The HISPACAT comparative database of syntactic constructions and its applications to syntactic variation research

Abstract

The HISPACAT database of syntactic constructions in Catalan and Spanish is a dynamic comparative grammar of two closely related languages, which, from a theoretical point of view, offers us a alternative viewpoint to advance in our understanding of the ``atoms'' of linguistic microvariation, and to offer a snapshot of microparametric (in)variance, which will help us to predict less stable parts of the grammar, and hence more sensitive to syntactic change or interference phenomena. Moreover, this tool, which is conceived as a major empirical source for testing syntactic microvariation, may also prove helpful for researchers in bilingualism and language contact studies, and for teachers and students of Catalan or Spanish as L2.