Cuba Spaniol

Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics Volume 5, Issue 1 Spring 2012

The Status of the Extension of estar in Cuban Spanish

Gabriela G. Alfaraz Michigan State University

Abstract This paper presents variationist sociolinguistics research on the copula estar with predicate adjectives in Cuban Spanish, a variety in which it appears to have gone largely uninvestigated. To examine its social and linguistic distribution, a real-time study with data from the 1960s and 1990s was coupled with an apparent-time study with data from the 1990s. Findings showed that generation and adjective type were significant factors constraining the variation. The comparison of different generations in real and apparent time suggested that the frequency of estar had increased significantly in the younger generation compared to older ones, and it had remained stable for the two age cohorts studied in real time. Results for following adjective showed that the extension of estar was favored in two of eight adjective classes. These findings suggest that Cuban Spanish has experienced a change over time in the frequency and distribution of innovative estar with predicate adjectives. 1. Introduction This paper presents research on the variation of the Spanish copulas ser and estar in Cuban Spanish. It provides an account of the variation of the copulas with predicate adjectives in a variety in which this phenomenon appears not to have been studied. As this research is carried out within the variationist tradition in sociolinguistics, it contributes to previous variationist work that has examined linguistic and social factors, i.e. type of adjective, style, age, gender, socioeconomic status (Corts-Torres 2004, Gutirrez 1992, 1994, de Jonge 1993, Ortiz Lpez 2000, Salazar 2007, Silva-Corvaln 1986, 1994), in order to identify those that condition the variation and to estimate their degree of influence. In variationist sociolinguistics, the description of the linguistic and social distribution of variable linguistic forms is interpreted within the larger view of the variation as either stable or a change in progress. The primary objective of the research reported on here is to explore whether Cuban Spanish is undergoing a change in the use of estar as has been reported for other varieties of Spanish (Gutirrez 1992, 1994, Silva-Corvaln 1986, 1994). Linguistic and social factors are examined to describe and compare the variation in both real and apparent time in order to explore change over time.

4 Gabriela G. Alfaraz

It is well known that the Spanish copulas have been involved in change over the course of many centuries. The evolution of the copulas has involved the expansion of estar and the restriction of ser (Andrade 1919, Pountain 1982, Silva-Corvaln 1986, 1994, Va-Cerd 1982). After examining the acquisition of the copulas in children, Sera (1992) noted that the expansion of estar could eventually erase distinctions between ser and estar in contexts in which either may occur. Their synchronic status was explored in a seminal sociolinguistic study carried out by Silva-Corvaln (1986, 1994) with Mexican-origin subjects in Los Angeles that convincingly showed that there has been a change in the distribution of estar and that its expansion to ser contexts can be observed in some present-day varieties. In reference to the change, Silva-Corvaln wrote: the extension to new contexts represents a more advanced stage in a continuous process of syntactic-semantic extension of the copula estar throughout the history of Spanish (p.93). Silva-Corvaln used the term extension of estar for the process of change and referred to it using the terminology common in variationist sociolinguistics as an innovation or innovative. Similarly, in the present paper, extension of estar and innovative estar are used. 1.1 Background At the center of investigations examining linguistic change from a variationist framework is the idea that linguistic variation is systematic and constrained by linguistic and social factors (Labov 1963). The study of variation has been based on the notion that the variants being studied are semantically equivalent, or two ways of saying the same thing (Labov 1972, 1978), and while it is well known that for phonological variables this definition is unproblematic, much has been written about the equivalence of variants when higher level variables are studied. In regards to variables beyond the phonological level, Buchstaller (2009, p.1015) noted: some studies do not problematise the issue and refrain from explicitly defining a variable [...]. Others define a sociolinguistic variable but circumvent the question of its semantic load and focus instead on the fact that the variants are united by a common (mainly functional) denominator. Sociolinguistic studies of the variation of the copulas ser and estar before adjectives, particularly the extension of estar, have taken the latter approach, studying the variation without problematizing the semantic equivalence of the variants. The copulas ser and estar can both appear before predicate adjectives without being variants of one variable, as shown in (1), in which ser (a) and estar (b) have different meanings: (a) indicates that Julio is old in terms of chronological age and (b) conveys the meaning that Julio appears or looks old but he is not necessarily chronologically old. Yet, the copula estar in (b) could be an innovative use, and in this sense, both (a) and (b) mean that Julio is old.

