Research Archive
Moreno-Quibén, Norberto (2026). “Estar with age adjectives. A multifactorial bayesian approach to the distribution of copulative verbs across Spanish varieties.” Accepted in RILCE (forthcoming, December 2026). Abstract PDF
Using a Bayesian regression framework, this study examines the distribution of the Spanish copulas ser and estar with age adjectives across dialects based on PRESEEA corpus data. Results reveal a geolectal hierarchy: Mexican, Central American, and Andean varieties show the most advanced innovative use of estar, strongly associated with cuando-clauses and increasing use of the Imperfect tense, suggesting ongoing grammaticalization. European and Rioplatense varieties remain conservative. The findings confirm earlier proposals in the literature but challenge accounts that attribute innovative estar uniformly to subjectivity or evaluative meaning. Objective uses with age adjectives indicate partial neutralization with ser and a broader reorganization of the copular system. The study argues that the phenomenon called ‘innovative estar’ reflects multiple converging processes shaped by adjectival class in some cases, grammaticalization stage, and regional variation.
Moreno-Quibén, Norberto (2025). “Del lenguaje inclusivo a la arquitectura de la lengua. El caso de los y las N.” Under review for III Congreso Relaciones y límites entre la morfología, la sintaxis, la semántica y la pragmática del español (Ms., January 2025). Abstract PDF
This paper explores, from a corpus-based study, the grammatical and semantic properties of nominal structures such as los y las docentes and las y los docentes, in which two coordinated determiners of different gender and a plural animate noun appear. These structures, from the perspective of communication, are used as a strategy to make women visible in discourse, in alternation with other coordinated structures such as los docentes y las docentes, las docentes y los docentes (full coordinated NPs). From the syntactic point of view, it is argued that
[Det y Det N]sequences are derived from coordinated full NPs through a process of movement+ellipsis. This proposal can explain how the order of the coordinated determiners and the morphological gender properties of the noun (gender invariant nouns, nouns with inflectional gender morphology) are connected. It can also explain the different positions in which adjectives appear in these constructions, as well as their special meaning, close to that of universal quantification.
Moreno-Quibén, Norberto (2025). “Experiencia y concordancia léxica. Sintaxis, semántica y pragmática de resultar.” Under review for III Congreso Relaciones y límites entre la morfología, la sintaxis, la semántica y la pragmática del español (Ms., February 2025). Abstract PDF
This work explores the syntactic-semantic properties of the pseudocopulative verb resultar (“to find out”) in its use as a verb of verification (
<resultar + dativo>, Morimoto & Pavón Lucero 2007 and Pavón Lucero 2013). It describes and analyzes its combination with different classes of adjectives, based on a corpus study that includes examples from Spanish in Spain and Mexico. The data show that resultar primarily combines with evaluative adjectives of personal judgment, followed by subjective modal adjectives and property adjectives. This combinatorics is the consequence of a lexical agreement process triggered by the lexical feature[+ sentient]present in the dative argument of resultar. It is proposed that the experiencer argument introduced by resultar controls the experiencer argument of the adjective, which explains the distribution of lexical classes in this construction.
Gumiel-Molina, Silvia, Norberto Moreno-Quibén, and Isabel Pérez-Jiménez (2024). “Del Léxico a la Pragmática en la expresión de la evidencialidad y la perspectiva en español.” Boletín de Filología 59 (2): 55–86. Abstract Journal
The aim of this paper is to analyse the limits and relations between the notions of evidentiality and subjectivity using Spanish (pseudo) copulative predication structures in which the predicate is an evaluative adjective. In these constructions an internal experience of the speaker is expressed, based on the perception of a situation, as the centre of perspective or source of knowledge. We will show that the subjective reading which occurs in (pseudo)copulative sentences in which an adjective of taste and personal judgement or an adjective of maximum degree appears is due to the fact that these adjectives possess in their structure an experiencer argument, which can be an implicit DP or be shown explicitly through a PP. Aesthetic adjectives, on the other hand, lack such an argument, which explains the contrasts between the different classes. This proposal sheds light on the relationship between the notions of evidentiality and subjectivity through the perspectivization of the utterance. We propose that perspectivisation is the result of the relationship between Lexicon, Syntax and Pragmatics while evidential meaning seems to be lexically encoded in the argument structure of the adjective. Thus, perspectivization and evidentiality should be considered as different but closely related concepts.
