This is a study of the use of the present perfect and the preterite in the Spanish of Lima, Peru. It explores whether specific linguistic factors, such as situation type, temporal adverbials and type of speech, as well as social factors, such as age, gender and social stratum have an effect on the use of these verb forms. It also aims to find out whether the frequency of the preterite is increasing or not through time, and whether there is evidence of a change in progress. The study also discusses the extent to which the distribution of the preterite and the present perfect in the Limeño variety reflects a process of dialect and language contact. This is an experimental study that uses a questionnaire as a data-collecting instrument, created with the purpose of comparing the same linguistic context and tense choice. This study involves sixty-four participants, all of them Limeño Spanish monolinguals. Results show a significant effect of the linguistic factors on the selection of the preterite and the present perfect, as well as of their interactions with social factors. They also give evidence of different patterns of tense choice according to social to strata, which seem to be linked to language contact. Results also provide evidence of the interface between lexical properties and the grammatical categories of external aspect and tense, thus giving information about how the language components interact, and indirectly supporting a modular approach to the study of language.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:PITT/oai:PITTETD:etd-06292006-131807 |
| Date | 28 September 2006 |
| Creators | Jara Yupanqui, Ileana Margarita |
| Contributors | Christina Bratt Paulston, Pascual José Masullo, Scott Kiesling, Bruce Stiehm |
| Publisher | University of Pittsburgh |
| Source Sets | University of Pittsburgh |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.library.pitt.edu/ETD/available/etd-06292006-131807/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University of Pittsburgh or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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