ABSTRACT
This chapter reports on the placement of subject personal pronouns by first- and second-generation Spanish-speaking Caribbeans in NYC. We observe that differences across and within generations in pronominal subject placement are conditioned by speakers’ English skills, socioeconomic status, and level of education. We examine these differences to determine whether they can be explained as a consequence of the differential input for acquiring the Spanish received by the first- and second-generation speakers—in other words, as evidence of the development of a dialect of Spanish in transition from a Caribbean variety to a US variety, with a word order more similar to that of English.
