Spanish subject pronoun usage and verb semantics revisited: First and second person singular subject pronouns and focusing of attention in spoken Peninsular Spanish

A considerable body of literature exists on the use of subject pronouns in Spanish. However, the influence of semantic and pragmatic factors on subject pronoun usage has not been examined thoroughly enough. This paper deals with the frequency and patterns of usage of first and second person singular subject pronouns with 14 different verbs in a corpus of spoken Peninsular Spanish. It is argued that the differences attested in subject pronoun usage between the verbs can be explained by the focusing of attention on the clausal participants of the verbs involved (i.e., connected to the semantic role of the subject and the level of transitivity of the clause) and by the discourse functions of the verb forms in question. In addition, some frequently used first person singular verb forms can be analyzed as formulaic sequences which are used to express the speaker's subjective or epistemic stance.