James H. Abbott

Bio: James H. Abbott is an academic researcher. The author has contributed to research in topics: Utterance & Verb. The author has an hindex of 1, co-authored 1 publications receiving 3 citations.

Subject Position in Contemporary Spanish

Abstract: There are three fundamental questions to be answered in discussing subject position in any language: (1) where may the subject be placed in relation to the other elements of a sentence or utterance? (2) how often is it placed in each of its possible positions? (3) what determines both position and frequency? There is not time, however, at this session to answer any one of these questions completely. This paper, consequently, is concerned with just two points: first, with whether the items which immediately precede or follow the verb influence in any way the position of the subject, and, second, with whether the subject itself, either as an isolated word or as a cluster of words, affects in any way its position in the Spanish sentence.

Bare English-origin nouns in Spanish: Rates, constraints, and discourse functions

Abstract: We test the hypothesis that single other-language-origin words are nonce loans (Sankoff, Poplack, & Vanniarajan, 1990) as opposed to code-switches in a corpus-based study of English-origin nouns occurring spontaneously in New Mexican Spanish discourse. The object of study is determinerless nouns, whose status is superficially ambiguous. The study shows that, even with typologically similar languages, variable rule analysis can reveal details of the grammar that constitute conflict sites, even when relative frequencies for variants are similar. Though the rate of bare nouns is identical, their distribution patterns in Spanish and English differ. Linguistic conditioning parallel with the former, and at odds with the latter, shows that the contentious items are loanwords. In information flow terms (Dubois, 1980; Thompson, 1997), it is not lack of grammatical integration but nonreferential uses of nonce-loan nouns to form recipient-language predicates that is manifested in zero determination.We are grateful to Neddy A. Vigil for access to the New Mexico–Colorado Spanish Survey tapes. Mayra Cortes-Torres, Matt Alba, Jens Clegg, and Mark Waltemire helped with data transcription and extraction. This work was supported by a University of New Mexico Research Allocations Committee grant to Torres Cacoullos (#02-01). Work was completed during a postdoctoral fellowship for Torres Cacoullos at the University of Ottawa Sociolinguistics Laboratory, for which we thank Shana Poplack. A preliminary version was presented at NWAV-31, Stanford University, October 2002.

Spanish Adjective Position: The Theory of Valence Classes

Abstract: No one, I believe' will dispute the statement that medieval Spanish inherited from Latin more freedom in the placement of noun modifiers than can now be found in the contemporary language. The early thirteenth century Castilian, for example, could (1) place some limiting adjectives either before the noun (de otras muchas cibdades)2 or after it (de otras cibdades muchas), (2) treat limiting and descriptive adjectives as coordinate modifiers (a ensi de uillas ricas e mil), (3) put cardinal numbers after descriptive adjectives (granndes dos forados en la boca), (4) use words like "mismo" and "grande" in either position without any distinction in meaning, (5) give "alguno" and its synonyms a positive value either before or after the noun, and (6) treat "todo," in combination with the definite article, as the unique modifier preceding the article (de todas las otras cibdades) or as a "descriptive" adjective after the noun (rey de las otras bestias todas). More examples are hardly needed to demonstrate that Spanish has undergone a radical syntactico-structural reorganization since the thirteenth century. Many of the elementary textbook rules on the syntactical position of limiting and descriptive adjectives, whatever their actual faults, are based on the principle behind this reorganization, that is, throughout the centuries the Spaniards have exhibited an ever-increasing agreement on the principle that all words which share a distinctive semantic function should be treated in a like fashion syntactically and grammatically. Thus, for example, the definite article, the demonstratives, and the short possessives are limiting adjectives which share with all other adjectives the non-distinctive function of

Spanish word order in non-sentence constructions

Abstract: In Spanish non-sentence constructions, beginning elements establish a datum of reference to what is already known by carrying meaning within the confines of conventionalized order-class paradigms. Following elements, on the other hand, narrow the possibilities of syntagmatic combination to give final, new definition to the expression. At the beginning of constructions, the potential paradigms that occur first are smaller in extension, and thus more contrastive; paradigms nearer the center are larger, and more complex. The value of relative complexity or contrast of each such paradigm is closely connected to its characterizing semantic tag. Following elements possess syntagmatic contrast similar to the contrast perceived in initial paradigms; preceding elements, which are non-contrastive, are perceived as syntagmatically complex. Phrases and clauses, by nature complex, are placed at the end of constructions, allowing the possible modulation or neutralization of end contrast.*