The Status of the Extension of estar in Cuban Spanish 5

(1) a. Julio es viejo. b. Julio est viejo. Some background of the long debate on the copulas is in order, given that linguists have long grappled with their notorious behavior preceding predicate adjectives (Bolinger 1947, Bull 1942, Clements 1988, Crespo 1946, Lujn 1981, Falk 1979, Franco & Steinmetz 1983, 1986, de Mello 1979, Navas-Ruiz 1963, Roldn 1974). On the one hand, grammars and textbooks have long explained the distribution of ser and estar with predicate adjectives as expressing relative duration, where ser conveys permanence and estar temporariness (Bello 1847). Although this description can be productive, counterexamples abound (Franco & Steinmetz 1983), which led Andrade (1919, p.19) to write: What is the ratio of permanence between wealth and youth? [...]. Is laziness less permanent than honesty? [...].To take permanent in the sense of changeless is utterly impossible, as very few of all the possible properties and conditions predicated by ser are exempt from change. Bull (1942) similarly pointed out problems with the interpretation of the copulas as conveying permanent or inherent and temporary or accidental and advanced the theory, based on Alonso & Henrquez Urea (1939), that the defining characteristic of estar was not that it was temporary or accidental, but that a change had already occurred, in which case, the new state could be permanent. The extension of estar was evident in some of the explanations and examples of the use of the copulas in early discussions. For instance, differences between the copulas were blurred in Crespos (1946) analysis when he argued that estar could refer to permanent, inherent, or normal states in addition to temporary and accidental ones. Crespo expanded the theory that ser referred to the subjects membership in a class and estar to its condition or state, arguing that estar not only referred to a state or condition of the subject established through a comparison to itself, but that it also could refer to a comparison of the subject with other similar objects, as for example when a tourist contemplates the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel for the first time and utters qu hermoso est esto how beautiful this is (p.49). Bolinger (1947) shared Crespos view, arguing that in esta carne es buena this meat is good, ser is used for the norm and compares the meat to others in the same class, and that in esta carne est buena this meat is good the comparison is also with items in the same class and obtains a departure from the class norm. The important point is that for both copulas, the reference is to a class. Bolinger also added the idea of comparison with an archetype: estar is used for comparisons within a given genus: comparisons of a thing with its archetype or with previous or succeeding states of itself (p.365). Franco & Steinmetz (1983, 1986), although their primary claim was that ser established a reference to the real world, a comparison of x to y, and estar a comparison of the entity to itself, of x to x, they added that if the entity was new to the speaker, estar compared it with an imagined or anticipated one. Thus, research on the copulas appears to have been complicated


by the intrusion of the extension of estar. As noted earlier, the few sociolinguistic studies carried out on the copulas have based their analysis on the assumption that they are variants of one variable preceding predicate adjectives. 1.2 Variationist studies As noted above, Silva-Corvalns (1986, 1994) seminal study examined ser and estar as linguistic variants to investigate the internal factors relevant to the variation and the social factors that could influence internal linguistic changes. She found that Mexican-origin subjects in Los Angeles used estar as well as ser in descriptions of individuals who were unknown to their interlocutor, as shown in (2), in which the size adjectives grande and chico occur with both copulas; estar is used with grande big to describe the size of a persons nose. Silva-Corvaln found that in conversational interviews the extension of estar occurred at a rate of 34%. (2) Mira, la nariz de ella no es como la ma; est un poco grande, pero- anchita.

Ah, sus ojos son chicos como los mos. Su cara, t sabes, es- bueno, era muy bonita mi madre. Well, her nose is not like mine; its a little big, but- wide. Ah, her eyes are small like mine. Her face, you know, its- well, she was very pretty, my mother. (Silva Corvaln 1994, pp.101-102)

To probe whether innovative estar was used because speakers assumed shared knowledge of the entity with the interlocutor, Silva-Corvaln gave a fill in the blank questionnaire to a target group of Mexican Spanish speakers and two control groups, one of Chileans and another of graduate students from different regions. The results substantiated the findings of the conversational data. The rate of estar for Mexican Spanish speakers exceeded the frequency of the other two groups: for the target group it was 14.8%, whereas for the control groups, it was 4.2% for the Chileans, and 1.5% for the graduate students. Silva-Corvaln, thus, concluded that there was indeed variation of ser and estar with adjectives and that the use of estar was not necessarily triggered by the discourse situation and presupposed background familiarity with an entity, but rather by a change in the copula estar, which was perhaps accelerated in the language contact situation. When Silva-Corvaln examined the types of adjectives used with estar, she found that it occurred with an overwhelming number of adjectives of age (78%), then size (53%), and sensory characteristics, such as taste, smell, and hearing, (47%); on the other hand, the adjectives with the lowest rates of estar were those of moral value for animate subjects, such as honesto and respetable (13%), color adjectives (11%), and adjectives referring to the social categories of animate subjects, pobre poor and mexicano Mexican (4%).


