Presented to you through Paradigm Publishing Services

John Benjamins Publishing Company

Visit our Partner Page See all our books
Home John Benjamins Publishing Company Chapter 10. Gauging expansion in synchrony
Chapter
Licensed
Unlicensed Requires Authentication

Chapter 10. Gauging expansion in synchrony

The periphrastic perfect in nineteen century Rioplatense Spanish
  • and

Abstract

One of the hallmarks of present-day Rioplatense Spanish is the highly specialised use of the periphrastic perfect or Pretérito Perfecto Compuesto (PPC). Most perfect nuances are instead encoded in this dialect through the synthetic past or Pretérito Perfecto Simple (PPS). Exploration of a novel corpus of historical media and theatre plays shows that, in nineteenth century Rioplatense, the PPC was productively used to encode hot news, hodiernality and hesternality. These nineteenth century uses are in line with a cross-linguistic perfect-to-perfective grammaticalization pathway but the path is halted in present-day Rioplatense. We draw on cognitive grammaticalization theory to argue that there is no determinacy in grammaticalizing constructions: a source meaning does not uniquely determine the path a grammaticalizing construction may take.

Abstract

One of the hallmarks of present-day Rioplatense Spanish is the highly specialised use of the periphrastic perfect or Pretérito Perfecto Compuesto (PPC). Most perfect nuances are instead encoded in this dialect through the synthetic past or Pretérito Perfecto Simple (PPS). Exploration of a novel corpus of historical media and theatre plays shows that, in nineteenth century Rioplatense, the PPC was productively used to encode hot news, hodiernality and hesternality. These nineteenth century uses are in line with a cross-linguistic perfect-to-perfective grammaticalization pathway but the path is halted in present-day Rioplatense. We draw on cognitive grammaticalization theory to argue that there is no determinacy in grammaticalizing constructions: a source meaning does not uniquely determine the path a grammaticalizing construction may take.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Chapter 1. The perfect volume 1
  4. Part I. Perfects and their relatives
  5. Chapter 2. “Universal” readings of perfects and iamitives in typological perspective 43
  6. Chapter 3. Perfect and its relatives in Atayal 65
  7. Chapter 4. Structural and functional variations of the perfect in the Lezgic languages 87
  8. Chapter 5. Cross-linguistic parallels and contrasts in a contact language perfect construction 117
  9. Chapter 6. Perfect and negation 137
  10. Chapter 7. The diachrony of the perfect in Zapotec 163
  11. Part II. Perfect extensions, hodiernality and aoristic drift
  12. Chapter 8. More on hodiernality 181
  13. Chapter 9. The impact of the simultaneity vector on the temporal-aspectual development of the perfect tense in Romance languages 213
  14. Chapter 10. Gauging expansion in synchrony 241
  15. Part III. Morphology of perfects
  16. Chapter 11. The rise of the periphrastic perfect tense in the continental West Germanic languages 261
  17. Chapter 12. On the emergence of auxiliary selection in Germanic 291
  18. Chapter 13. Language contact and competition in the periphrastic perfect in Early English 319
  19. Chapter 14. The Swedish perfect and periphrasis 343
  20. Chapter 15. “ Have -less perfects” in Norwegian 365
  21. Chapter 16. From have -omission to supercompounds 397
  22. Chapter 17. Auxiliary reduction in secondary grammaticalization 439
  23. Chapter 18. The functions of the auxiliary ‘have’ in Australian English vivid narratives 461
  24. Index 479
The Perfect Volume
This chapter is in the book The Perfect Volume
https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.217.10flo

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Chapter 1. The perfect volume 1
  4. Part I. Perfects and their relatives
  5. Chapter 2. “Universal” readings of perfects and iamitives in typological perspective 43
  6. Chapter 3. Perfect and its relatives in Atayal 65
  7. Chapter 4. Structural and functional variations of the perfect in the Lezgic languages 87
  8. Chapter 5. Cross-linguistic parallels and contrasts in a contact language perfect construction 117
  9. Chapter 6. Perfect and negation 137
  10. Chapter 7. The diachrony of the perfect in Zapotec 163
  11. Part II. Perfect extensions, hodiernality and aoristic drift
  12. Chapter 8. More on hodiernality 181
  13. Chapter 9. The impact of the simultaneity vector on the temporal-aspectual development of the perfect tense in Romance languages 213
  14. Chapter 10. Gauging expansion in synchrony 241
  15. Part III. Morphology of perfects
  16. Chapter 11. The rise of the periphrastic perfect tense in the continental West Germanic languages 261
  17. Chapter 12. On the emergence of auxiliary selection in Germanic 291
  18. Chapter 13. Language contact and competition in the periphrastic perfect in Early English 319
  19. Chapter 14. The Swedish perfect and periphrasis 343
  20. Chapter 15. “ Have -less perfects” in Norwegian 365
  21. Chapter 16. From have -omission to supercompounds 397
  22. Chapter 17. Auxiliary reduction in secondary grammaticalization 439
  23. Chapter 18. The functions of the auxiliary ‘have’ in Australian English vivid narratives 461
  24. Index 479
Sign up now to receive a 20% welcome discount
Institutional Access
How does access work?
Winner of the OpenAthens UX Award 2026
Winner of the OpenAthens UX Award 2026
Have an idea on how to improve our website?
Please write us.
© 2026 De Gruyter Brill
Downloaded on 1.4.2026 from https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1075/slcs.217.10flo/html
Scroll to top button