Gumiel-Molina, Silvia, Norberto Moreno-Quibén, and Isabel Pérez-Jiménez (2024). “Variación sintáctica en español con verbos no predicativos desde una perspectiva microparamétrica: construcciones existenciales, copulativas y semicopulativas.” Revista Española de Lingüística 54 (2): 63–110. Abstract DOI
This paper studies the patterns of syntactic variation that take place in Spanish in those sentence structures in which non-predicative verbs appear; specifically, existential constructions with haber, copulative constructions with ser and estar, and constructions with semicopular verbs. The goal of the article is, on the one hand, to describe empirically the variation that exists with respect to these structures in the different varieties of Spanish, detecting the limitations of empirical knowledge in this domain, and, from an explanatory point of view, to analyze the patterns of variation found within the microparametric theory of syntactic variation.
Gumiel-Molina, Silvia, Norberto Moreno-Quibén, and Isabel Pérez-Jiménez (2024). “Lexical–Syntactic Classes of Adjectives in Copular Sentences across Spanish Varieties: The Innovative Use of Estar.” Languages 9 (1): 20. Abstract DOI
This paper aims to provide a clearer understanding of the structure known in the literature as the innovative use of estar, illustrated in sentences like Luego salgo/voy a visitar usuarios que están muy morosos
[Medellín, Colombia; Preseea](“Today I am going to visit users that are.ESTAR defaulting debtors”). In such sentences, no comparison is established between stages or counterparts of the subject of predication with regard to the property expressed by the adjective, as opposed to estar-sentences in standard/general Spanish. This innovative structure is a syntactic scheme employed throughout different Latin American Spanish varieties. The goal of this paper is twofold: it is both descriptive and theoretical. From a descriptive perspective, it offers an exhaustive and updated empirical characterization of the extent of this structure in Latin American Spanish based on an analysis of the Preseea corpus. This description takes into consideration both its geographical distribution in the different Latin American dialectal varieties and the lexical–syntactic classes of adjectives that appear as predicates in innovative estar-sentences. Building on this, from a theoretical point of view, a critical evaluation is made of the existing proposals in the literature that explain the properties—both syntactic and semantic—of the innovative construction.
Gumiel-Molina, Silvia, Norberto Moreno-Quibén, and Isabel Pérez-Jiménez (2023). “Perspectivized Estar-Sentences with Aesthetic Adjectives across American Spanish Varieties.” Spanish in Context. Abstract DOI
The article describes the behavior of aesthetic adjectives (bonito ‘beautiful’) in the so-called innovative constructions with estar ‘be-estar’, documented in some American varieties of Spanish. These innovative structures (El poema está bonito ‘The poem is beautiful’) do not compare stages of the subject with respect to an aesthetic property (as would be their meaning in general Spanish), but rather express a perspectivized assertion, linked to the subjective judgment of the speaker about a particular quality. The article explains this pattern of variation on the basis of the work by Gumiel-Molina, Moreno-Quibén and Pérez-Jiménez (2020) and Moreno-Quibén (2022), according to which the classes of adjectives that appear in perspectivized estar-sentences have undergone a process of argument augmentation. Aesthetic adjectives in innovative estar-constructions have an experiencer in their argument structure in the varieties of Spanish where this construction is possible. This experiencer serves as the basis for establishing the comparison required by estar and ultimately gives rise to the subjective/perspectivized meaning of the copular structure.