Gutirrez (1992, 1994) replicated Silva-Corvalns study with native speakers in Morelia, Michoacn, Mexico, a speech community removed from language contact influence, to explore questions that arose from Silva-Corvalns work. The results of this study revealed generational differences that suggested a change in progress in this speech community, too. Gutirrez found that innovative estar occurred at an overall rate of 18%, with 16% in conversational interviews when individuals described an entity unknown to the interlocutor. The frequencies of innovative estar according to type of adjective were lower than Silva-Corvalns, but the distribution was generally similar: the highest rates were with adjectives of description (44%) and age (43%), then size (34%) and physical appearance (33%), while low rates were found for adjectives that expressed evaluations (12%), moral value (2%), and social status (1%). The example in (3) shows the extension of estar with the size adjective grande big. (3) ...como el camin era muy grande tena asiento de sobra, ... no ... como el

carro de mi hijo tambin est muy grande, ... tiene metro y medio ms grande que todos ... since the bus was (ser) very big it had lots of seats ..., ... like my sons car that is (estar) also very big, it has a meter and a half more than the others ... (Gutirrez 2003, p.172)

In a subsequent study on Mexican Spanish, Corts-Torres (2004) found 23% innovative estar overall in the city of Cuernavaca, located just south of Mexico City, in her study of 36 men and women. The rates for conversations and a questionnaire were considerably different, higher in the questionnaire (31%) than in conversational data (9%). The results of a multivariate analysis with Goldvarb showed that type of adjective was the most important factor, followed by style (conversation vs. questionnaire) and then educational level. The results for type of adjective showed that adjectives of physical appearance (feo ugly) and age (nuevo new) favored innovative estar, adjectives of size and evaluation (bueno good) were neutral, whereas those for personal characteristics (amable kind) strongly disfavored the variant. The findings for educational level are consistent with what is expected for nonstandard variants: rates of innovative estar increase as educational level decreases. Gender was not a significant factor; men and women each had frequencies of 50%. Three age groups were studied, distributed among the ages of 18-30, 32-49, and 50+. An interesting finding was that age was not significant, which suggested stable variation rather than a change in progress, as was found in the speech community studied by Gutirrez (1992, 1994). In Cuernavaca, the frequency of innovative estar was higher in the middle age group (46%) than in the youngest (34%) or the oldest (20%), but these age differences were not significant when all factors were considered together.

UsuarioResaltar


In a study aimed at investigating the progression of linguistic change, which does not advance at a regular rate and may remain stable over many centuries without going to completion (Labov 2001), de Jonge (1993) examined estar from the perspective of its having remained relatively stable during the last several hundred years. De Jonge limited the study to adjectives of age in data from Mexico City and Caracas, Venezuela, in which the increase of innovative estar had remained stable for the last one to two decades. De Jonge argued that the two varieties were at different stages in the change, after finding a statistically significant difference in the frequency of innovative estar (36% Mexico City vs. 53% Caracas). In terms of the primary goal of examining the advancement of estar, de Jonge concluded that it had remained stable over the span of time studied. Salazars (2007) study of the copulas in New Mexico Spanish did not reveal significant results for age that pointed to a change in progress in this variety among 20 subjects. Level of education, however, was found to contribute significantly to the variation, with higher educational levels disfavoring the extension of estar. Although gender was not significant, the frequency of innovative estar was higher among males (54%) than females (46%). As in previous studies, type of adjective was found to have the greatest influence on the occurrence of the variant. Adjectives of physical description and states of being favored estar, as did adjectives of age. Descriptive and evaluative adjectives both disfavored innovative estar, but the effect of the latter was considerably stronger. Evidence from variationist studies on the copulas have revealed some situations in which generational differences suggest a change in progress (Gutirrez 1992, Silva-Corvaln 1994) and others in which the lack of significance of age points to stable variation (Corts-Torres 2004, de Jonge 1993, Salazar 2007). The current research will add to these studies by examining the social and linguistic distribution of the extension of estar to determine its status as stable variation or one in which estar is progressing in adjective contexts as part of a process of change. 2. Study design To examine the extension of estar with predicate adjectives, this study compared generational groups in both real and apparent time. The real time approach provides a look at the frequency of the variants at different points in time with recordings made thirty years apart, in the 1960s and the 1990s. Studies in real time can reveal information about the status of a variable, whether it is involved in change or stable, in a speech community. Studies in real time can either compare the same group of speakers at various points in time or they can use a sample made up of different speakers as representative. Previous studies can be used to establish a basis of comparison or real-time comparisons can be carried out with data recorded earlier, which has proven to be a valuable resource when studying linguistic variation (Bailey, Maynor & Cukor-Avila 1991). Apparent time studies are used to


