ABSTRACT
In many Spanish dialects there is a preference to use le, instead of lo, with usted in direct object position: A usted, no le esperaremos “Sir, we will not wait for you” vs. A Juan, no lo esperaremos “Juan, we will not wait for him.” This is frequently called “leísmo de cortesía” (courteous leísmo). In this chapter, I relate this phenomenon to Pineda’s (2012a) account of accusative / dative alternations such as La robaron “They robbed herACC” vs. Le robaron “They robbed herDAT.” I propose that courteous leísmo is the result of the speakers’ ability to choose from the two structures that underlie the accusative / dative alternations in Pineda’s theory.
