Simplificación del sistema derelativos: análisis diacrónico

The aim of this paper is to analyse the simplification of the Spanish relative pronouns. Previous studies have analysed this phenomenon, but the majority of them are based on a synchronic approach, comparing the number of occurrences of the Spanish pronoun que vs other relativizers in just one time period. However, a synchronic approach does not clear up this problem. Bearing that in mind, we have conducted a corpus-based study, comparing statistically the frequency of all the Spanish relative pronouns in six different time periods. Whilst the frequency of certain relativizers has decreased significantly, others are used with the same frequency rate across the different analysed time periods. In consequence, it seems that this phenomenon of simplification does not influence all Spanish relative pronouns in the same way as it has been claimed.