Descriptive semantics and syntax of Modern Spanish 'estar' progressives.

Abstract

The purpose of this dissertation is to discover the semantic uniqueness of the Spanish estar progressive in contrast to the finite or simple verb form. Much of the scholarly literature, including such recent studies as King and Suner (1980) asserts that the progressive is to be viewed as a grammatical device created solely for the expression of increased durational aspect. The extreme position suggests that the simple form and its periphrasis, i.e. estar plus present participle, may be treated as potential free variants. Using a discourse-based framework, this dissertation systematically examines the temporal and aspectual parameters which define the progressive. The sources of data for this analysis are four selected corpora representing cultivated speech as spoken in Madrid, Mexico City, Caracas and Buenos Aires. Data for the present study were originally collected for the Ibero-American Principal Cities Project, conceived and directed by Lope Blanch (1977). Findings reveal that Spanish progressives and nonprogressives are not semantically equivalent forms. Rather, the progressive is now viewed as a specialized verbal construction used for the description of ongoing events often taking place during limited and specific periods of time. Finally, the traditional (aspectual) view of the progressive is squarely confronted, and a new definition emerges: The progressive is re-defined aspectually as noninterative or actual durative. The finite verb form is now associated with clear-cut iteration (in the imperfect) as the durative/progressive concept is clarified and seen as a dual durative, similar to the distinction in Russian of actual vs. repeated (iterative) duration. The expression of the actual durative, while an obligatory aspectual category in Russian (in those verbs where there is a morphological difference), is an optimal category in Spanish. Once the choice is made, however, expression of actualized duration in Spanish is asserted with the estar progressive, a verbal construction which readily co-occurs with extra-verbal indicators of temporal limitation.