¿How does culture affect grammar? The case of clitics in Latin American Spanish

Abstract

Syntax is motivated by semantic and pragmatic. Pragmatic dimension dictates which forms –and meanings- are more appropriated for each context. In this article, we intent to show how the language is shaped by culture when pragmatics is ethnopragmatics. The skewing in the relative frequency of the use of third person clitics in the in the different varieties of Spanish in America is a priviledged area of study. The deictic nature of Spanish clitics entail at least two types of pragmatic dimensions: the referencial and the raltional. The value that the reference receives, is certainly cultural and given by the community. In fact, we can expect that different cultural groups assign a different value to the same referents and that these cultural values have an influence in the creation of the linguistic paradigms. In order to support this analysis, we will provide several examples of the expanded use of “le” and the absence of this clitic in the accusative field in the Argentinian Guaranitic Spanish and the categoric and variable use of clitics with respect to certain verbs in the Spanish spoke by Bolivians leaving in Argentina.