reconstruct time differences to explore linguistic changes (Cedergren 1973, Labov 1966) when data from real-time studies are not available. In apparent time studies, variants are studied across different age groups at one point in time; changes in progress are revealed as differences in the distribution of variants across age groups, with the younger tending to have increased rates when there is change from below. For the real-time analysis, this study used data recorded in 1968-69 and 1996-98. The subjects were native speakers of Spanish who had recently arrived from Cuba. The data are from conversations and informal interviews, and the two sets of data are comparable, as they involved recent immigrants with similar demographic profiles recorded in similar interview situations. The 1990s recordings were made in Miami; subjects were interviewed in their homes, most often in pairs, and the recordings made in the 1960s are a subset of the Cuban data recorded for a dialectology study on the major cities of the Spanish-speaking countries of Latin America and the Iberian Peninsula (Proyecto Sobre el Estudio del Espaol en Ciudades Iberoamericanas). The Cuban part of the study was carried out in Miami, with subjects recently arrived from Cuba, interviewed in pairs in their homes or at Miami Senior High, where they attended evening English classes. The generational groups and the time they were recorded are shown in Table 1. Speakers from the 1960s corpus, who were, based on their self-descriptions, between the ages of 30-50 at the time, are compared with a group of speakers from the 1990s, between the ages of 30-43. A third group of speakers who were between the ages of 62-77 in the late 1990s were also examined in order to compare them to their age cohorts recorded in the 1960s. Data from 50 subjects were analyzed, 24 from the 1960s corpus, and 26 from the 1990s corpus, 20 younger and 6 older speakers. Time 1960s 1990s

Age 30-50 62-77 - 30-43 Table 1. Groups according to generation and time Adjectives were classified according to the types outlined in Dixon (2004), in order to provide a replicable classification. Adjective types included dimension, age, value, color, physical property, human propensity, and speed. Examples of the adjectives from Dixon and examples from the Cuban Spanish data are shown in Table 2. To Dixons classification, an additional type, termed social categories was added, in part following Silva-Corvaln (1994), to account for adjectives that refer to nationality (cubano Cuban), race (blanco white), social status (rico rich), and other adjectives used to socially categorize individuals. In Silva-Corvalns classification racial color terms were not considered separately from


color adjectives; here, however, the category color only included inanimate objects, and racial terms that refer to skin color are classified as social categories, similar to nationality and socioeconomic status. Dimension big, long, tall, wide, deep grande big, alto tall Age new, young, old nuevo new, viejo old Value good, lovely, atrocious,

perfect, strange, important bueno good, bello beautiful, cmico funny

Color black, white, red negro black, morado purple Physical property

hard, heavy, clean, hot, sour suave soft, slido solid

Human propensity

jealous, happy, kind, clever, generous, proud

inteligente intelligent, amablekind, travieso mischievous

Speed fast, quick, slow rpido fast, brusco sudden Table 2. Adjective types (Dixon 2004, pp.3-4) The analysis included 601 tokens of the copulas with predicate adjectives. Tokens were counted if the context clearly indicated a class rather than individual reference; thus, tokens such as estar in (4), in which the speaker used it to describe her current physical appearance compared to a previous one, were not included because the comparison is with the woman herself at different points in time. The data analysis and coding involved two stages of reliability calculations. As a first step, a determination was made that estar occurred in contexts in which ser could occur and that there was not a comparison of the entity to itself; an intercoder reliability score of 98.7% was obtained for two coders. In the second step, the adjectives were coded in the eight categories. An initial intercoder reliability score of 97.3% was reached and disagreements were resolved to arrive at 100% agreement. (4) Y yo le dije no yo estoy muy fea. ... Digo no, no tengo muchas canas y estoy

muy fea. I told him no I am too ugly... I said no, no I have too much gray hair and I am too ugly.

A regression analysis was carried out with Goldvarb, a program designed for the analysis of linguistic variation. The variables included in the analysis were copula, generation/time, gender, and type of adjective. Although socioeconomic status typically renders valuable information about the status of linguistic variation in a community, it was not considered because the speakers were middle class and there was not enough information about their work and educational backgrounds to


establish differences in their position within the middle class, i.e. lower, middle or upper. The dependent variable was the type of copula. Goldvarb generates results in the form of probability weights that range from 1 to 0, which indicate the strength of each factor (i.e. male vs. female) in a factor group (i.e. gender). The closer the weight is to 1, the greater the strength of the factor, and the closer to 0, the weaker its strength. Weights clustering around .5 indicate a neutral contribution to the variation. Furthermore, a weight of 1 indicates categorical occurrence and 0 categorical absence of the variant, in other words, there is no variation. In addition to the probability weights, a range score is reported that indicates the strength of each factor group on the variation being studied. For the results presented here, the probability weights are for the presence of estar. 3. Results Variation of the copulas preceding predicate adjectives was found for the three groups included in the study. Innovative estar occurred in 19.3% (116) of the tokens (601) examined for the three groups. As evident from the results in Table 3, in which the probability weight is for the extension of estar, the factors that were significant in the multivariate analysis were generation/time and adjective type; gender, however, was not significant. The strength of the two significant factors, as indicated by their range scores, 27 generation/time and 29 adjective type, is similar, which suggests that both age and adjective type contribute more or less equally to the variation. These findings differ from those reported in Corts-Torres (2004) and Salazar (2007), in which adjective type had the strongest influence on the variation and age was not significant in conditioning the variation. Each of the factor groups shown in this table will be discussed in turn below. Group Factor Weight % N Generation/time

