The variable use of subject personal pronouns (SPPs) in null subject languages, though extensively researched in several Spanish dialects, is for the first time examined in a contact variety of Puerto Rican residents of New York City (NYC). In a large-scale study conducted by Flores-Ferrán (2002), a number of contradictions arose with regard to how the degree of exposure to NYC may mediate the influence of overt SPP use on speakers. The degree of exposure to NYC was considered as indirect contact with English. This article further analyzes how 41 Puerto Rican residents in NYC use overt SPPs, and it also describes the patterns of each group: the recent arrivals, established residents, and native-born NYC Puerto Ricans. Of the larger study, this article examines the verbs' person and number, switch reference, and exposure to NYC. A striking resemblance in the patterns of overt SPP use was found among NYC residents, as a group, when compared to those reported on the island (Ávila-Jiménez, 1995, 1996; Cameron, 1992). However, when considering years of exposure to the City, the NYC native-born group appeared to have the strongest tendency to use explicit SPPs. In spite of the fact that this distinction was found with the NYC native-born group, there remains little evidence in favor of an English contact hypothesis. This study has benefited from previous research conducted by Richard Cameron and Bárbara Ávila-Jiménez. I thank Richard for his insight, comments, and his continuous support throughout the years. I also express much gratitude to Ricardo Otheguy and Edward Bendix and the three anonymous reviewers whose sharp criticisms contributed to this work. All errors, of course, remain mine.

Models of communication strictly as a function of intention and controlfounder when confronted by variationist findings of perseveration at different levels of linguistic structure in use. When Poplack (1981) finds that Spanish [s] leads to more [s] and that "zeros lead to zeros," it is unclear how speaker intention is involved. But, it is clear that what a speaker says at one point will influence what this same speaker says next. Here we identify perseveration of pronominal and null subjects in three dialects of Spanish: Madrid, San Juan, and New York City. In null subject Spanish, expression of subject pronouns leads to more pronouns, and expression of null subjects leads to more nulls. We argue that a perspicuous account of perseveration may be found within Spreading-Activation Theory (Dell 1986), a psycholinguistic theory of production based on speech errors. Thus, this work integrates quantitative dialect description with psycholinguistic explanation.

Scholars have investigated the variable use of subject personal pronouns (SPP) in oral and written discourse using a sociolinguistic framework for over three decades. The focal point of their research has been to determine the linguistic, stylistic, and social factors that influence speakers to express or not express the SPP as in Yo canto (I sing), and Canto [(I) sing]. Several linguistic, stylistic, and social factors have been found to condition the use of the expressed SPP. Nonetheless, this syntactic variable remains highly debated among scholars who investigate Spanish in the US, Latin American, and Peninsular varieties. The remarks in the article are suggestive rather than probative as the discussion represents an overview. It also provides a gateway of interest regarding this feature. Given the many empirical studies that have investigated this feature, the metaphor of ‘the bend in the road’ represents a slight turn that should guide our thoughts for future research.

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