This book presents a state-of-the-art study of variation that considers meaning—in all its possible facets—as the key to scientific explanation. It brings together a group of international scholars whose work pursues the systematic integration of meaning and function in models of grammatical usage. After a foreword by the world-leading specialist Nikolas Coupland and a theoretical introduction by editors Miguel A. Aijón Oliva and María José Serrano, the seven empirical chapters focus on morphosyntactic phenomena in different varieties of Spanish, analyzing a wide range of discourse types and communicative domains, from sociolinguistic interviews to mass media and social network interactions. These studies offer a basis for the study of variation from similar viewpoints in other languages.

María José Serrano is a Full Professor of Linguistics at the Universidad de La Laguna (Spain). Her main areas of expertise include morphosyntactic variation from a discursive-pragmatic and cognitive approach, sociolinguistics and discourse analysis. Miguel A. Aijón Oliva is a Professor of Spanish Linguistics at the Universidad de Salamanca (Spain). His research activity focuses on variation in grammar from functional and sociopragmatic viewpoints, particularly in mass media and digital environments.