Thesis (M.A.)--Indiana University, 2008. / Title from screen (viewed on August 28, 2009). Department of World Languages and Cultures, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI). Advisor(s): Marta Antõn. Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 65-67).

An aspect of the Romance languages that defies neat linguistic analysis is tense usage. In particular, students of Romance languages as well as grammarians have found it difficult to provide a consistent explanation for the imperfect - preterite opposition. Two main points of contention concern (i) the question of whether the two forms have an inherent aspectual content and (ii) the structure and role of lexical aspectual information in determining the overall meaning of a sentence. While the attempts at explaining French and Spanish usages of the imperfect and the preterite are numerous, hardly any work has been done in the interpretation of Romanian data. Furthermore, a general assumption that the same form - function opposition holds across Romance languages has led to cross-linguistic differences rarely being examined. I argue that the imperfect and the preterite do have an inherent aspectual content. However, in opposition to previous accounts, I maintain that the preterite does not provide a ‘closed’ viewpoint and that an atelic eventuality described by the verb phrase in the preterite can continue up to the present moment. I propose a description of the imperfect - preterite opposition that includes finer distinctions of lexical aspect based on its constituent stage structure. These finer lexical aspectual distinctions allow the identification of an area of divergence in the use of the two forms in French, Spanish, and Romanian: the preterite was found to be used more widely with states in Romanian than in French and Spanish.

This study shows a way of using pictures as a support in the teaching of a certain phenomenonin Spanish grammar, namely the difference between the imperfect and the preterite. The aimof this essay is to show that using pictures can actually benefit the students in theirunderstanding of this grammatical feature.The study is carried out with 54 Swedish upper secondary students. The studyconsists of a test and a questionnaire that the students had to do (the test was done twice).Between the two tests we explained the difference between the imperfect and the preterite,using pictures supporting our explanations. The results of the two tests were then compared inorder to see if the teaching with pictures had helped the students in their understanding of thedifference between these two time aspects. The results show that there is a clear improvementin the students’ knowledge after having seen the pictures that explain this phenomenon.The answers of the questionnaire were used to find out whether there are outer andinner factors that also affect the results of the test. For example, students that prefer to readreached higher results than students that prefer to speak. Their previous grades in the coursesalso affect the results in the way that students with higher grades reached higher results, ingeneral, though there were a few exceptions where students with lower grades actuallysurpassed their peers with higher grades. The results also show that it is easier for the studentsto understand which tense to use if the verbs are part of a bigger context.

The aim of this essay is to identify the factors that exert an influence on university students' use of the imperfect indicative and the preterite in Spanish. The present study is based on an empirical study consisting of questionnaries carried out with 102 university students who study Spanish as a foreign language at four different universities in Sweden. The hypothesis of this essay is that not only internal factors and external factors but also individual factors and learner strategies used by the students have an influence on the students' correct and incorrect use of the imperfect indicative and the preterite. In the theoretical background of this essay, the internal, external and individual factors related to the acquisition of Spanish as a foreign language are presented. In the next part of the essay, the results of the empirical study are presented and analized. In order to determine if there are any correlations between the variables in question, a series of statistical tests are carried out and analized. Taking in consideration the factors of the aim of this study, the independent variables, i.e. the internal, external and individual factors, are confronted with the dependent variable, i.e. the amount of correct and incorrect answers, in order to identify which of these independent variables favour and prevent the correct use of the imperfect indicative and the preterite. The statistical analyses carried out verify the initial hypothesis: internal and external factors as well as individual factors exert an influence on the students' correct and incorrect use of the imperfect indicative and the preterite.

Esta investigación respecto a la adquisición de aspecto es una de las pocas realizadas en un programa de inmersión. / En este trabajo se presentan los resultados de un estudio realizado con el fin de investigar la adquisición del aspecto verbal por estudiantes de inmersión de noveno grado. El análisis se basó en narrativas de ficción y personales. En una primera etapa, no sólo los participantes escribieron dos narrativas, una de ficción y otra personal, sino también llevaron a cabo una narrativa personal oral. Posteriormente, completaron dos narrativas (una personal y otra de ficción), eligiendo entre el pretérito y el imperfecto. El estudio muestra que los alumnos tienen un alto grado de exactitud en el uso del pretérito y del imperfecto, a la vez que descubre que el marcador por defecto pudiera ser el imperfecto tanto en narrativas de ficción como personales.

The aim of this study is to examine the teachers’ attitudes towards teaching the Spanish verb tense pretérito indefinido which corresponds to the preterite tense in English. In the Swedish Compulsory School teachers generally avoid introducing this verb tense in the second level even though this form is more frequent in oral and written Spanish than the present perfect tense. According to previous studies and teachers’ own experience, after four years of studying Spanish the students barely have any understanding of the preterite tense. Therefore, we wanted to find out the teachers’ attitudes towards introducing this verb tense earlier than is the case in today’s school system. The study was carried out with fifty informants who answered a questionnaire divided into two parts, where the first is related to general questions such as age, native language, and experience of teaching. In the second part of the study, the informants rated their agreement or disagreement to 12 statements on a Likert scale. The results of the analysis indicate that the majority of the informants has a positive attitude towards introducing the preterite tense earlier, although some of the informants prefer to teach the present perfect for different reasons. The study also showed that language background and regional variations have an impact on their attitudes.

In certain Germanic languages, there is a group of verbs called preterite-present verbs that are often viewed as irregular, but in fact behave very predictably. They exhibit a morphological phenomenon called deponency, often in conjunction with another morphological phenomenon called heteroclisis. I examine the preterite-present verbs of three different languages: Old Norse, Modern Icelandic, and Modern German. Initially, I approach them from a historical perspective and then seek to reconcile their morphology with the modern perspective. A criteria is established for a canonical preterite-present verb, and then using a lexical programming language called DATR, I create code that generates the appropriate paradigms while also illustrating the morphological relationships between verb tenses and inflection classes, among other things. DATR is a programming language used specifically for language models.

