Feature variability in the bilingual-monolingual continuum: clitics in bilingual Quechua-Spanish, bilingual Shipibo-Spanish and in monolingual Limeño Spanish contact varieties

Abstract

Direct object clitics in Latin American Spanish are subject to great variability in features across dialects. Variability also characterizes bilingual acquisition and especially clitic doubling structures in language contact contexts. We focus on the distribution of clitics and Differential Object Marking (DOM) in clitic doubling structures among Shipibo-Spanish bilinguals, Quechua-Spanish bilinguals, and monolingual speakers of Spanish in contact with Quechua. We analyze a continuum of clitic forms and DOM as complex cases of feature reassembly and functional convergence that results in new interface rules with scalar hierarchies.