Provides a panoramic view of research trends, develop probabilistic models of grammar, and investigate the impact of language contact on pronoun expression. The book is divided into three sections. It features views of experts on the topic of language variation in Spanish.

PrefaceRicardo Otheguy IntroductionAna M. Carvalho, Rafael Orozco, and Naomi Lapidus Shin Part I: Subject Pronoun Expression in Monolingual Varieties of Spanish1. Variation of Overt and Null Subject Pronouns in the Spanish of Santo DomingoGabriela G. Alfaraz 2. Pronominal Variation in Colombian Costeno SpanishRafael Orozco 3. Subject Pronoun Expression in Oral Mexican SpanishYolanda Lastra and Pedro Martin Butragueno 4. Subject Pronoun Usage in Formulaic Sequences: Evidence from Peninsular SpanishPekka Posio Part II: Subject Pronoun Expression in Spanish in Contact with Other Languages5. Foundations for the Study of Subject Pronoun Expression in Spanish in Contact with English: Assessing Intralinguistic (Dis)similarity via Intralinguistic VariabilityRena Torres Cacoullos and Catherine E. Travis 6. Subject Pronoun Expression in Contact with Maya in Yucatan SpanishJim Michnowicz 7. First Person Singular Subject Pronoun Expression in Spanish in Contact with CatalanAna de Prada Perez8. Subject Pronoun Expression in Spanish in Contact with PortugueseAna M. Carvalho and Ryan M. Bessett Part III: Subject Pronoun Expression in Contexts of Acquisition 9. The Emergence of Structured Variability in Morphosyntax: Childhood Acquisition of Spanish Subject PronounsNaomi Lapidus Shin and Daniel Erker 10. Variable Subject Expression in Second Language Spanish: Uncovering the Developmental Sequence and Predictive Linguistic FactorsKimberly Geeslin, Bret Linford, and Stephen Fafulas 11. The Acquisition of Grammatical Subjects by Spanish-English BilingualsCarmen Silva-Corvalan 12. Subject Expression in Bilingual School-age Children in the United StatesSilvina Montrul and Noelia Sanchez-WalkerContributors Index

A superb collection of studies that substantially increases our understanding, not only of variation in subject personal pronouns, but also of variable morphosyntactic processes generally . . . . Clearly relevant to all students and scholars who wish to understand the complexities of linguistic variation and dialect contact.

A superb collection of studies that substantially increases our understanding, not only of variation in subject personal pronouns, but also of variable morphosyntactic processes generally ... Clearly relevant to all students and scholars who wish to understand the complexities of linguistic variation and dialect contact. -- Robert Bayley, professor of linguistics, University of California, Davis Students and scholars will find that this volume is an essential reference in the field of Spanish language variation. If the study of final /s/ has led Spanish sociophonetics, the study of subject pronouns stars in sociogrammar. This volume presents a 3D analysis of how subject pronouns are used and acquired in Spanish. This comprehensive volume is not only of interest to those concerned with Spanish grammar, but also to anyone interested in pro-drop languages. The vision of Carvalho, Orozco and Shin has harmonized an excellent collective volume. -- Francisco Moreno-Fernandez, professor of Hispanic linguistics. University of Alcala (Spain) and Instituto Cervantes at Harvard University., If you seek innovative, theoretically and empirically driven research into syntactic variation, open this book and read on. Here a variationist focus on alternating sound and silence, something and nothing, or subject pronouns and nulls generates striking insights into the nature of Spanish and those who speak and learn it. -- Richard Cameron, , University of Illinois at Chicago