'Imperfecto' and 'indefinido' in Spanish: what, where and how

Abstract

This article aims to providing the reader with an overview of the main facts and analyses about the syntax and semantics of imperfecto and indefinido in Spanish. §1 presents the main views of the nature of tense in natural language; §2 introduces the main distinctions and classifications of tense in Spanish, from a descriptive perspective; §3 does the same with aspect. §4, the core of the article, reviews the facts and the analyses about the famous imperfecto ~ indefinido distinction in the Spanish temporoaspectual domain. §5 takes stock of the facts in Spanish, and outlines some conclusions.

Keywords

• imperfecto
• indefinido
• aspect
• tense
• coreference
• perfectivity
• imperfectivity
• narrative