On gender and number agreement in the determiner phrase: the afro-bolivian spanish case

Abstract

This paper provides a formal account for processes of gender and number agreement in Afro-Bolivian Spanish, a contact variety of Spanish spoken in Los Yungas, Department of La Paz, Bolivia. The analysis assumes current minimalist models of feature valuation in DP (Pesetsky and Torrego 2007). Cross dialectal differences between Afro-Bolivian Spanish and standard Spanish are explained in light of the Minimalist Program/Principles and Parameter framework. The elements of parametric variation are accounted for in a systematic fashion, as computationally determined by differences in the specification of lexical and functional items and by restrictions on syntactic operations: in this case, on Agree.

Keywords

• gender
• number
• agree
• feature valuation
• Afro-Bolivian Spanish