Spanish as an argument-indexing language. A view from the analysis of Colombian Andean Spanish

Abstract

Spanish is considered a dependent-marking language in which argument realization is accomplished through the coding of lexical or referential phrases (RPs). This counter-proposal suggests that it is an argument-indexing language, one where the argument realization is carried out by means of person forms or indexes attached to the verbal word. To prove this, we show that in Standard Spanish (SS) subject and indirect object RPs are not coded in most cases, and that the verb plus the indexes can function as a complete clause. To further discuss these ideas, we analyze Colombian Andean Spanish (CAS), in which DO arguments are also mostly coded through clitic person forms, so CAS has a three index system. We propose that the argument features load is coded in a distributed fashion: the indexes are the syntactic expression of arguments, while the RPs manifest their semantic and pragmatic content.

Keywords

• spanish argument realization system
• argument indexing languages
• spanish case flag system
• cross-reference languages
• conominal status in spanish