Cover not available

Article published In: Current trends in analyzing syntactic variation:
Edited by Ludovic De Cuypere, Clara Vanderschueren and Gert de Sutter
[Belgian Journal of Linguistics 31] 2017
► pp. 273–300

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload PDF
authorization required

Spanish time constructions with hacer

Gradient judgments and corpus data to solve a syntactic conundrum

 | University of the Basque Country | University of Surrey |
Published online: 23 April 2018
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/bjl.00011.her
Abstract
The present work studies the grammatical properties of Spanish time constructions involving hacer ‘to make’ from an empirical, quantitative perspective with insights from both competence and language use. The results show a big difference between the properties of the so-called clausal and adverbial constructions, something unnoticed until now. Whereas hacer, in the former, has properties not significantly different from other verbs, in the latter, it shows a strong erosion of its verbal and clausal properties like TAM morphology, negation, time adjunction or word order freedom. This contradicts earlier contributions to the topic and argues against those formal proposals positing a synchronic derivational relation between the two constructions.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction and interest
  • 2.An overview of Spanish hacer
  • 3.The grammar and semantics of temporal hacer
    • 3.1Two different constructions
    • 3.2Expressed time relations and semantics
  • 4.A competence-based approach to the synchronic properties of the adverbial construction with hacer
  • 5.A usage-based approach to the synchronic properties of hacer+time
    • 5.1Methodology
    • 5.2Results
    • 6.The relationship between the adverbial and clausal constructions
  • 7.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
References (28)
References
Aelbrecht, Lobke, Liliane Haegeman Liliane, and Nye, Rachel. 2012. Main Clause Phenomena: New Horizons. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Boye, Kasper, and Peter Harder. 2012. “A Usage-Based Theory of Grammatical Status, and Grammaticalization.” Language 881: 1–44. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Brewer, William Benjamin. 1987. “New, and Old Information in Spanish Sentences Containing hace+(TIME).” Hispania 701: 895–899. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Brucart, José María. 2015. “Un análisis derivacional de las construcciones temporales con “hacer”.” Studium Grammaticae: homenaje al profesor José A. Martínez, 165–180. Oviedo: Universidad de Oviedo.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Culicover, Peter W. 1999. Syntactic Nuts: Hard Cases, Syntactic Theory, and Language Acquisition. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Demonte, Violeta, and Ignacio Bosque. 1999. Gramática descriptiva de la lengua española. Madrid: Espasa-Calpe.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fábregas, Antonio. 2016. “On the Structure, and Variation of ‘hace’ as a Temporal Expression.” Stellenbosch Papers in Linguistics 451: 77–108.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
García Fernández, Luis. 1999. “Los complementos adverbiales temporales: La subordinación temporal.” In Gramática descriptiva de la Lengua Española, Vol 3, ed. by I. Bosque, and V. Demonte, 3129–3208. Madrid: Espasa-Calpe.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Haegeman, Liliane. 2012. Adverbial Clauses, Main Clause Phenomena,, and Composition of the Left Periphery: The Cartography of Syntactic Structures. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hagège, Claude. 2010. Adpositions. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Haspelmath, Martin. 1997. From space to time: Temporal adverbials in the world’s languages. Munich: LINCOM Europa.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1998. “Does Grammaticalization Need Reanalysis?” Studies in Language 22 (2): 315–351. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Herce, Borja. 2017. “Past-future Asymmetries in Time Adverbials, and Adpositions: a Cross-Linguistic, and Diachronic Perspective”. Linguistic Typology 21 (1): 101–142. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hopper, Paul J., and Elizabeth Closs Traugott. 2003. Grammaticalization. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Howe, Chad. 2011. “Structural Autonomy in Grammaticalization: Leveling, and Retention with Spanish hacer+time.” Probus 231: 247–282. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kurzon, Denis. 2008. “’Ago’, and its Grammatical Status in English, and Other Languages.” In Adpositions, pragmatic, semantic, and syntactic perspectives. Typological Studies in Language, ed. by D. Kurzon and S. Adler, 209–227. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lehmann, Christian. 1988. “Towards a Typology of Clause Linkage.” In Clause Combining in Grammar, and Discourse, ed. by J. Haiman and S. A. Thompson, 181–225. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pérez Toral, Marta. 1992. Sintaxis Histórica Funcional del Español: el verbo ‘hacer’ como impersonal. Oviedo: Universidad de Oviedo.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Plank, Frans. 2011. “Where’s Diachrony?” Linguistic Typology 151: 455–471. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rasmussen, Poul. 1981. El verbo hacer en expresiones temporales: Estudio sintáctico y semántico. Copenhagen: Akademisk Forlag.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
RAE-ASALE (= Real Academia Española / Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española). 2009. Nueva Gramática de la Lengua Española. Madrid: Espasa-Calpe.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Real Academia Española. CORDE: Corpus diacrónico del español. [[URL]]. Accessed August 2015.
. CORPES XXI: Corpus del Español del Siglo XXI. [URL] (Accessed May 2016).
Rebollo Torío, Miguel Ángel. 1979. “Otra interpretación de ‘hace’ y ‘ha’.” Anuario de Estudios Filológicos 11: 149–162.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rigau, Gemma. 1999. “Temporal Existential Constructions in Romance.” In Romance Languages, and Linguistic Theory, ed. by Yves D’Hulst, Johan Rooryck, and Jan Schroten, 307–333. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sáez del Álamo, Luis Ángel. 1987. “Caracterización de ‘hace-expresión temporal’ en el marco de la Rección y Ligamiento.” In Lenguajes Naturales y Lenguajes Formales. Actas del III congreso de lenguajes naturales y lenguajes formales, ed. by C. Martín Vide, 713–722. Barcelona: Promociones y Publicaciones Universitarias.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stefanowitsch, Anatol. 2008. “Negative Entrenchment: A Usage-Based Approach to Negative Evidence.” Cognitive Linguistics 19 (3): 513–531. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (1)

Cited by one other publication

Herce, Borja
2017. The diachrony of Spanishhaber/hacer + time. Journal of Historical Linguistics 7:3 ► pp. 276 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 19 november 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue