Morphosyntax | Lee-Ann Vidal Covas, PhD

¿Va primero el verbo? OR ¿El sujeto va primero?: Subject-verb order in Latin American Spanish

Sat, 01 Jul 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Optional Extended Content

¿Va primero el verbo OR El sujeto va primero?: Subject-Verb order in Latin American Spanish

Thu, 05 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Los efectos condicionantes del verbo en el uso variable de los pronombres personales de sujeto

Mon, 14 Jul 2014 00:00:00 +0000

El uso variable de los pronombres sujetos en el castellano puertorriqueño hablado en Luisiana y Puerto Rico

Fri, 20 Dec 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Covariation & Salience in Linguistic Contact

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

I investigate how the noticeability—or salience—of different linguistic features shapes how people use and adapt language in contexts of contact with other dialects and languages. Instead of analyzing features one by one, I look at how lower- and higher-salience features pattern together to understand when speakers converge toward another language, maintain their own patterns, or repurpose features as identity markers. This approach bridges morphosyntax, phonetics, and discourse, integrating reproducible annotation and quantitative modeling across multiple feature types.

Future work expands this framework by adding more higher-salience variables (e.g., intervocalic /d/ lenition, vowel lowering, prosodic “cantadito”) and by including new communities beyond Boston as well as additional national identity groups. By comparing both speech production and listener perception, I explore when bilingual speakers adapt for efficiency and when they preserve differences as a form of cultural expression.

Dissertation Research

Conducted as part of the Spanish in Boston Project (NSF BCS-1423840), my dissertation examines how lower- and higher-salience features co-vary in the speech of Puerto Rican and Dominican Bostonians. Using mixed-methods analysis, I show that lower-salience features—like subject-pronoun expression, subject placement, and filled pauses—tend to align with English-compatible patterns, while higher-salience features—such as coda /s/ and liquids (/r, ɾ, l/)—remain socially meaningful resources. The results demonstrate that salience—social as much as perceptual—explains which variables shift together and which persist as identity markers.

At a glance


Scope	Covariation across morphosyntax (pronouns, word order), discourse (filled pauses), and phonology (coda /s/, liquids)
Design	Sociolinguistic interviews from the Spanish in Boston Corpus plus metalinguistic commentary
Speakers	Puerto Rican and Dominican speakers (N=22, ≈24,197 tokens)
Methods	Acoustic analysis in Praat Mixed-effects modeling in R	Praat RStudio

Key findings

Lower-salience features show modest, systematic convergence with English norms (bilingual optimization).
Higher-salience features remain stable & socially indexed, marking national identity distinctions.
Salience is continuous and ideologically mediated, structuring which variables shift together and which become identity markers.

Subject Pronoun Expression in Puerto Rican Spanish

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

In Spanish, finite verbs can occur with or without an expressed subject pronoun — as in yo hablo ‘I speak’ vs. hablo ‘(I) speak’ — without altering the meaning. Drawing on sociolinguistic interviews from Puerto Rican speakers in Louisiana and Puerto Rico, I examine how grammatical and discourse constraints pattern this variation. Results reveal Caribbean-typical pronoun rates (~37%) and show that internal morphosyntactic factors, not English contact, drive pronoun use in this sample.

At a glance


Design	Sociolinguistic interviews with 20 speakers (≈2,300 tokens); analyzed with Goldvarb
Predictors	Person/number, switch-reference, tense–mood–aspect, prior-subject realization, clause type, and verb semantics
Timeline	Conducted at Louisiana State University; later informed dissertation research expanding the same variable to new samples and contexts

Key findings

Pronoun rates ≈ PR 37.8% vs. LA 37.0%.
1SG/3SG and switch-reference favor pronoun usage; plurals disfavor it.
Only location shows a clear social effect — routine English contact did not increase pronoun usage.

The Mirror Principle Violations Project

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

I served as a Grad Assistant for Mirror Principle Violations Project, where I surveyed existing descriptive materials on a wide range of languages to describe the interactions between causative and applicative morphemes.

Word Order & Information Structure in Latin American Spanish

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

How do Spanish speakers judge Subject-Verb (SV) vs. Verb-Subject (VS) word orders—and how do verb type (unergative vs. unaccusative) and pragmatic condition (wide focus, subject-narrow focus, subject-given) shape those judgments? Using a controlled, online experiment, I test links between argument structure and information structure in four Latin American dialects.

At a glance


Design	Online acceptability-judgment task (Likert 1–5), 2×3 (Verb Type × Pragmatic Condition)
Survey Hosting Platform	Qualtrics	Qualtrics
Recruitment	Prolific	Prolific
Participants	N = 69 (Chile, Cuba, Mexico, Puerto Rico) → 1,656 ratings (SV/VS)
Methods	Mixed-effects modeling in R	RStudio

Key findings

SV preferred overall; VS favored with unaccusatives.
Verb type and pragmatic condition jointly predict acceptability.
Region not predictive in these data.
Supports a link between argument structure & information structure (Unaccusative Hypothesis).