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The Temporal Relationships between the Pluscuamperfecto and mientras + Imperfecto

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Published/Copyright: April 28, 2023
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Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics
From the journal Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics Volume 16 Issue 1

Abstract

This paper analyzes the temporal relationship between a pluperfect verb in a main clause and a following subordinate clause introduced by mientras (‘while’) with an imperfect verb. The specific lexical and aspectual properties of the components lead to clashing expectations concerning the temporal relationship within the structure. The issues are three-fold. First, the subordinating conjunction lexically expresses the co-temporality of the subordinate clause with regard to another eventuality. Second, this may be possible when the pluperfect verb has an eventive reading, but what happens if it asserts a post-state? Third, the widely recognized discourse structural description (coming from DRT) of an imperfect verb is that its location time includes a previously introduced reference time. However, in traditional terms, the reference time involved in the meaning of a pluperfect verb is posterior to the event the pluperfect verb expresses. We address these issues and present a dataset collected from various corpora which underlines that the temporal relationships within the structure show a surprising variability. We discuss the different possibilities in depth, taking Aktionsart and subject reference into account. We also focus on the theoretical issue of the concept of reference time. On the basis of our data, and counter to the traditional approach, we argue that a temporal discourse structure should account for pluperfect verbs by means of secondary reference times.

Keywords: temporal discourse structure; reference time; pluperfect; imperfect; mientras
Corresponding author: Jakob Egetenmeyer, SFB 1252 / Department of Romance languages, University of Cologne, Albertus-Magnus-Platz, 50923 Köln, Germany, E-mail:

Funding source: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft

Award Identifier / Grant number: Unassigned

Acknowledgments

We thank Mary Chambers for proofreading, as well as David Wick, Barbara Zeyer and Anja Hankeln for practical assistance. We thank two anonymous reviewers for their valuable input.

  1. Research funding: This research was funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) as part of the Collaborative Research Center 1252 Prominence in Language, Project-ID 281511265, which is gratefully acknowledged.

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Published Online: 2023-04-28
Published in Print: 2023-05-25

© 2023 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Editorials
  3. Remembering SHLL Associate Editor Kimberly Geeslin
  4. A Thank You and a Welcome
  5. Research Articles
  6. Cognitive Status and Subject Reference in Spanish Written Discourse
  7. El efecto del refuerzo de /b d ɡ/ en la percepción de acento extranjero en español
  8. The Temporal Relationships between the Pluscuamperfecto and mientras + Imperfecto
  9. Spanish Emphatic Possessives and Reflexivity
  10. Linguistic Contact in Perspective: Lateral Coda in Principense Portuguese
  11. Las vocales glotalizadas en el español guatemalteco: Un análisis sociofonético entre los hablantes bilingües (español-kaqchikel) y monolingües
  12. How Do You Say Madrid? Final /d/ Variation and the Indexicality of Madrilenian Localness
  13. Phonetic Context, Task Formality, Learner Level, and Orthographic Effects in L2 Spanish Palatal Obstruents
https://doi.org/10.1515/shll-2023-2004
Keywords for this article
temporal discourse structure; reference time; pluperfect; imperfect; mientras

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Editorials
  3. Remembering SHLL Associate Editor Kimberly Geeslin
  4. A Thank You and a Welcome
  5. Research Articles
  6. Cognitive Status and Subject Reference in Spanish Written Discourse
  7. El efecto del refuerzo de /b d ɡ/ en la percepción de acento extranjero en español
  8. The Temporal Relationships between the Pluscuamperfecto and mientras + Imperfecto
  9. Spanish Emphatic Possessives and Reflexivity
  10. Linguistic Contact in Perspective: Lateral Coda in Principense Portuguese
  11. Las vocales glotalizadas en el español guatemalteco: Un análisis sociofonético entre los hablantes bilingües (español-kaqchikel) y monolingües
  12. How Do You Say Madrid? Final /d/ Variation and the Indexicality of Madrilenian Localness
  13. Phonetic Context, Task Formality, Learner Level, and Orthographic Effects in L2 Spanish Palatal Obstruents
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