El perfecto en el español hablado en Galicia. Un estudio gramatical sobre usos y marcadores temporales

Abstract

This master’s thesis explores the use of the verb tense perfect in the Spanish language spoken in Galicia, in given grammatical contexts. The perfect tense in Galicia is known to be of little use, even though it is a very common verb tense in the standardized Spanish of Spain. In this work we seek to explore the extend of its utilization and find out if there are contexts or situations where the galicians to a certain degree allow the use of this verb tense. We also pay attention to the utilization of different temporal modifiers, and how they impact the perception of the perfect tense. This thesis is a quantitative analysis of collected data, where the participants are all born in and currently situated in Galicia. They have all been asked to evaluate different sentences containing both the perfect tense and the more frequently used verb tense in the region "preterite". Based on these results we have analyzed the use of the perfect tense in Galicia. However, the work also contains a sociolinguistic aspect, where we seek to explore if factors like age and gender play a decisive part in our findings. Galicia has two official languages: Castilian (Spanish) and Galician. They find themselves in a situation of diglossia, where the Spanish language is often associated with more social prestige. Since galicians are often bilingual, we also seek to explore if what language they frequently use in certain contexts impacts their perception of the perfect tense.