Microvariation in Caribean/non Caribean Spanish Interrogatives* (to appear in probus)

(to appear in probus) Francisco Ordóñez , SUNY Stony Brook, [email protected] Antxon Olarrea, University of Arizona , [email protected] Abstract This paper is a comparative study in the micro-variation of the syntax of interrogatives in Caribbean versus non Caribbean Spanish. In field work done by us, we show that the lack of inversion effects with subjects in Caribbean Spanish only occurs with pronominal elements. We characterize those pronominal subjects as weak pronouns in the sense of Cardinaletti and Starke (1999) and we assume they land preverbally in Spec AGRS. We argue that inversion involves IP movement to an exploded CP as Kayne and Pollock (2001). The IP that moves to the exploded CP contains preverbal weak pronominals in Caribbean Spanish. Non Caribbean Spanish lacks these weak pronominals and therefore subjects are either in situ (postverbal) or have been topicalized to the CP, previous movement of the whole IP.