For a morphosyntactic variable: theoretical and applied delimitations to the expression of past tense in Spanish

Abstract

This paper evaluates how the definition of linguistic variable can be adjusted to the study of variation among the forms of the ‘pretérito perfecto’ in distopic varieties of Spanish. Therefore, we start from the epistemological course that involves the definition of variable within the theoretical framework of the Theory of Language Variation and Change. Then, we specifically deal with the study of the forms of the ‘pretérito perfecto’, to show how the standard norm defines the context of categoric usage of simple (canté) and compound forms (he cantadado) and how the descriptive studies present variable possibilities of using the same forms. In the face of this scenario of variation, we propose to apply the concept of linguistic variable only to those contexts of usage in which both forms effectively express the same value, that is, in which they have their particularities neutralized in discourse.