1960s .38 13 34/262

1990s Older .46 14.8 17/115

1990s Younger .65 29 65/224

Range 27 Gender* Female .49 17.5 65/371

Male .52 22.2 51/230

Range 3


Adjective Type

Dimension .46 20 14/70

Age .39 18.2 4/22

Value .56 26.4 71/269

Color 0 0 0/23

Physical property .59 26.6 17/64

Human propensity .3 11.3 9/80

Speed 0 0 0/7

Social category 0 0 0/65

Range 29 *Factor group not significant. N = 601; Input .21; Chi-square per cell.90; Log likelihood -257.083 Table 3. Results (estar is the application value) 3.1 Gender Gender commonly plays a role in linguistic changes, according to Labov (2001), who pointed out that gender is a differentiating factor in almost every case of stable social stratification and change in progress that has been studied (p.262). As a general trend, females, although they tend to be more conservative than their male counterparts, often lead linguistic changes, whether from below or from above. For the extension of estar, however, gender was not a significant factor, as shown in Figure 1. The probability weights for males and females were essentially equal, .52 and .49, and neutral, as they cluster around .5. Frequency rates showed a small difference between the genders the male group had a slightly higher percentage of estar than females (22.2% vs. 17.5%), but again, this difference was not significant. These results are consistent with other studies that examined the degree of influence of gender on the extension of estar. In her study in Cuernavaca, Mexico, Corts-Torres (2004) also found that gender was not a significant factor. The rate of innovative estar was 50% for both males and females. In New Mexican Spanish, Salazar (2007) similarly found that gender was not significant although rates of innovative estar were higher for males (54%) than females (46%), which would be expected for a nonstandard variant. Thus, even though gender commonly influences variation, the extension of estar is not conditioned by it.


Figure 1. Results for estar by gender. Factor group was not significant. Probability weights: Female .49, male .52. Percentages: Female 17.5% (65/371); male 22.2% (51/230). (N = 601; Input .21; Chi-square per cell .90; Log likelihood -257.083) 3.2 Generational groups in real and apparent time 3.2.1 Same generation in real time The results for the generational cohort recorded thirty years apart, in the late 1960s and 1990s, revealed that there is extension of estar at both time periods, and that in spite of the thirty-year span in the time the data were collected, the behavior of the two groups was relatively similar, as indicated by a small difference in the probabilities, .38 for the 1960s and .46 for the 1990s. Both groups disfavored estar, as shown in Figure 2, although the probability for the 1990s group showed a smaller effect. The differences, in terms of frequency, are small, less than 2% between the two groups (13% and 14.8%). Sankoff & Wagner (2006) noted in their real time study of the inflected future in Montral French that when there is community change, older speakers may show differences in real time that result from their response to the higher frequency in younger speakers of a variant involved in change; in Montral, the frequency of the new variant was related to socioeconomic status (SES), with speakers with the highest SES reducing its frequency as they aged and those with the lowest SES showing a flat trajectory over time. The difference in the use of estar in the two time periods could be explained as a

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consequence of older speakers following younger ones, but the fact that the difference between the two time periods is very small, suggests instead that the extension of estar remained stable for these speakers as they advanced to old age.

Figure 2. Same generation in real time. Probability of estar for same generational cohort in 1960s and 1990s. Probability weights: 1960s .38, 1990s Older .46. Percentages: 1960s 13% (34/262) and 1990s 14.8% (17/115). (N = 601; Input .21; Chi-square per cell .90; Log likelihood -257.083) Furthermore, the small difference found in the comparison of this generational cohort as younger and older adults is evidence that the extension of estar does not reflect age-grading, a pattern of variation in which individuals alter their linguistic behavior as they progress through the lifespan (Labov 1994). Age-grading is commonly found with stable variants whose frequency reflects different life stages (e.g. youth, adulthood, old age). Evidence of a change in progress is based on an age cohort maintaining the same frequency as they advance from adolescence to young adulthood, middle and old age. In generational change, it is not the individuals in the cohort that change, but rather the community (Labov 2001). When there is change, whether from above or below, younger speakers tend to have a different frequency than the older ones. The real-time results found for the older generational cohort set the ground for interpreting a change in the frequency of estar as generational change because the linguistic behavior of the older group was shown to vary only minimally over time, but findings for the younger generation of Cubans are needed to add to the picture; if a higher frequency of the form is found for the 1990s younger group, then it adds evidence to suggest a change in progress.

