ABSTRACT
This chapter will offer an overview of research on the pronominal system in specialized corpora in Spanish, with a focus on personal pronouns (including person reference through verb morphology), neuter pronouns and demonstrative pronouns. The chapter will deal both with the forms used as well as with the functions these pronouns may fulfill in a variety of specialized corpora. First, the chapter will offer an overview of the variety of forms involved, taking into account the pluricentric nature of the Spanish language and its impact on the paradigms and frequency of the pronouns included in this chapter. Further, I will present the research 164that has been carried out on the way in which the selected pronouns function in specialized corpora. Given the influence of production and the possibilities for retransmission in the use of deictics and demonstratives, a distinction will be made between spoken, written and digital corpora. Thus, a variety of discourses will be considered, including educational, scientific, professional, political discourses. This section will be followed by a functional approach to the pronouns under consideration, which will allow for showing the diversity of interactive, argumentative and discursive functions the pronouns may fulfill. This overview will furthermore allow for showing the contribution of these pronouns to the creation or strengthening of discursive cohesion and of interactional relations, as well as to identity construction in the context of specialized corpora. Finally, I will point out some aspects that have received less attention in the research on the way these pronouns function in Spanish, in order to suggest avenues for future research.
