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A community-based test of a linguistic hypothesis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 February 2009

Richard Cameron
Richard Cameron
Affiliation:
Department of English, The University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL 60607-7120
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Abstract

The Functional Compensation Hypothesis (Hochberg 1986a, b) interprets frequent expression of pronominal subjects as compensation for frequent deletion of agreement marking on finite verbs in Puerto Rican Spanish (PRS). Specifically, this applies to 2sg. tú where variably deleted word-final -s marks agreement. If the hypothesis is correct, finite verbs with agreement deleted in speech should co-occur more frequently with pronominal subjects than finite verbs with agreement intact. Likewise, social dialects which frequently delete agreement should show higher rates of pronominal expression than social dialects which less frequently delete agreement. These auxiliary hypotheses are tested across a socially stratified sample of 62 speakers from San Juan. Functional compensation does show stylistic and social patterning in the category of Specific tú, not in that of Non-specific tú. However, Non-specific tú is the key to frequency differences between -s-deleting PRS and -s-conserving Madrid; hence the Functional Compensation Hypothesis should be discarded. (Functionalism, compensation, null subject, analogy, Spanish, Puerto Rico)

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Type
Research Article
Information
Language in Society , Volume 25 , Issue 1 , March 1996, pp. 61 - 111
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1996

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