Research Interests:

Language variation and change, grammaticalization, language contact, Spanish linguistics

Recent Publications:

Torres Cacoullos, Rena, and James A. Walker. 2009. The present of the English future: Grammatical variation and collocations in discourse. Language 85: 321-354.

Torres Cacoullos, Rena, and James A. Walker. 2009. On the persistence of grammar in discourse formulas: a variationist study of that. Linguistics 47: 1-43.

Torres Cacoullos, Rena. 2009. Variation and grammaticisation: The emergence of an aspectual opposition. Studies in Language Variation: European Perspectives II, Stavroula Tsiplakou, Marilena Karyolemou & Pavlos Pavlou (eds), 215-224. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Bybee, Joan L., and Rena Torres Cacoullos. 2009. The role of prefabs in grammaticization: How the particular and the general interact in language change. Formulaic language: Volume 1. Distribution and historical change, Roberta L. Corrigan, Edith A. Moravcsik, Hamid Ouali, and Kathleen Wheatley (eds.), 187-217. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Torres Cacoullos, Rena. 2009. Las nominalizaciones de infinitivo. Sintaxis histórica del español, tomo II: La frase nominal, Concepción Company Company (directora), 1673-1738. México: Fondo de Cultura Económica y Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.

Torres Cacoullos, Rena, and Scott A. Schwenter. 2008. Constructions and pragmatics: variable middle marking in Spanish subir(se) ‘go up’ and bajar(se) ‘go down’. Journal of Pragmatics 40: 1455-1477.

Schwenter, Scott A., and Rena Torres Cacoullos. 2008. Defaults and indeterminacy in temporal grammaticalization: the ‘perfect’ road to perfective. Language Variation and Change 20: 1-39.

Bybee, Joan, and Rena Torres Cacoullos. 2008. Phonological and grammatical variation in exemplar models. Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics 1: 399-413.

Torres Cacoullos, Rena. 2008. La evolución de estar + V-ndo hacia expresión obligatoria del aspecto progresivo en español. Actas VII Congreso Internacional de Historia de la Lengua Española, Concepción Company Company y José G. Moreno de Alba (editores), 1147-1162. Madrid: Arco Libros.

Torres Cacoullos, Rena, and Scott A. Schwenter. 2005/2007. Towards an operational notion of subjectification. Berkeley Linguistics Society 31: 347-358.

Torres Cacoullos, Rena. 2006. Relative frequency in the grammaticization of collocations: nominal to concessive a pesar de. Selected proceedings of the 8th Hispanic Linguistics Symposium, Timothy L. Face and Carol A. Klee (eds.), 37-49. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Proceedings Project.

Aaron, Jessi Elana, and Rena Torres Cacoullos. 2005. Quantitative measures of subjectification: a variationist study of Spanish salir(se). Cognitive Linguistics 16.4:607-633.

Torres Cacoullos, Rena. 2005. La perspectiva diacrónica en variación sincrónica: el dativo de intensificación. Variación sintáctica en español: un reto para las teorías de sintaxis, Gabriele Knauer & Valeriano Bellosta von Colbe (eds.), 191-210. Tübingen: Niemeyer.

Torres Cacoullos, Rena, and Neddy A. Vigil. 2003 [2006]. Sustantivos de origen inglés en discurso español: ¿cuál es su gramática? Rio Bravo. A Journal of the Borderlands 2: 69-84.

Torres Cacoullos, Rena, and Jessi E. Aaron. 2003. Bare English-origin nouns in Spanish: Rates, constraints, and discourse functions. Language Variation and Change 15: 287-326.

Brown, Esther L., and Rena Torres Cacoullos. 2003. Spanish /s/: A different story from beginning (initial) to end (final). A Romance Perspective in Language Knowledge and Use, Rafael Núñez-Cedeño, Luis López, and Richard Cameron (eds.), 22-38. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Broce, Marlene, and Rena Torres Cacoullos. 2002. “Dialectología urbana” rural: la estratificación social de (r) y (l) en Coclé, Panama. Hispania 85: 382-395.

Torres Cacoullos, Rena. 2002. Le: From pronoun to verbal intensifier. Linguistics 40: 285-318.

Torres Cacoullos, Rena. 2001. From lexical to grammatical to social meaning. Language in Society 30: 443-478.