Concretization of a construction: Conditioning the
Progressive in 20th-century Spain
Grant M. BerryThe Pennsylvania State University
GURT 2014
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• “…thou mayest send for thy wife and children to thee to this village, where there are houses now stand empty, one of which thou mayest have at reasonable rates...”
• “Now I begin to reap the benefits of my hazards.”
• Pilgrim’s Progress (John Bunyan, 1678).
Introduction Aspect Priming Current Study Coding Results Conclusion
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The English Progressive
• Composed of ‘to be’+Gerund• It used to compete with the simple present to convey present temporal
reference• Now however, it is used in contexts with well-defined temporal
constraints• Indicate continuity or an action circumscribed to speech time
• Due to changes in frequency and relative distribution in these temporally-bounded contexts, the Progressive became the norm in those contexts• This left the simple Present to convey other imperfective aspects, and it
became zero marked for habitual actions (Bybee, Pagliuca, and Perkins 1994)
Introduction Aspect Priming Current Study Coding Results Conclusion
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ESTAR+Gerund: The Spanish Progressive• Composed of an auxiliary verb (estar, ‘to be’) and a gerund• Originates from a locative construction• Through gradual changes in conditioning and frequency, the following
reanalysis has occurred over the last 700 years:(cf. Torres Cacoullos 2011; Torres Cacoullos 2012:78; Bybee 2010:148)
• However, it is still not as grammaticalized as the English Progressive. • The Spanish Progressive can be a useful tool to determine how
progressives arise cross-linguistically.
Introduction Aspect Priming Current Study Coding Results Conclusion
[ESTAR]LOC + [VERB(GERUND)]COMPLEMENT [ESTARAUX+VERB(GERUND)]PROG
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• Progressive:Es que estoy hablando por fuera, sí. be-PRS.3SG that be-PRS.1SG speak-GER by outside yes(CORLEC ACON023A:149)I’m just talking outside. Yeah.
• Simple Present:¿Y por qué hablas como cortado? (CORLEC ACON023A:148) and for what speak-PRS.2S like cut-PTCPWhy are you cutting out?
• Both in the same utterance:Está haciendo un doctorado be-PRES.3SG do-GER DET-INDF-MASC.SG doctorate y trabaja en el CIEMAT. and work-PRES.3SG in DET-DEF-MASC.SG CIEMAT
Current State of Variation:
• The Spanish Progressive currently exhibits variability with the simple Present when conveying present temporal reference• However, the simple Present is not
yet zero-marked for habitual like it is in English, because it can still convey progressive meaning• In fact, both can still be used within
the exact same utterance and temporal context
Introduction Aspect Priming Current Study Coding Results Conclusion
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• Locative (15th-century)Lucrecia e Melibea están cabe la puertaLucrecia and Melibea be-PRS-3PL beside DET-DEF-FEM-SG door aguardando a Calisto. (La Celestina: Act XII)watch-GER Calisto Lucrecia and Melibea are beside the door watching Calisto.
[ESTAR]LOC + [VERB(GERUND)]COMPLEMENT
Grammaticalization of progressives• Locatives often grammaticalize to
become progressive
• Locatives also have a strong connection to progressive constructions (Comrie 1976:98-103)
• Like many other constructions, they tend to follow a unidirectional grammaticalization path.• Eventually, many progressives
further grammaticalize to become continuous or imperfectives (Bybee et al.1994:138-144; Bybee 2010: 107)
Introduction Aspect Priming Current Study Coding Results Conclusion
• Progressive (20th-century)Ya te estás haciendo mayor. Ya teAlready REFL-be.PRS.2SG do-GER older already Pro-REFL.2SG estás haciendo mayor, ¿no, Bicho? (BCON048B:35)be.PRS.2SG do-GER older no sweetie/bug You’re getting older. You’re getting older, aren’t you sweetie?
[ESTARAUX+VERB(GERUND)]PROG
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• Limited Duration: Como si alguien eh - está metiendo maraña por aquí. as if someone be-PRS.3SG insert-GER tangle by here(ACON007A:3)Like someone is getting tangled up around here.
• Extended Duration:Lo cual la hace bastante odiosa. It which ACC-FEM.SG make-PRS.3S enough hated(CCON002A:104)Which makes her pretty hated.
• Indeterminate:Porque yo me acuerdo de cuando Because PRO-1S REFL-1S agree-PRS.1S of-PREP when yo era jovencito (ECON023A:85).PRO-1S be-IMP.1S Young-DIM-MASC.SGBecause I remember when I was young.
