Lo que el uso de las construcciones \"con o sin mí\" y \"con o sin ti\" nos muestra sobre la estructura de la lengua

This paper centers around the disjunctive constructions "con o sin mí" and "con o sin ti" as alternatives to "conmigo o sin mí" and "contigo o sin ti" in Spanish, for the implications of their use for the subject of the compatibility between the preposition "con" and the personal pronouns "mí" and "ti" and, on a more general level, of the language value of these pronouns. Attention is drawn to the confirmation of a non-negligible number of cases of the former constructions, which may be considered "uncanonical" , due to the fact that, in them, "con" and the pronoun contract the same syntagmatic relation as in the now disused and frowned-upon constructions "con mí" and "con ti". The apparent paradox is explained in terms of the Coserian distinction between system and norm, thus serving as an example to clarify the meaning and relevance of said distinction. Finally, the paper closes with some reflections on the way languages are historically constituted.