Cover not available

Article published In: Spanish in Context
Vol. 18:3 (2021) ► pp.459–478

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

The Ecuadorian Spanish benefactive and its inherent aspect

A reconstruction

 | Leiden University
 | Leiden University
Published online: 4 October 2021
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/sic.19027.gon
Abstract
The Spanish benefactive verbal periphrasis dar ‘give’ + gerund is unique to the Spanish spoken in Ecuador and it seems to have emerged in the historical Ecuadorian context of multilingualism. The analysis presented sheds light to the intricacies of the construction, taking into consideration the inherent aspect of the gerundial verb. Oral data was collected during two months of participant observation in Ecuador. The aspectual theoretical analysis of 1993. A Theory of Aspectuality. The Interaction between Temporal and Atemporal Structure. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar, González, Paz. 2003. Aspects on aspect: Theory and applications of grammatical aspect in Spanish. PhD. Dissertation. University of Utrecht. Lot series 71. and González, Paz, and Verkuyl, Henk. 2017. “A binary approach to Spanish tense and aspect: on the tense battle about the past.” Borealis: An International Journal of Hispanic Linguistics 6 (1): 97–138. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar is applied to the data in order to determine the inherent aspectual value of the gerundial verb in the predications. The results show that there is an overwhelming use of terminative predications. Additionally, some predications that prima facie seem durative can be interpreted as terminative. This finding can be partially explained by particular linguistic phenomena only appearing in the Spanish in contact with Kichwa. Moreover, this study adds empirical proof of how relevant discourse is in aspectual representations.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Sociolinguistic background
  • 3.Aspect
    • 3.1Aspectual theory
    • 3.2Andean phenomena relevant for aspectual theory
  • 4.Methodology
    • 4.1Hypotheses
    • 4.2Data collection: Description of the corpus
    • 4.3Coding of the data
  • 5.Results
    • a.Cases with [−sqa] (uncountable internal arguments)
    • b.Cases with [−sqa] (internal arguments in plural and without determiner)
    • c.Cases without [sqa], that is, without internal argument
  • 6.Discussion
  • 7.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • List of abbreviations
  • References
References (32)
References
Albor, Hugo R. 1973. “Da + gerundio, ¿un quechuismo? Y otras maneras de atenuar los imperativos.” Hispania 561: 316–318. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Aleza Izquierdo, Milagros. 2010. Morfología y sintaxis: observaciones gramaticales de interés en el español de América. In La Lengua Española en América: Normas y Usos Actuales, ed. by Milagros Aleza Izquierdo, and José María Enguita Utrilla, 95–223. Valencia: Universitat de València.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Arboleda Torro, Rubén. 2000. “El español andino.” Forma y Función 131: 85–100.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Borik, Olga, Paz González, and Henk Verkuyl. 2004. “Comparing tense systems: the primacy of the Pres/Past opposition.” Nordlyd 31 (1): 13–29. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bruil, Martine. 2007. Corpus of spontaneous occurrences of dar + gerund gathered during three months of fieldwork.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2008. “Give + gerund in Ecuadorian Spanish, A calque from Quichua or large process of contact induced change?” In Elizabeth Koier, Olivia Loonen, and Marieke Meelen (eds.), Leiden Working Papers in Linguistics 5 (1): 1–23.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Campos, Héctor. 1999. “Transitividad e intransitividad.” In Gramática Descriptiva de la Lengua Española, ed. by Ignacio Bosque, and Violeta Demonte, 1519–1574. Madrid: Espasa Calpe.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cerrón-Palomino, Rodolfo. 1976. Gramática Quechua: Junín-Huanca. Lima: Ministerio de Educación.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Comrie, Benard. 1976. Aspect. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Creissels, Denis. 2010. “Benefactive applicative periphrases: a typological approach.” In Studies in Ditransitive Constructions, ed. by Fernando Zuñiga, and Seppo Kittilä, 29–69. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
De Granda, Germán. 1995. “Un quechuismo morfosintáctico en dos áreas extremas del español andino. Las perífrasis verbales de gerundio con valor perfectivo en noreste argentino y el sur de Colombia” 151–159. Anuario de Lingüística Hispánica. Salamanca: Universidad de Valladolid.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Escobar, Anna María. 2013. “Spanish in Contact with Quechua.” In The Handbook of Hispanic Sociolinguistics, ed. by Manuel Díaz Campos, 323–352. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell Publishing.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
González, Paz. 2003. Aspects on aspect: Theory and applications of grammatical aspect in Spanish. PhD. Dissertation. University of Utrecht. Lot series 71.
González, Paz, and Verkuyl, Henk. 2017. “A binary approach to Spanish tense and aspect: on the tense battle about the past.” Borealis: An International Journal of Hispanic Linguistics 6 (1): 97–138. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Haboud, Marleen. 1997. “Grammaticalization, clause union and grammatical relations in Ecuadorian Highland Spanish.” In Grammatical Relations, a Functional Perspective, ed. by Talmy Givon, 199–232. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1998. Quichua y Castellano en los Andes Ecuatorianos: los Efectos de un Contacto Prolongado. Quito: Abya Yala.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Heine, Bernd, and Tania Kuteva. 2005. Language Contact and Grammatical Change. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hurley, Joni Kay. 1995a. “Pragmatics in a language contact situation: Verb forms used in requests in Ecuadorian.” Hispanic Linguistics 6 (7): 225–264.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1995b. “The impact of Quichua verb forms used in Spanish requests in Otavalo, Ecuador.” In Spanish in Four Continents: Studies in Language Contact and Bilingualism, ed. by Carmen Silva-Corvalán, 39–51. Washington D.C.: Georgetown University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kany, Charles Emil. 1951. American-Spanish Syntax. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Merma Molina, Gladys. 2007. Contacto Lingüístico entre el Español y el Quechua: un Enfoque Cognitivo-Pragmático de las Transferencias Morfosintáticas en el Español Andino Peruano. Alicante: Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Meyerhoff, Miriam. 2010. Introducing Sociolinguistics, 2nd ed. London/New York: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Niño-Murcia, Mercedes. 1992. “El futuro sintético en el español norandino: Caso de mandato atenuado.” Hispania 75 (3): 705–713. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Olbertz, Hella G. 2002. “Dar + gerundio en el español andino ecuatoriano. Sintaxis, semántica y origen.” Círculo de Lingüística Aplicada a la Comunicación 121.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schwenter, Scott A. 2006. Null objects across South America. In Selected Proceedings of the 8th Hispanic Linguistics Symposium, ed. by Timothy Face and Carol Klee, 23–36. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sun, Hongyuan. 2014. Temporal Construals of Bare Predicates in Mandarin Chinese. PhD Dissertation, Leiden University, Utrecht: LOT Publications.
Suñer, Margarita, and Maria Yépez. 1988. “Null definite objects in quiteño.” Linguistic Inquiry 191: 511–519.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Toscano Mateus, Humberto. 1953. El español en el Ecuador. Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigación Científica.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Verkuyl, Henk J. 1972. On the Compositional Nature of the Aspects. Dordrecht: D. Reidel Publishing Company. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1993. A Theory of Aspectuality. The Interaction between Temporal and Atemporal Structure. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2008. Binary Tense. Stanford: CSL Publications.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (1)

Cited by one other publication

Guerra, Kathleen S.
2023. Context-specific use and ideology: perception of appropriate domains for dar + gerund. Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics 16:2 ► pp. 447 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 1 december 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