The se-ra Alternation in Spanish Subjunctive

In this paper I take a look at a classic problem in Spanish morphosyntax, namely the alternation between the forms -se and -ra in the Imperfect Subjunctive (Imperfecto de Subjuntivo). Research on this topic has mainly focused on sociolinguistic variation, and has been done almost exclusively with impressionistic data and speakers' intuitions. I address the problem from a usage-based perspective, using corpus linguistics methods. The main claim is that the choice between -se and -ra correlates to a certain extent with morphosyntactic and discourse factors. Through collostructional analysis I also show that there exists repelled and attracted collexemes that distinguish and relate both forms.