Abstract

HENDERSON, Carlos. The Compound Past and its indifference to speech time: samples of Spain and Mexico Spanish. Cuad. Lingüíst. Col. Méx. [online]. 2022, vol.9, e257.  Epub Apr 03, 2023. ISSN 2007-736X.  https://doi.org/10.24201/clecm.v9i0.257.

This paper analyzes occurrences of the Spanish compound past [“present perfect”, PPC] in interviews to personalities of the political and cultural life of Mexico and Spain. The choice of the PPC in these dialects is often characterized by its codification of imperfective situations or situations that denote current relevance depending on the case, thus countering the Simple Past that comprises situations without connection to the speech time (ST). Instead, in this paper it is claimed that the pattern of choice of the PPC ought to be understood as the codification of generic situations without an explicit indication of its possible yet not obligatory connection to ST. In this way, a more cohesive description is attained, both for the cases in which the connection to ST is explicit or implicit and for those in which that connection is ambiguous or openly denied, despite being codified in the PPC.

Keywords : tense; aspect; present perfect; generic reference; speech time.

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