Spanish Consecutio Temporum: Myths and Reality

Jerzy Kowal

SUB Hamburg

A 2008/ 782

2007 LINCOM EUROPA Table of Contents

Table of Contents 1

Abbreviations and Conventions 4

Introduction 5

Chapter One 8 1.1. CT in the of the RAE 8 1.1.1. Rule 1: V2 in the indicative mood 8 1.1.1.1. VI in a tense of the present domain 8 1.1.1.2. VI in a tense of the past domain 9 1.1.2. Rule 2: V2 in the 9 1.1.2.1. VI in a tense of the present domain 10 1.1.2.2. VI in a tense of the past domain 10 1.2. GiliGaya and his Curso superior de sintaxis espanola 11 1.2.1. Gili Gaya's rules for Consecutio Temporum 13 1.3. Farley's 1965 article "Sequence of Tenses: a Useful Principle?" 14 1.3.1. Obaid's 1967 article "A Sequence of Tenses? - What Sequence of Tenses?" 17 1.4. CT in the new grammar of the RAE 17 1.5. CT in Spanish traditional and Spanish textbooks 20 1.6. Modern approaches to CT 22 1.6.1. Early-generativist approach to Spanish CT 23 1.6.2. Modern generativist approach to Spanish CT 26 1.6.2.1. Restrictions on the temporality of the subordinate clause 27 1.6.2.2. Double-access phenomenon in Spanish CT 29 1.6.2.3. Reichenbach and Spanish CT 31 1.6.3. Rojo's theory of CT 33 1.7. Conclusions to Chapter One 34 Chapter Two 35 2.1. Purpose 35 2.2. The state of CT in modern Spanish 35 2.2.1. Corpus from the Hispanic newspapers 35 2.2.1.1. V2 in the indicative mood 36 2.2.1.1.1. VI in a tense of the present domain 36 2.2.1.1.1.1. VI in the 36 2.2.1.1.1.2. VI in present 38 2.2.1.1.1.3. VI in the future tenses 39 2.2.1.1.2. VI in a tense of the past domain 40 2.2.1.1.2.1. VI in the preterit 40 2.2.1.1.2.2 VI in the 42 2.2.1.1.2.3. VI in the past perfect 42 2.2.1.1.2.4. VI in the conditional 43 2.2.1.2. V2 in the subjunctive mood 44 2.2.1.2.1. VI in a tense of the present domain 44 2.2.1.2.1.1. VI in the present tense 44 2.2.1.2.1.2. VI in 45 2.2.1.2.1.3. VI in the future tenses 46 2.2.1.2.2. VI in a tense of the past domain 46 2.2.1.2.2.1. VI in the preterit 47 2.2.1.2.2.2. VI in the imperfect 48 2.2.1.2.2.3. VI in the past perfect 48 2.2.1.2.2.4. VI in the conditional 49 2.3. Problems with today's CT rules (EsbozoRAE) 49 2.3.1.1. Analysis of the CT rules for V2 in the indicative mood 50 2.3.1.1.1. Rule la of the EsbozoRAE 50 2.3.1.1.2. Rule lb of the EsbozoRAE 54 2.3.1.2. Analysis of the CT rules for V2 in the subjunctive mood 57 2.3.1.2.1. Rule 2a of the EsbozoRAE 57 2.3.1.2.2. Rule 2b of the EsbozoRAE 60 2.3.1.2.2.1. Rule2bl of the EsbozoRAE 60 2.3.1.2.2.2. Rule2b2 of the EsbozoRAE 61 2.4. Are there CT rules in Spanish? 63 2.5. Conclusions to Chapter Two 67

Chapter Three 68 3.1. A new approach to the selection of tenses for V2 68 3.2. Verbs which can take sentential complements in Spanish 69 3.3. The types of temporal relationship VI can entertain with V2 70 3.3.1. Verbs which require V2 to appear in subsequent tenses 72 3.3.2. Verbs which requireV2 to appear in presequent tenses 75 3.3.3. Verbs which require V2 to appear in cosequent tenses 77 3.3.4. Verbs which require V2 to appear in subsequent or presequent tenses 79 3.3.5. Verbs which require V2 to appear in presequent or cosequent tenses 82 3.3.6. Verbs which do not impose any temporal requirements on V2 84 3.4. Modifiers of the temporal relationship which VI entertains with V2 86 3.4.1. Modifiers of the temporal relationship when VI is in the tenses of the present domain .. 87 3.4.1.1. Temporal adverbs 87 3.4.1.2. Conceptual content of the sentential clause 88 3.4.2. Modifiers of the temporal relationships when VI is in the tenses of the past domain .... 89 3.4.2.1. Level of privacy of VI 90 3.4.2.1.1. Private verbs 90 3.4.2.1.2. Public verbs 91 3.4.2.2. Subject of V2 93 3.4.2.3. Telicity of V2 93 3.4.2.4. Temporal adverbs 94 3.4.2.5. Pragmatic value of the sentential clause 96 3.4.2.6. Eternal truth 97 3.5. Conclusions to Chapter Three 97

Chapter Four 98 4.1. Toward a new CT rule for Spanish 98 4.2. New CT rule in Spanish 103 4.3. New CT rule in practice 104 4.3.1. Case#l 104 4.3.2. Case #2 105 4.3.3. Case #3 105 4.3.4. Case #4 106 4.3.5. Case #5 107 4.3.6. Case #6 108 4.3.7. Case #7 109 4.3.8. Case #8 110 4.4. Conclusions to Chapter Four Ill

Conclusion 112

References 114 Appendix: List of verbs which take sentential complements 123