Moreno-Quibén, Norberto (2022). Las estructuras de predicación y la alternancia de cópula. Tesis doctoral, Universidad de Alcalá. Abstract
This dissertation has two main objectives. First, it gives a fresh new perspective to a much studied problem in Spanish Grammar: the alternation between copulative verbs ser and estar with adjectival phrases. To this end, it combines two novel proposals. We adopt a neoconstructivist framework according to which predicational structures are the result of combination of a series of functional heads (
pred,degree) and the strict conceptual information encoded in the adjectival root. The second novel proposal is the hypothesis that the class of gradable adjectives can be subdivided according to the nature of the contextual standard that the adjective refers to: relative adjectives and absolute adjectives. The combination of the two proposals explains the massive polysemy that is found in the adjectival lexical domain, where the same adjective may have two different but related meanings when it combines with each copulative verb (Su marido es alegre, ‘her husband is a happy person’, vs. Su marido está feliz, ‘her husband is happy’). Apart from that, the main proposal of the thesis also explains the general problem of copula selection.The second objective of the dissertation is to give an account of the existence of linguistic variation across Spanish varieties in the selection of the copula (a sequence such as Esta casa está muy grande is the general form in Mexican Spanish but it is not possible in European Spanish) with the tools provided by Generative Syntax in its most recent version, the Minimalist Program. The thesis proposes a microparameter such as the Adjectival Argument Augmentation that affects lexical subclasses of adjectives.
La tesis tiene dos objetivos principales. Su primer objetivo es ofrecer una nueva perspectiva de un problema clásico de la gramática del español, la alternancia de ser y estar con atributos adjetivales. Para ello, combina dos hipótesis novedosas. Defiende una hipótesis neoconstruccionista según la cual las estructuras predicativas son el resultado de la combinación de una sucesión jerárquica de núcleos funcionales (
pred,grad) junto con la información estrictamente conceptual proporcionada por el significado del adjetivo. La segunda hipótesis novedosa consiste en la idea de que los adjetivos graduables se pueden dividir desde el punto de vista semántico en dos subclases: los adjetivos graduables relativos y los adjetivos graduables absolutos. La combinación de ambas hipótesis explica de manera satisfactoria la existencia de la polisemia masiva en el dominio léxico adjetival (Su marido es alegre vs. Su marido está alegre) además del problema más general de la selección de cópula.El segundo objetivo es dar una respuesta a la existencia de la variación en la alternancia de cópula en el dominio lingüístico panhispánico (por ejemplo, en el español de México una secuencia como Esta casa está muy grande es de uso general) utilizando las herramientas de la sintaxis formal, en particular, de la Gramática Generativa en su versión más reciente como es el Programa Minimista. La tesis propone la existencia de un microparámetro como es el Aumento argumental que afecta a subclases léxicas de adjetivos.
Gumiel-Molina, Silvia, Norberto Moreno-Quibén, and Isabel Pérez-Jiménez (2020). “On Degree Minimizers in Spanish.” Borealis – An International Journal of Hispanic Linguistics 9 (1): 69–86. Abstract DOI
The goal of this paper is to provide both a description and an explanation of the combination of minimizers (ligeramente ‘slightly’) with gradable adjectives in Spanish. According to Kennedy & McNally (2005) these elements are degree items that are sensitive to the scalar structure of adjectives and are combined with closed scale, minimum standard adjectives. Unexpected combinations, according to this semantics, are considered as cases of coercion. In this paper we propose that minimizers create derived adjectives. They are modifiers of the adjective’s granularity, which allow the selection of the standard of comparison to take into account a greater number of degree distinctions. From this proposal, this article shows that unexpected combinations of ligeramente with gradable adjectives, such as un cine ligeramente lleno ‘a slightly crowded cinema’, can be explained without the need to propose that a coercion process takes place.
Gumiel-Molina, Silvia, Norberto Moreno-Quibén, and Isabel Pérez-Jiménez (2017). “Lingüística Teórica y Enseñanza de ELE: La Distribución de Ser y Estar en Español.” In Relaciones Sintácticas. Homenaje a José M. Brucart y M. Lluïsa Hernanz, edited by Ángel J. Gallego, Yolanda Rodríguez Sellés, and Javier Fernández Sánchez. Departament de Filologia Espanyola. Abstract PDF
Gumiel-Molina, Silvia, Norberto Moreno-Quibén, and Isabel Pérez-Jiménez (2017). “Lingüística Teórica y Enseñanza de ELE: La Distribución de Ser y Estar en Español.” In Relaciones Sintácticas. Homenaje a José M. Brucart y M. Lluïsa Hernanz, edited by Ángel J. Gallego, Yolanda Rodríguez Sellés, and Javier Fernández Sánchez. Departament de Filologia Espanyola.