Progressives and grammatical aspect• Aspect can be defined broadly at
the level of the phrase or in terms of lexical types (Aktionsart properties)• Phrase level:• Limited Duration• Extended Duration
• Lexical level:• Dynamic verbs• Statives
Introduction Aspect Priming Current Study Coding Results Conclusion
• Dynamic Verb:Si me lo está contagiando a If DAT-1S ACC-MASC.SG be-PRS.3S infect-GER to-PREPmí, es horrible. (ACON112C:168)me-PREP.Obj be-PRES.es horribleIf it’s infecting me, it’s horrible.
• Stative Verb:Tenemos aquí a César Rojo – (ECON006B:62)have-PRS-1PL here César RojoHere we have César Rojo.
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Syntactic priming: A tool to autonomy• Recycling/Repetition of syntactic structures in discourse• Frequently studied in psycholinguistic literature as an automatic
process which facilitates syntactic access during production (Ferreira and Bock 2006; Bock 1986) • ESTAR+Gerund: Which component pieces are susceptible to priming?• Entire constructionautonomy• ESTAR or Gerundsome degree of analyzability• Simple Present or other high analyzability, weak construction
Introduction Aspect Priming Current Study Coding Results Conclusion
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Where does the Spanish Progressive stand?• Since the Spanish Progressive still varies with the simple Present, the
simple Present has not formed a zero marker for habitual in Spanish like it has in English (Bybee 1994).
• How has its aspectual distinction, as reflected through its presence in limited duration vs extended duration contexts, changed over the last century?• Has the construction maintained a strong affinity for dynamic verbs,
or has it generalized to statives as well? (Walker 2010:96)
• Does the construction demonstrate a degree of analyzability, or has it become autonomous?
Introduction Aspect Priming Current Study Coding Results Conclusion
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The current study• Corpus: Conversational portion of CORLEC (Corpus Oral
de Referencia de la Lengua Española Contémporanea) (Marcos-Marín 1992)
• Conversational Corpus compiled around Madrid between 1991-1992
• Tokens:• Progressive tokens of present temporal reference were
exhaustively extracted• 340 tokens, 134 unique lexical types
• Using these lexical types, simple Present tokens were extracted from surrounding files algorithmically, with a maximum extraction of 10 per type.• 677 simple Present tokens; 74 unique lexical types
• Total count: 1017 tokens
Introduction Aspect Priming Current Study Coding Results Conclusion
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Progressive predictors and variable context• Variable Context: Present temporal reference (see Walker 2010)
• Predictors: (see Torres Cacoullos 2012)
• Aspect (Phrase)• Syntactic priming• Polarity of the clause• Presence of a co-occurring locative• Presence of a co-occurring temporal adverbial• Lexical aspect
Introduction Aspect Priming Current Study Coding Results Conclusion
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Exclusions
• Truncations• Repetitions• Repairs• Multiple gerunds with a single
estar• Metalinguistic contexts• Quotative decir (‘to say’)• Prefabs ya ves’ (‘you see’), ‘digo yo’
(‘I mean’), and ‘lo que pasa’ (‘the issue is…’)
Está la vida para No, ‑ estoy eso, ‑ presenciando Be-3.PRS.3SG the life for no be-PRS.1SG that witness-GER en España cómo hemos pasado… (ACON033A:190)in Spain how have-PERF.1PL pass-PTCPLife is for—no, I’m—yes, witnessing in Spain how we’ve passed…
Introduction Aspect Priming Current Study Coding Results Conclusion
Ya te estás haciendo mayor. Ya teAlready REFL-be.PRS.2SG do-GER older Already Pro-REFL.2SG estás haciendo mayor, ¿no, Bicho? (BCON048B:35)be.PRS.2SG do-GER older no sweetie/bug You’re getting older. You’re getting older, aren’t you sweetie?
…ellos están actuado ‑ actuando dentro de Pro-NOM.MASC.3PL be.PRS.3PL act-PTCP act-GER inside of la burocracia…(ACON026A:62)DET-DEF-FEM.SG bureaucracy They are acted—acting within the bureaucracy
…la gente que está escuchando, viendo, DET-DEF-FEM.S people that be-PRS.3SG listen-GER see-GER leyendo medios de comunicación- (ACON009A:25)read-GER means of communicationPeople that are listening to, seeing, and reading means of communication-
Se dice el gerundio, estoy REFL say-PRES.3SG DET-DEF-MASC.SG gerund be-PRS-1SG pariendo. (CCON034A:309)
birth-GERYou say the gerund: I’m giving birth.
Y entonces me dice él: "Pues no‑and so Pro-ACC.1SG say-QUOT Pro-MASC.3SG well no sé…” (ACON011A:99)know-PRS.1SGAnd then he tells me: “Well, I don’t know…”
Ya ves. Ha subido la already see-PRS.2SG AUX-PRS.3SG raise-PTCP DET-DEF-FEM.SGvida. (ACON006A:33)life.Yeah. Life’s already gotten better.