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3.2.2 Different generation in real time The real-time analysis of the speakers recorded at the same age at different points in time, 1960s and 1990s, who represent different generations, showed significant differences in their use of estar. These results are shown in Figure 3. The probability weight for the 1990s younger group was .65, which suggests a tendency toward the extension of estar. The older generation, on the other hand, had a probability weight of .38, which shows that it disfavored estar. The frequency of estar for the younger generation was slightly more than double that of the older one, 29% for the 1990s younger and 13% for the 1960s group. The different tendencies observed for the two generational groups in real time suggest a change in progress. The younger generation outdoes the older one in the frequency of the extension of estar. The advancement of the change appears to have been rapid, as indicated by the fact that the percentage rates of estar had doubled in the younger group. While it cannot be concluded that this is a change in progress without studying even younger speakers, the evidence found here for these two generations points to a change from below in the speech community that parallels the changes reported for other varieties (Gutirrez 1992, 1994, Silva-Corvaln 1986, 1994). What is made clear with these findings is that the extension of estar is not stable in this variety but has been advancing in younger generations. The study of speakers younger than these young adults in the 1990s would add valuable information about the distribution across age groups of the change.

Figure 3. Different generations in real time. Probability of estar for 1960s and 1990s Younger. Probability weights: .38 1960s and .65 1990s. Percentages:

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1960s 13% (34/262) and 1990s Younger 29% (65/224). (N = 601; Input .21; Chi-square per cell .90; Log likelihood -257.083) 3.2.2 Different generation in apparent time The results for the analysis of different generations in real time pointed to generational change; it was also shown that the cohort of speakers studied at two points in time did not change significantly over the span of time studied here. The comparison of the older and younger generations in apparent time, then, is expected to corroborate the findings in real time. The results for the 1990s Older and Younger groups in Figure 4 show probability differences similar to those for the generational comparison in real time. The 1990s older group had a probability weight of .46 and the younger group one of .65. In terms of the frequency of innovative estar, for the younger group it was nearly double the rate found for the older group (14.8% older and 29% younger).

Figure 4. Results for different generations in apparent time. Probability of estar for 1990s Older and Younger. Probability weights: .46 Older and .65 Younger. Percentages: Older 14.8% (17/115); Younger 29% (65/224). (N = 601; Input .21; Chi-square per cell .90; Log likelihood -257.083) Studies that similarly examined the extension of estar in apparent time, including Corts-Torres (1994) and Salazar (2007), did not find that age was a significant factor contributing to the occurrence of estar. Corts-Torres found that the middle age group had higher rates of estar than the older or the younger; thus,

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the extension of estar appears to be a stable, age-graded feature in the variety of Mexican Spanish she studied. This is in contrast to these findings for Cuban Spanish, in which generation was significant and the probability weights for generational groups suggested that the younger generation favored and the older disfavored the extension of estar. 3.3 Adjective type The analysis of internal constraints on the variation showed that the extension of estar is not progressing at the same rate through the various adjective contexts studied. The results of the Goldvarb analysis in Figure 5 show that there is no evidence that estar has extended to adjectives of color, social category or speed, as these types categorically occurred with ser. At the same time, it was found that adjectives of human propensity disfavored estar, with a probability weight of .30. Human propensity adjectives include amable kind, carioso affectionate, fantico fanatic, and romntico romantic. The frequency of estar with these adjectives was 11%. Another adjective type that disfavored the extension of estar, with a probability weight of .39, included age adjectives, including joven young, antiguo old, and viejo old. The rate of estar for these age adjectives was 18.2%. The last adjective type that disfavored estar, although only slightly (.46), included dimension adjectives, such as alto tall, chiquito small, corto short, and estrecho narrow; the frequency of these adjectives was 20%. There were two adjective types, physical property and value, in which the extension of estar was favored, but the probability weights indicate a small influence. Physical property adjectives, including firme firm, fresco fresh, and dbil weak, showed a small preference for estar, probability weight of .59 and rate of 26.6%. Similarly, value adjectives, including asombroso amazing, gracioso funny/pretty, lindo pretty, interesante interesting, horrible horrible, chulo cute, and fcil easy were found to slightly favor estar, probability weight of .56 and rate of 26.4%.


Figure 5. The probability of estar by adjective class. Probability weights: Dimension .46, Age .39, Value .56, Color .0, Physical property .59, Human propensity .30, Speed .0, Social category .0. Percentages: Dimension 20% (14/70), Age 18.2% (4/22), Value 26.4% (71/269), Color 0% (0/23), Physical property 26.6% (17/64), Human propensity 11.3% (9/80), Speed 0% (0/7), Social category 0% (0/65). (N = 601; Input .21; Chi-square per cell .90; Log likelihood -257.083) These results confirm that the extension of estar has not advanced to all adjective classes; in fact, six of the eight adjective types examined did not favor the variant estar, either because there was categorical nonoccurrence or because the probability weight indicated a tendency to disfavor it. Adjective types in which no cases of the extension of estar were found included speed, color, and social categories, as shown in (5). In (a) there is a speed adjective with ser. Estar did not occur with color adjectives, as evident in (b), a description of the colors of autumn leaves encountered during one subjects trip to Toronto and Ottawa, Canada, in which the changing quality of the colors did not trigger the use of estar, es rojo its red and es amarillo its yellow. An evaluative remark about the experience, however, occurred with estar, est divino its divine. Lastly, adjectives that referred to social categories were categorical nonoccurrences; an example is shown in (c). (5) Categorical nonoccurrence a. Ella es rpida en la mquina. She is fast on the machine. (1960s)

