This work aims to address verbal combinations of the llegar y + finite verb type, which are documented in different Spanish areas, with different lexical sources. We adopt two goals: (i) to characterize these constructions as monopredicational ones and (ii) to establish which semantic operator they encode. With respect to the first goal, we critically revise the traditional concept of verbal periphrasis and propose that the concept of multi-verb construction (Aikhenvald, 2011) can be used instead, as these constructions express a single predicate, even though two finite verbs are coordinated, a fact that would exclude them from the group of verbal periphrasis as usually understood. This claim is supported by both formal and semantic evidence. From the formal point of view, we analyze order restrictions, constituent extraction and formal identity of co-referent arguments. From the
semantic point of view, we show that llegar y admits weather verbs. With respect to our second goal, we propose that the auxiliary verb llegar expresses an interruptive aspectual operator, that is, it marks the sudden occurrence of an event that interrupts the normal course of events as contextually defined. Further, we contrast this interpretation with some previous accounts in which ingressive aspect, completive aspect or mirativity are claimed as main semantic values. Under our analysis, such values can be inferentially derived from a core interruptive aspect value.
Keywords:
construcción multiverbal, perífrasis verbal, aspecto interruptivo, admiratividad
Jaque, M., González, C., Guerrero, S., Hasler, F., & Orqueda, V. (2019). Es llegar y llevar: construcciones multiverbales de verbo finito coordinadas en español. Lenguas Modernas, (52), pp. 163–186. Retrieved from https://revistapuntogenero.uchile.cl/index.php/LM/article/view/52851
