Pathways of development around the Spanish-speaking world: Cross-varietal diachronic variation and change in 19th-21st century Spanish morpho-syntax

During processes of language variation and change, it remains undetermined to what extent different dialects of a language coincide or diverge in how linguistic change progresses.

This project sets out to address this gap by conducting a large-scale variationist corpus linguistic investigation that traces how historical grammar change unfolds in Latin American and European varieties of Spanish.

The project uses corpus linguistic methods and mixed-effects regression analysis in order to determine how the influence of intralinguistic constraints on grammatical variation evolves in historical dialects of Spanish. The first two years will be spent at the Humboldt University of Berlin, and the third at Stockholm University.

The first year will be dedicated to literature reviews of the analyzed phenomena, data compilation and coding. Year two and beginning of year three till consist of analyses, dissemination of results and writing three papers.

The rest of year three will be dedicated to writing a theory paper that draws on the empirical results obtained from the three studies in order to answer the project’s bigger-picture research questions.

The innovative approach of this cross-varietal diachronic project provides a systematic and holistic examination of how grammar change proceeds in different varieties of a language. Importantly, these findings contribute to identifying what mechanisms are ultimately responsible for grammar change.