora born parents/grandparents. Based on previous research, it is expected that if there is English influence on the Spanish of the bilinguals, there will be an increased rate of expressed pronouns, the bilinguals will show decreased sensitivity to switch reference, there will be a decrease of expressed pronouns in coordinate clauses with the same referent, and community (Arizona/Sonora) will be a significant factor. These hypotheses are not born out and thus the results show a lack of evidence for English influence on the variable for the bilinguals in the study.

Keywords: subject pronoun expression, bilingualism, variation, contact, Spanish, English
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Methodology
    • 2.1Participants
    • 2.2Data collection
  • 3.Results
    • 3.1Hypothesis 1: Overall frequencies
    • 3.2Constraint hierarchy of the factor groups
    • 3.3Hypothesis 2: Loss of sensitivity to the switch reference constraint
    • 3.4Hypothesis 3: Clause type
    • 3.5Hypothesis 4: Community as a factor
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
  • Appendix
Published online: 14 February 2018
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ihll.15.17bes
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