ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book. The book is an edited collection of original contributions that all deal with the idiosyncratic grammatical properties of Puerto Rican Spanish (PRSp). The issue brings together scholars working on linguistic analyses of PRSp in and outside the island, providing a forum for sharing findings, exploring issues, and keeping us all informed of advances in the fields of Caribbean linguistics and Puerto Rican linguistics. The book focuses on the structural aspects of linguistics — phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, pragmatics, and language variation — analyzed within a variety of frameworks and methodological approaches. It also includes a section on applied linguistics and a phonetic study of spontaneous speech samples, including six speakers three men and three women recorded as part of the PRESEEA project. The book aims to determine whether pragmatic variation is evidenced in the discourse of clients who are being treated for depression.
