The impact of past time reference on the use of pretérito perfecto in Buenos Aires

Abstract

This paper analyses the variation between simple (PPS - estudié) and compound (PPC - he estudiado) forms of Perfect tense in Buenos Aires. Our hypothesis is that the kind of past reference is a factor that impacts the use of these verbal forms. From a corpus of radio interviews, we analyze the data considering the temporal contexts of absolute past (ABS) and ante-present (ANT). As a result, even with the intensive use of PPS, we identified the use of PPC in both ANT and ABS, especially in the specific ANT and the enlarded ANT.

Keywords

• pretérito perfeito. espanhol. variação linguística. tempo verbal.