ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses a theoretical issue of large scope, connected to a corpus-based, empirical study of narrower focus. The narrower empirical study deals with structural perseveration in the use of Spanish subject personal pronouns and with structural priming, the cognitive mechanism said to explain perseveration. The larger problem dealt with in this paper is the unresolved issue of the theoretical platform on which variationist research is built. I start with what I regard as misapprehensions in sociolinguistics concerning linguistic theory and move on to an account of the obstacles that these misapprehensions have placed on the path to understanding Spanish pronominal perseverative use. I end by offering a sketch of alternative views on these questions.
