Simultaneity and “increased present” in the European Spanish perfect

This paper deals with the concept of “simultaneity” in relation to the Spanish Present Perfect based on the descriptions made by Rojo (1974) and Rojo & Veiga (1999), and seeks to link it to other similar concepts proposed by other scholars, such as Alarcos’ presente ampliado (“Increased Present” (IP)), McCoard’s Extended Now (XN), and Iatridou et al.’s Perfect Time Span (PTS). Although not all these terms refer to the same concept, as their limits depend on the respective languages they account for, they all share the notion that there is some kind of temporal coincidence between the event and the speech act that informs the Perfect. We posit that the way this temporal coincidence is conceived may explain the temporal and aspectual differences between the Perfect in languages such as Spanish, Portuguese and English

El "estilo de lengua". Antecedentes y fundamentos metodológicos

En este trabajo presentamos una concepción del estilo no vinculada ni a su uso en la Crítica Literaria ni a las versiones actuales del Análisis del Discurso. Es una visión del concepto no parcelada en usos individuales y contextuales, que aspira a aplicarse a la lengua en general como el conjunto de elementos del sistema y de la norma que la caracterizan frente a otras. Se buscan los antecedentes de esta idea en otros autores y se propone abordar su estudio mediante la comparación histórica e interlingüística, además de esbozar algunas de sus principales aplicaciones.In this paper the term style is linked neither to Literary Criticism nor to recent versions of Discourse Analysis. It has no connection with the individual and contextual usage of the language, but with the set of elements of system and norm that distinguishes one language from others. We look for the theoretical background of the concept and propose that style should be studied by means of historical and cross-linguistic comparisons. Some of its main applications are also pointed out

Present perfect and simple past in peninsular Spanish: a norm revision based on empirical evidences

En este trabajo se analizan los desvíos de la norma descrita por Alarcos (1947) sobre el uso y reparto de las formas simple (pretérito) y compuesta (antepresente) del pretérito en las distintas variedades del español peninsular, a la luz de los trabajos sobre el tema y de nuestra propia investigación sobre el habla de Salamanca. Se trata de comprobar cuántas normas o «subnormas» diferentes pueden encontrarse en el español peninsular en cuanto al uso de la forma simple y compuesta del pretérito y si realmente el modelo descrito por Alarcos se ajusta convenientemente a alguna de ellas. Finalmente, se concluye que el modelo es más propio de áreas periféricas bilingües que de las propiamente castellanas.In this paper we will take into account the divergences between the norm concerning the Simple Past and the Present Perfect in Peninsular Spanish as it had been stated by Alarcos (1947), and the real facts of the different varieties of Peninsular Spanish according to the latest bibliography and our recent study of Salamanca’s speech. We will try to check how many norms there are in Peninsular Spanish regarding the use of both forms, and whether Alarcos’s model fits conveniently to any of them. Eventually, conclusions about the appropriateness of that model to bilingual rather than to monolingual Castilian areas will be drawn.peerReviewe

Acerca del uso prehodiernal del pretérito perfecto compuesto resultativo en español

The article focuses on certain cases in which the use of the compound perfect (CP) of Peninsular Spanish presents problems of interpretation, or apparently contradicts the norms for the use of this form, i.e., the CP is used together with a prehodiernal expression of time (e.g., hace X días/semanas/años). Nevertheless, the use of the CP in those cases seems to be accepted by most speakers. We analyse examples derived from different sources from a perspective that combines the lexical meaning of the verbs with their syntactic and discursive context and propose a global solution for all of them that, from a temporalist rather than aspectualist viewpoint, offer a coherent picture of the Spanish PC. The common denominator in many of the cases analysed is that the PC expresses the Resultative Perfect. On the other hand, also the prehodiernal «aoristic» PPC appears in some of them, which underlines the close connection of this tense with the moment of utterance. Keywords: Spanish language; compound perfect; adverbials of time; prehodiernal; normative grammar Palabras clave: español; perfecto compuesto; adverbiales de tiempo; prehodiernal; gramática normativ

Linguistic Attitudes of Galician Spanish Speakers about the Present Perfect / Simple Past Opposition

En este trabajo nos ocupamos de la percepción metalingüística de los hablantes gallegos de español respecto a la oposición PPC / PPS. Se trata de comprobar, a través de una prueba de evocación, hasta qué punto en un entorno lingüístico complejo como el de Galicia el PPC es una forma “normal”, qué tipo de vacilaciones provoca su uso y cuál es la percepción de los hablantes tanto de su comportamiento individual como de las características dialectales, sociolingüísticas y diafásicas del fenómeno. Se detecta la presencia de dos pautas de comportamiento mayoritarias: por una parte, un claro rechazo al subsistema “estándar” y el afianzamiento de un subsistema sin PPC y, por el otro, el esfuerzo de los hablantes por emplear una forma que consideran extrañay cuyas normas de uso no tienen bien asimiladas, lo cual da lugar a un comportamiento asistemático. Se aprecia también que los hablantes de gallego como lengua materna consiguen sistematizar su comportamiento mejor que los hablantes de castellano como lengua materna.In this paper we deal with the metalinguistic perception of the Spanish speakers in Galicia regarding the verbal opposition Present Perfect (PP) / Simple Past (SP). By means of an elicitation test we try to verify if the PP is a “normal” form in this complex linguistic environment, what kind of hesitations are linked to its use and what is the speakers’ perception of their individual behavior as well as of the dialectal, sociolinguistic and diaphasic features of the phenomenon. Two main patterns of behavior have been detected: on the one hand, there is a clear rejection of the “standard” subsystem and the consolidation of a subsystem without PP; on the other hand, some speakers make an effort to use a form which they feel “strange” and whose norms they did not assimilate correctly, which leads to an unsystematic behavior. It has been also noticed that speakers with Galician as mother tongue are able to systematize their behavior better than speakers with Spanish as mother tongue

