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    This article has been cited by the following publications. This list is generated based on data provided by CrossRef.
    Blas Arroyo, José Luis 2018. At the boundaries of linguistic convergence: Variation in presentational haber / haver-hi. Languages in Contrast, Vol. 18, Issue. 1, p. 35.
    Claes, Jeroen 2018. Cognitive and geographic constraints on morphosyntactic variation. Belgian Journal of Linguistics, Vol. 31, Issue. , p. 30.
    Melnik, Nurit 2018. Existentials and possessives in Modern Hebrew. Studies in Language, Vol. 42, Issue. 2, p. 389.
    Claes, Jeroen 2014. Sociolingüística comparada y gramática de construcciones: Un acercamiento a la pluralización dehaberpresentacional en las capitales antillanas. Revista Española de Lingüística Aplicada/Spanish Journal of Applied Linguistics, Vol. 27, Issue. 2, p. 338.
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A Cognitive Construction Grammar approach to the pluralization of presentational haber in Puerto Rican Spanish

  • Jeroen Claes (a1)
Abstract

In this paper, I present an analysis of the pluralization of haber ‘there is/are’ in Puerto Rican Spanish (e.g., habían fiestas ‘there were parties’) as an ongoing language change from below in which the impersonal argument-structure construction (<AdvPhaberObj>) is being replaced by a personal variant (<AdvPhaberSubj>). Speakers pluralize presentational haber in about 41% of the cases, and linguistic conditioning factors are ‘typical action chain-position of the noun's referent,’ polarity of the clause, verb tense, comprehension-to-production priming, and production-to-production priming. I argue that the effect of these independent variables can be traced back to three cognitive factors: the preference for unmarked coding, statistical preemption, and structural priming. Social distributions can also be modeled in constructionist frameworks, with results for social class, formality, and gender advocating in favor of considering this variation as an ongoing change from below, which allows speakers to position themselves in terms of gender and social class.

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