This article examines and analyzes the linguistic variation of two verb tenses - present perfect (PP) and preterit (PRET) - in the 19th Century Peninsular and Mexican Spanish. Scholars have been interestedin the dialectal differences of the time values in the European and American Spanish, from a synchronic angle in the contemporary stages of language. Synchronically it has been pointed out that the process of grammaticalization results in the loss of lexical sense of have in the construction of complex tenses. However, there has been no examination of the phase between the formation of PP and the generalization on the Peninsular Spanish. Given the need to describe this transformation, we are seeking to establish whether there are parallel differences in the usage frequency of both tenses in Spain and Mexico, and to examine the time function in the Spanish of both continents in this time. Our data comes from two works representing the 19th Century Spanish of Spain and Mexico, which we analyzed using GoldVarb. In addition to the dependent variables (PRETand PP), we take into account six linguistic factors as independent variables. Our analysis shows that there is a significant difference between 19th Century Mexican and Peninsular Spanish in the use of PRET and PP. The preference for the complex form in the European Spanish, distinct to that of the American Spanish, indicates anexisting dialectal variation. Our study reveals that the time system distinguishing the Peninsular Spanish in the preterit contour is an older phenomenon than it was believed to be.
Keywords:
linguistic variation, preterit, 19th Century Spanish, Peninsular Spanish, Mexican Spanish, deixis, aspect
Salgado Robles, F., & Díaz Collazos, A. M. (2012). Linguistic variation in the preterit expression in the 19th Century Spanish in Spain and Mexico: Deictic and aspectual features. Boletín De Filología, 47(1), Pág. 187–208. Retrieved from https://revistaestudiosarabes.uchile.cl/index.php/BDF/article/view/22675
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