Aula virtual de Máster en Profesor de Secundaria

Memoria ID-0322. Ayudas de la Universidad de Salamanca para la innovación docente, curso 2014-2015

The modal perfect: haya cantado and habré cantado in some varieties of modern Spanish

The numerous studies on the perfect compound form in Spanish lack a detailed analysis of the subjunctive and future forms (haya cantado and habré cantado), which under certain syntactic and pragmatic conditions are parallel to the indicative one, he cantado. Based on our knowledge of the Spanish indicative present perfect and its use in different Spanish-speaking areas, this paper deals with the distribution and functions of these two “modalised perfects” and their relationship with the corresponding simple forms (cantara and cantaría). The aim is to determine the extent to which these two pairs of forms are functionally and diatopically similar (or not) to the pair he cantado – canté. Our findings help us to better understand the functions of all simple and compound perfect forms in Spanish and their development in eight Spanish-speaking cities in Spain and the Americas

Los adverbios en -mente en español y la formación adverbial en alemán: estudio morfológico-comparativo de esp. -mente y al. -weise

Among the works on the spanish -mente adverbs there is a rare interest on the morfological explanation of the construction. It is usually assumed that the latin mente, which was the determined head of a nominal phrase, has become a very productive suffix in the Roman languages. However, the comparision between -mente and a similar suffix in another language, the german adverbial former -weise, is a good help to define the type of suffix -mente represents inside the spanish morfological system. The study of the suffixes' history and their semantic relation to the nouns that origined them has allowed us to argue that there is an ambigous scope among derivation and composition that finds a different way of grammaticalization in every language. For those forms we suggest the term semisuffix. The paper is completed with a short mention of the semantic type of adjectives which choose those semisuffixes.En los trabajos sobre los adverbios en -mente en español se aprecia un escaso interés por explicación morfológica de la formación. Naturalmente se acepta que el sustantivo mente, que en latín era el núcleo determinado de un sintagma nominal, se ha convertido en las lenguas romances en un sufijo derivativo de alta productividad. Sin embargo, la comparación con un morfema de características similares en otra lengua, el formante adverbial del alemán -weise, nos ayuda a definir mejor el tipo de sufijo que representa o el sistema morfológico del español. A partir de análisis de su historia y su conexión semántica con los sustantivos que les dieran origen, podemos postular que estas dos formas representan un terreno ambiguo entre la derivación y la composición que ha gramaticalizado de diferente manera en cada lengua, y proponemos para ellas el término "semisufijo". El articulo se completa con una breve mención sobre el tipo semántico de adjetivos que seleccionan estos semisufijos

The System of the PPC / PPS opposition in 17th Century Spanish. An analysis of the first part of the Quixote (1605)

En este trabajo se estudian los usos del Pretérito Perfecto Compuesto (PPC) y su contraste con el Pretérito Perfecto Simple (PPS) en la Primera Parte del Quijote de Cervantes (1605). Se estudia el sistema de oposición de ambas formas en el s. XVII a partir de su referencia temporal, así como su posterior desarrollo en español peninsular. Se constata que, en este siglo, una vez consolidada la forma compuesta como forma del paradigma verbal del español, las funciones que asume van de lo más indeterminado temporalmente a lo más determinado, y dentro de lo determinado, de lo más cercano a lo más lejano al momento elocutivo. En este proceso, hay un tipo de contexto temporal, indeterminado pero determinable, propio de eventos télicos semelfactivos pero sin localizador temporal, que se está desarrollando en esta época y que es la clave para entender la ulterior evolución del PPC en español peninsular, pues abona el terreno para los usos inmediatos y hodiernales  y, aún tímidamente, también para los prehodiernales. Los datos del corpus nos ofrecen, pues, un sistema en el que el PPC se encuentra ampliando claramente sus posibilidades funcionales a costa del PPS, que, sin embargo, aún mantiene usos que hoy consideraríamos originales del Perfecto. Por otra parte, nuestros resultados nos hacen poner en duda que el contexto de pasado inmediato, que es un contexto de determinación temporal, fuera más claramente favorable que el de indeterminación temporal al empleo de la forma compuesta, como se sugiere en otros trabajos.This paper deals with the use of the Present Perfect (PP) and its contrast with the Simple Past (SP) in the First Part of Cervantes’ Don Quijote (1605). The opposition of both forms is studied from the point of view of the temporal reference, as well as of their later development in Peninsular Spanish. It is claimed that in this century, when the compound form is already consolidated as a form of the temporal paradigm, it assumes firstly temporal indeterminate functions that become increasingly more determinate. Inside the determinate uses, there is also a progression from temporal closeness to the speech act to temporal remoteness. In the 17th century, the so-called “indeterminate” context, linked to telic and unique events but with no specific temporal reference adverbs is developing and becomes the key for understanding the later evolution of the PP in Peninsular Spanish, for it prepares the path to the immediate and hodiernal uses of the form, as well as for the prehodiernal ones, still unsteady. The data of our corpus show a system in which the PP is clearly extending its functional possibilities at the expense of the SP, which nevertheless retains uses we should consider characteristic of the Perfect. On the other hand, our results force us to question the claim that the immediate past context, a determinate temporal one, was at that time more favourable to the use of the PP than the indeterminate context