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Article published In: Revista Española de Lingüística Aplicada/Spanish Journal of Applied Linguistics
Vol. 31:2 (2018) ► pp.605–637

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Variable past-time expression across multiple tasks in Tucumán, Argentina

 | University of Pittsburgh
 | University of Pittsburgh
Published online: 27 December 2018
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/resla.16013.ter
Abstract
We examine variable past-time expression in urban Tucumán, Argentina, an understudied region representative of the set of Andean varieties included in Northwestern Argentinean Spanish. We analyze the present perfect (PP) and preterit in two contexts of data collection: a sociolinguistic interview and a contextualized preference task across a range of linguistic and social factors, such as temporal reference and speaker age. Oral results indicate that Tucumán has a higher frequency of use of the PP than has yet been documented in Latin American varieties and even Peninsular Spanish, previously argued to have the highest rate. Preference task results yielded somewhat lower PP rates, confirming that the PP is preferred in speech, whereas the preterit is more viable in written language. The current study documents the highest rate of use of the PP to date across a number of linguistic contexts, contributing to our knowledge of the processes of grammaticalization and task-related differences.
Resumen
En este trabajo examinamos la variación del pasado en el español de Tucumán, una variedad poco investigada del noroeste argentino y, por ende, del español andino. Analizamos el porcentaje de uso y selección del pretérito perfecto (PP) y el pretérito simple y una serie de variables lingüísticas y extralingüísticas (ej., referencia temporal y edad) como posibles predictores en dos contextos de elicitación: una entrevista sociolingüística y una tarea de preferencia contextualizada. Los datos orales indican una frecuencia de uso del PP más alta que las documentadas en el español latinoamericano y peninsular, siendo este último la variedad con mayor frecuencia de uso del PP hasta ahora. Los datos escritos indican un menor porcentaje de selección del PP, lo que confirma la preferencia del mismo en el habla espontánea y del pretérito en la lengua escrita. Nuestro estudio documenta el mayor porcentaje de uso del PP encontrado hasta la fecha, lo que contribuye al conocimiento sobre procesos de gramaticalización y de efectos de la tarea.
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • The linguistic context: Tucumán Spanish
  • The route of evolution of the perfect
  • The present perfect and the preterit in LAS and PS varieties
  • Method
    • Research questions
    • Participants
    • Data collection
      • Sociolinguistic interview
      • Contextualized preference task
      • Language background questionnaire
    • Data coding for the sociolinguistic interview
      • Identification of tokens
      • Independent linguistic variables
        • Aktionsart
        • Temporal adverbials
        • Temporal reference
        • Clause type
        • Object number
      • Social variables
        • Age
        • Gender
        • Educational level
    • Data analysis
  • Results
    • Rates of use across Spanish varieties
    • Statistical analysis
      • Binomial, mixed-effects logistic regression: Oral data
      • Significant independent variables: Oral interview
      • Binomial, mixed-effects logistic regression: Contextualized preference task
      • Significant independent variables: Contextualized preference task
    • Overview of oral and preference data
  • Discussion
  • Conclusions and future research
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
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