Überlegungen zum dequeísmo: Verbreitung, Entstehung und Funktion

Abstract

The present paper presents a survey and critical discussion of selected studies examining dequeísmo. The phenomenon involves the non-canonical insertion of the preposition de with verbs that traditionally do not subcategorisefor de-prepositional objects. First, the socio-geographic distribution of dequeísmo is described, followed by an overview of potential intralinguistic factors guiding the insertion of de. The second part of the paper discusses several hypotheses concerning the emergence and current functions of de que. De is inserted most frequently in verb + object clause contexts and its frequency of occurrence increases when phonological material is present between the matrix verb and the object clause. Dequeísmo occurs more frequently in Latin American Spanish and, from a sociolinguistic perspective, is associated with male rather than female speech. Semanto-pragmatic functions that have been proposed for de que include distancing the speaker from the proposition of the subordinate clause
as well as marking evidentiality.