O presente trabalho tem como primeiro objetivo investigar como os estudantes de português como língua segunda na Universidade de Dalarna usam o pretérito perfeito e imperfeito em textos escritos livremente e em quais contextos gramaticais ocorrem os eventuais erros. Além disso, é observado o grau de uso ou não-uso dos estudantes de advérbios temporais e/ou expressões temporais quando constroem sentenças/frases com o pretérito perfeito e imperfeito. De forma sumária é apresentado como os estudos em Português Língua Segunda estão organizados na Universidade de Dalarna e, seguidamente, é discutido o conceito "aspecto". A parte sobre a metodologia mostra como o estudo, tanto quantitativo como qualitativo, é realizado. Depois de um comentário sobre alguns termos conceptuais apresento um breve resumo das principais características de alguns estudos anteriores sobre "estudar uma segunda língua", tal como uma apresentação sumária de quatro dissertações de mestrado sobre o uso de pretérito perfeito e imperfeito em Português Língua Segunda, tal como o uso ou não uso de advérbios temporais. Na terceira parte os resultados do estudo são apresentados; resultados que mostram que os estudantes da Universidade de Dalarna têm um bom tratamento do pretérito perfeito e imperfeito, mas ocorrem erros. A maioria dos erros é cometida nos seguintes contextos : a) pretérito perfeito simples: uma ação já concluída antes do momento de fala e b) pretérito imperfeito: acontecimento habitual que ocorreu repetidamente no passado, podendo ser periódico ou contínuo. Nos outros dois contextos, pretérito imperfeito: um acontecimento no passado que não se prolonga até o presente e pretérito imperfeito: acontecimentos simultâneos ocorridos no passado, se constata um elevado grau de usos corretos. 3 Quanto ao uso de advérbios temporais e/ou expressões temporais, pode-se notar uma tendência, nomeadamente que os alunos que constroem sentenças corretas com o pretérito perfeito e imperfeito, utilizam advérbios temporais num grau mais elevado do que os estudantes que produzem construções incorretas. Os erros são discutidos na parte qualitativa e por fim, na quarta e última parte, condenso algumas considerações finais. / The present study aims at studying the way students of Portuguese as a second language at the University of Dalarna in Sweden handle two of the past forms, that is, the preterite and the imperfect, in texts written freely and in what grammatical contexts the errors, if any, are committed. The study also takes into consideration to what extent the students use, or do not use, of adverbs of time and/or temporal expressions when constructing sentences/phrases with the preterite or the imperfect. In a summary way I present how the studies in Portuguese as a second language at the University of Dalarna are organized and I also, briefly, discuss the concept of "aspect". In the part about methodology is shown how the present study, which is partly quantitative, partly qualitative, is constructed. After a short discussion regarding some conceptual definitions, a short overview of the most important traits in some earlier studies about studying a second language is given and I also present some authors’ theses about the use of the preterite and the imperfect in Portuguese as a second language, as well as the use or non-use of adverbs of time. In part three of the study the results are presented; results which show that the students at the University of Dalarna handle the two forms in a skilful way but errors do occur. The majority of the errors are committed in the following contexts: a) the preterite: completed action in the past and b) the imperfect: frequency or habit. In the other two contexts studied, namely imperfect: past action of a certain duration and imperfect: two simultaneous actions, the amount of errors is very low. Regarding the use of adverbs of time, a tendency, however a bit vague, can be observed. The students who produce correct sentences with the preterite and the imperfect, show a more frequent use of temporal adverbs and expressions than those students who commit mistakes when using the above mentioned verb forms. The errors committed are discussed in the qualitative part of the essay, and in the fourth and last part of the essay I present some final comments.

This thesis deals with the use of the aorist and imperfect tenses and the periphrastic preterite in four Old Czech prosaic translated texts dated back to the beginning of the 2nd half of the 14th century. Analyzed texts are the part of the first edition of the Old Czech translation of the Bible (part of the Dresden Bible completed with the text of Proroci rožmberští (Prophets of Rožmberk), the Legend of St. Wenceslaus from The Old Czech Passional, The Apocalypse of Paul and two chapters of the text O svatém Jeronýmovi knihy troje. We deal with the percentual occurence of the verb forms under investigation and with the aspectual characteristics of the verbs of which the investigated forms are constructed. Also their relationship to the Latin pretext is examined. The acquired results are presented in tables and graphs. This thesis also includes an electronic database of the investigated verbal forms.

This diploma thesis deals with an analysis of Old Czech poem Tristram and Izalda. The source of the analysed text is the Strahov manuscript dated to 1449, in edition by Zdeňka Tichá. The thesis includes a brief description of the history and origin of the analysed piece in both European and especially Czech literary context. The main focus of this text is the linguistic analysis of selected language phenomena. That comprises of phonological and morphological evolution of most grammar categories of nouns, adjectives and verbs in Czech language. With nouns and adjectives, the thesis focuses on the declination paradigm, specifically on the system of grammatical cases and the animacy of the masculine gender. With verbs, the attention is given to the analysis of the tenses, with emphasis on the simple past tenses. First and foremost, the thesis focuses on the analysis of the aorist and imperfect tense with emphasis on verbal aspect affiliation, from which these tenses are often created. A part of the work is dedicated to the preterite, the compound past tense. Where individual verbal forms are analysed, the main focus is given to the nt- and s- participles, their suffix system and also the connection to the category of verbal aspect. Many distinct examples from the analysed text are provided throughout the thesis, as well as detailed statistic data on the occurrence frequency of selected phenomena