The main goal of the investigation was to compare different grammar analysis of the preterit and imperfect and contrast them with spoken data. The objective of this study was twofold: first, to contrast different grammars of the Spanish preterit and imperfect in order to identify if there is variation between them. The second objective was to determine which linguistic factors constrain these structures in native Spanish speakers; this will allow a baseline to be established in order to contrast with the different grammar analyses. The results show that there are discrepancies between the different grammar analyses. Among the findings, it is worth mentioning that even RAE showed variability between the 1973 edition and the 2010 one. Grammar analyses attribute a wide range of uses and interpretations to the preterit and imperfect. However, Puerto Rican Speakers only use lexical semantics, the specificity of the event and, temporal frame of reference. These findings may be explained in two ways: first, the grammars may contain dialectal variation (Delgado- Díaaz 2012). Furthermore, the grammars may be trying to represent a standard variety as pointed out by Poplack and Dion (2009). The other possibility is that the grammars reflect diachronic variation of the function (Poplack y Dion 2009) of the preterit and imperfect. These findings imply that these structures are not as stable as stated by the grammars. In addition, there might be an envelope of variation regarding the Spanish preterit and imperfect that needs to be defined.
Keywords:
grammar analysis, preterit and imperfect, Puerto Rican Spanish, sociolinguistics, theory vs. use
Delgado-Díaz, G. (2014). Theory vs. use: An analysis of the preterit and imperfect. Boletín De Filología, 49(1), Pág. 11 – 36. Retrieved from https://pedagogiaderecho.uchile.cl/index.php/BDF/article/view/32418
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