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b. Ay los rboles son en esa poca...nosotros fuimos en octubre y los rboles- hay veces que usted vea un rbol al lado del otro y no tienen- dos hojas no tienen el mismo color....un rbol es rojo y el otro que tiene al lado es amarillito y el otro verde. Est divino. Divino, divino. Oh the tree during that season...we went in October and the trees- sometimes you see one tree next to another and they dont have- two leaves arent the same color...one tree is red and the other that is next to it is yellow and the other green. It is divine. Divine, divine. (1960s)

c. Yo era comunista porque lo tena que ser obligatoriamente. I was communist because I was obliged to be. (1990s Younger) The adjective contexts that disfavored the extension of estar included those in which the adjective denoted human propensity, age, or dimension. Examples of the use of estar are shown in (6). Estar was strongly disfavored with adjectives denoting human propensity, such as carioso affectionate, caritativo charitable, independiente independent, and agradable kind; (a) shows an example of estar with the adjective despabilado smart/quick in which the speaker expresses her ideas about things that appeal to smart or bright children. Extension of estar was also disfavored with age adjectives; an example of estar with an age adjective is shown in (b), which refers to men who are old as a collective. Dimension adjectives, such as grande big and largo long, were also found to disfavor estar; one example of its use is shown in (c), where estar is used by a 1960s subject to describe the length of a miniskirt worn by her boss wife. (6) Disfavor extension of estar a. Esos nios que estn despabilados, les gustan porque los que no les gustan

no. Those kids that are smart/quick, they like them because those that dont like them no. (1990s Younger)

b. Hay hombres que estn viejos, que usted los oye hablar y se le saltan las lgrimas. There are men that are old, that you hear them talk and tears come to your eyes. (1990s Younger)

c. [La falda] estaba demasiado corta... es muy exagerada la moda...yo creo que no es elegante la moda tan exagerada. [The skirt] was too short...the fashion is too extreme...I dont think fashion that extreme is elegant. (1960s)

The two adjective types value and physical property showed a small tendency to favor estar; examples are shown in (7). Adjectives of physical property appeared with estar, as in (a) in which fuerte strong refers to the strength or sturdiness of a boat on which the male speaker from the 1990s younger group fled Cuba. Value


adjectives similarly occurred with estar, as in (b) in which estar was used to describe paintings by a Cuban artist that the speakers saw at a fair in Miami in the 1960s, or in (c), from the 1990s older group, in which estar was used to describe a woman in a picture whom the speaker had never seen before. Other examples of value adjectives with estar include the parallel examples in (d) from the 1960s data and (e) from the 1990s younger generation. (7) Favor extension of estar a. El barco estaba fuerte. The boat was strong/sturdy. (1990s Younger) b. Estaban bonitos los cuadros que hizo la seora de ( )...los de los pjaros

estaban lindos, me gustaron. The painting that the woman from ( ) made were pretty... the ones with the birds were pretty, I liked them. (1960s)

c. [La mujer] no est fea. Tiene facciones bonitas. [The woman] is not ugly. She has pretty features. (1990s Older) d. La pelcula est simptica. (1960s) The movie is amusing. e. La pelcula est cmica. The movie is funny. (1990s Younger) These findings for adjective type when compared to other studies reveal similarities and differences in the rates of estar according to this factor group. Adjectives of age were found to favor the extension of estar in Corts-Torres (2004) and Salazar (2007), but here they disfavored it. The rate of estar with age adjectives reported in Gutirrez (1992, 2003) was considerably higher, compare 43% to 18%, but Ortiz Lpezs findings for San Juan indicated a lower rate (15%). Higher rates for age adjectives were also reported in de Jonge (1993) for Mexico City (35%) and Caracas (53%) and Silva-Corvaln (1994) reported significantly higher rates (78%). Differences are also evident in the findings for dimension adjectives, which were slightly disfavored here as in Corts-Torres, but the 20% rate found here is lower than the rates of 34% reported in Gutirrez (1992) and 36% reported in Ortiz Lpez (2000). Adjectives denoting properties classified as human propensity have low rates of estar across varieties. Corts-Torres (2004) showed that similar adjectives disfavor estar more strongly than in Cuban Spanish, as indicated by the probability weight of .19. In general, studies have found low rates of estar with adjectives of this type; Gutirrez (1992) reported 2% estar for adjectives such as honesto honest and respetable respectable, Ortiz Lpez found 3.4%, and Silva-Corvaln (1994) reported only 13%, a low rate considering the high frequency of estar she found overall. In the varieties in which there is extension of estar, whether it has been described as stable variation or a change in progress, the internal linguistic factor, type of adjective, is an important factor constraining the variation.


