El uso de los pronombres le y lo/la en español: ¿cuestión gramatical o sociocultural?

This study handles the use of the Spanish pronouns le, les, lo, los, la y las in Cinco horas con Mario de Miguel Delibes (1966). The purpose is to find arguments for the hypothesis that the use and distribution of these pronouns is not arbitrary, nor do they depend on grammatical rules, but instead depend on particular cultural circumstances and the creative use of speakers in reaction to them, based on a general, functional meaning. Both qualitative and quantitative techniques will be used in order to study and justify the distribution of the studied forms. The theoretical perspective is that of the Columbia School of Linguistics, founded in the 60s of the last Century by the late William Diver. It will be argued that the general use of these pronouns, and the so-called phenomena of leísmo and laísmo in particular, should be seen as reflections of Spanish culture of the investigated time.