Las relativas de antecedente incorporado en el siglo XX: la variación quien(es)/el que

This paper examines the alternation of the pronouns quien/el que in the relative clauses with antecedent of human reference in the 20th century. Based on a corpus of ego-documents (mainly private letters, but also diaries and memoirs), and from a variationist methodology, the study analizes the linguistic and sociolinguistic factors that favour the gradual recovery of constructions with quien as opposed to the still dominant use of the forms with the article. The research shows that the structural factors that had been decisive for the survival of these constructions in the 18th and 19th centuries are the ones that favour the change of trend, as well as the incidence of the sociolectal factor that points to the so-called change from above.