Converging and diverging grammars

Abstract

This paper reports on a cross-generational study of the evolution of Basque Spanish as regards lexical subjects in infinitival constructions, preverbal double negatives, nominal disagreement, clitic doubling, word order, and null objects. We show that some of these features have disappeared over a generation of speakers whereas others are still present in younger generations, and we explain this situation in terms of our finding that a syntactic phenomenon does not survive in isolation but its future is linked to that of a cluster of syntactic properties.