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Coding for prime type• Priming was determined by looking back three clauses,
counting finite verbs. (see Gries 2005, Weiner & Labov 1983)
• The nearest prime was coded using the following type hierarchy: Progressive (Estar+Gerund) > Estar > Other. If a higher-order type was found within the first three clauses, it was recorded independent of the intervention of other lower-order tokens before it.
Introduction Aspect Priming Current Study Coding Results Conclusion
Progressive
Estar
Other
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Results• Strong effect for
aspect• Strong priming effect
for Progressives• Neg polarity is a
conservative environment• Stative verbs disfavor
the construction
Introduction Aspect Priming Current Study Coding Results Conclusion
Table 1: Linguistic Factors Conditioning Estar+Gerund in 20th-century Spain (CORLEC Conversational)
Weight %Prog NAspect
Limited Duration 0.79 59% 274/462Extended Duration 0.24 12% 61/531
Range: 55Priming
Progressive 0.77 54% 57/105Estar 0.59 41% 45/110Other 0.45 30% 236/800
Range: 32Polarity
Positive 0.52 35% 330/945Negative 0.30 14% 10/72
Range: 22Lexical Aspect
Dynamic 0.53 35% 306/868Stative 0.35 23% 34/149
Range: 18Co-occurrence of Temporal Adverbial
Present 0.62 35% 38/109Not Present 0.48 32% 281/877
Range: 14Factors not selected as significant: Co-occurrence of a locative expression
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Diachronic Trends• Monotonic increase in limited
duration contexts since Old Spanish• The construction is continuing
its gradual takeover of limited duration contexts
• Lower overall increase in the 20th century may be owed to conversational genre
• Slight increases in extended duration contexts since 17thc.• Why?
Introduction Aspect Priming Current Study Coding Results Conclusion
13-15c 17c 19c 20c0
2
4
6
8
2.5
6.8 7
5.2
Relative Ratio
Limited Duration
Extended Duration
Limited Duration
Extended Duration
Limited Duration
Extended Duration
Limited Duration
Extended Duration
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
37
15
41
6
56
8
59.3
11.5
Estar+Gerund Simple Present
Occ
urre
nce
(%)
(Adapted in part from Torres Cacoullos 2014:11)
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Table 2: Aspect by Co-occurring Temporal Adverbial None Ahora Other Total
Limited Duration
228 58% 16 80% 30 63% 274 59% Prog394 20 48 462 Total
Extended Duration
48 10% 5 45% 8 14% 61 11% 461 11 59 531
Total 276 32% 21 68% 38 36% 335 34% 855 31 107 993
Introduction Aspect Priming Current Study Coding Results Conclusion
Table 3: Aspect by Lexical Aspect Dynamic Stative Total
Limited Duration 247 62% 27 44% 274 59% Prog400 62 462 Total
Extended Duration
55 12% 6 7% 61 11% 448 83 531
Total 302 36% 33 23% 335 34% 848 145 993
X2 test p>.1
When occurring in extended duration contexts, it is licensed by a co-occurring temporal adverbial.
The construction has generalized to stative verbs, common with progressives (Walker 2010: 96)
¿Qué cuadro estás haciendo ahora, Irene? (BCON043A:1)What-INT painting be-PRS-2SG do-GER now IreneWhat painting are you working on now (these days), Irene?
Yo no sé, por ejemplo yo este año I no know-PRS-1SG for example I this yeares que estoy teniendo (CCON013F:14)‑it’s that be-PRS-1SG have-GERI don’t know, this year I’ve just been having…
Y ha/ ‑ hay gente mayor, gente de ‑ And the- there are people older people of pues eso, mucho ‑ nórdico, que está well that, many Nordic, that be-PRS3Sviviendo allí todo el año (ACON023A:18)live-GER there all yearAnd there are older people, people who—well, anyway—many Nordic people who are living (live) there all year.
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Conclusion
• The last 100 years have engendered changes in distribution and analyzability of ESTAR+Gerund• The construction has further grammaticalized, now showing strong
priming effects with itself. This indicates the construction now has a high degree of autonomy• It does maintain a slight priming effect for estar, which indicates that the
construction is—in contrast to English—still slightly analyzable.
• Though its gradual monopolization of limited duration contexts is still not at English-like levels, it has generalized to stative verbs and is usually licensed in extended duration contexts by a temporal adverbial
Introduction Aspect Priming Current Study Coding Results Conclusion
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THANK YOU to:
• Rena Torres Cacoullos
• Members of the Department of Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese at Penn State
• The planning committee of GURT 2014
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