4. Discussion The quantitative findings presented above both confirmed the extension of estar preceding predicate adjectives in Cuban Spanish and suggested a change in progress in this variety. The overall frequency found here of 19.3% for conversational data is higher than the rates reported for data from conversations in other studies. Gutirrez (1994), for instance, reported a rate of 16% for conversations and 24% for questionnaires, Ortiz Lpez (2000) reported rates of 12% for conversations and 19% for questionnaires for Puerto Rican Spanish, Corts-Torres (2004) reported a frequency of 23% overall, but only 9% for conversations, and 31% for questionnaires; Silva-Corvaln (1994) found a higher rate of 34% for conversational data, following the general trend to find high rates of estar for the speakers in her sample. The comparison of generational groups in real and apparent time revealed a significant change in the frequency of estar, with an increase in its frequency in the younger generation. The logistic regression analysis showed that the younger group had a tendency to favor estar, whereas the generational cohort recorded in the 1960s and 1990s tended to disfavor it. These findings were substantiated in both the studies in real and apparent time. A comparison of the two groups that represent the older generation revealed a similar pattern for the extension of estar, in spite of the near thirty-year span in the time the data was collected, suggesting that the variation of the copulas had remained relatively stable for this generation. As noted in Sankoff & Wagner (2006), linguists operate under the assumption that grammar does not change after the critical period of acquisition (Lenneberg 1967). These findings for estar provide evidence to support the idea that after the frequency of variants according to the social and linguistic constraints that determine the variation in the speech community at the specific time is set it will remain stable over the course of the lifespan. Findings from the real and apparent time studies suggested that estar has been advancing in Cuban Spanish. Gutirrez (1992) proposed that in the Spanish of the community he studied in Morelia, Michoacn, Mxico, estar was a change in progress. Other studies, however, have not found evidence of change. As noted above, Corts-Torres (2004) did not find that age was a significant factor in Cuernavaca, Mexico; de Jonge (1993) concluded, after comparing results for age adjectives from the late 1960s and late 1980s from Mexico City, that the progression of estar appeared to be stable in Mexican Spanish; and de Jonges real-time comparison of the use of estar with age adjectives in data from Caracas, Venezuela from the early 1970s and 1980s also failed to indicate a change in progress, at least with that type of adjective, but perhaps looking at a wider range of adjectives would have uncovered some evidence of change. As de Jonge noted, lack of evidence of change over time does not indicate that a change is not taking place.


Indeed, linguistic changes may remain stable for hundreds of years without advancing to completion (Labov 2001). Additional studies on the extension of estar are necessary to estimate its degree of advancement with different adjective types. The explanatory power of variationist studies can be expanded with the inclusion of findings from grammatical acceptability judgments (Henry 1995, 2005) and other tasks that may render information about the social and linguistic constraints on the variation (Alfaraz 2010). For Cuban Spanish, further study with a sample of younger speakers and a range of socioeconomic status groups is necessary to determine whether estar is indeed a change in progress and whether it continues to advance in this variety. 5. Conclusion Although the occurrence of ser and estar with predicate adjectives has been extensively discussed in Spanish linguistics, there are few variationist studies that have centered on the social and linguistic distribution of the copulas to examine the claim that the copulas have been undergoing change in which estar has been generalizing to contexts previously reserved for ser, resulting in variation between the forms in adjective contexts. The research reported on in this paper examined the variation of ser and estar in Cuban Spanish in order to determine whether there is extension of estar in this variety, to describe the social and linguistic factors that influence the variation, and to explore whether its distribution suggested stable variation or a change in progress. These questions were studied using both a real-time and an apparent-time analysis. The real-time study was carried out with data from the 1960s and the 1990s and it involved comparing a generational cohort at the two points in time to compare its use of estar over time and it also involved comparing this generational cohort with a younger one that was recorded in the 1990s. The apparent time study compared two generational groups, an older and a younger one, at the same time period. The results indicated that the frequency of estar in the generational cohort compared at two points in time had remained stable and that the younger generation showed a tendency to favor estar. These findings confirmed that there is extension of estar in this variety and they pointed to a change in progress. The ranking of constraints showed that the variation was influenced more or less equally by generation and adjective type but that gender was not a significant factor. The findings for adjective type indicated that the diffusion of estar was influenced by the linguistic context and that only two of the eight adjectives types studied favored the extension of estar; three adjective types had probability weights indicating that they disfavored estar, and three other adjective types were categorical nonoccurrences. The question of whether the copula estar preceding adjectives has continued to advance is one that has not received attention in many varieties of Spanish,

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including the variety reported on here. The study of the copulas using a variationist approach, however, can render accounts of the variation of the copulas that can be viewed together to understand stages of the change in which estar appears to be involved. References Alfaraz, Gabriela G. 2010. The influence of social factors on Spanish dialect contact

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