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Cross-dialectal features of the Spanish present perfect: a typological analysis of form and function

Howe, Lewis Chadwick
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1154122894

Abstract Details

2006, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, Spanish and Portuguese.
In this dissertation I present a typological analysis of the Present Perfect (or perfect) across dialects of Spanish, building from a set of semantic features characteristic of perfect constructions cross-linguistically. It has been long noted that use of this form in those Spanish varieties spoken in Spain differs qualitatively from its use in Latin American dialects. The principal contributions of this thesis are (i) the description of a set of semantic characteristics exhibited across languages with typologically similar perfect constructions and (ii) the application of this set of features to the categorization of perfects across dialects of Spanish. I begin by presenting and examining the set of features that is used to characterize the cross-dialectal situation of the Spanish perfect, arguing that the Spanish perfect exhibits many of the features of an archetypal perfect. Next, a partition of dialect groups is proposed, establishing a division between those varieties that favor the perfective past, or pretérito, in reference to past events and those that prefer the perfect. I then investigate two dialectal cases—Peninsular and Peruvian Spanish—in which increased functional overlap between the perfect and the pretérito has been attested. I argue that Peruvian Spanish is more generally representative of the Latin American pretérito-preferring norm, as opposed to Peninsular Spanish which I characterize as belonging to the set perfect-favoring dialects. Finally, I corroborate the arguments developed in the previous chapters by presenting the results of my fieldwork conducted in Madrid and Valencia, Spain and Cusco, Peru. I conclude this part of the analysis with a proposal concerning the variable mechanisms of semantic change responsible for the independent development of perfective features observed in the perfect in Peninsular and Peruvian Spanish. While grammaticalization in both cases is motivated by discourse-related motivations, the extension of the perfect in Peninsular Spanish is triggered by the erosion of relevance implications associated with the meaning of the perfect. With the perfect in Peruvian Spanish, increased perfectivity results via widening of the notion of relevance. According to my analysis, these two dialectal situations represent distinct outcomes of discourse-motivated semantic change.
Scott Schwenter (Advisor)
268 p.
Spanish; Present Perfect; Tense and Aspect; Morphosyntactic Variation; Dialectology; Semantics; Pragmatics

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Howe, L. C. (2006). Cross-dialectal features of the Spanish present perfect: a typological analysis of form and function [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1154122894

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Howe, Lewis. Cross-dialectal features of the Spanish present perfect: a typological analysis of form and function. 2006. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1154122894.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Howe, Lewis. "Cross-dialectal features of the Spanish present perfect: a typological analysis of form and function." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2006. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1154122894

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

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This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.