A alternância entre o pretérito perfecto simple (PPS) e o pretérito perfecto compuesto (PPC) em Monterrey e Ciudad de México: uma análise sociolinguística

Abstract

The multiple ways of saying the same thing are present in the different languages and it is an attribution of Sociolinguistics to conceive this inherent characteristic of the linguistic system. Taking into account this reality, the studies of Variation and Linguistic Change reflect the heterogeneity of the language that underlies the social conditioning factors perceived in the different varieties of a language (WEINREICH; LABOV; HERZOG, 2006 [1968]). In this study, we are interested in investigating these diverse forms of speech that, from their own delimitations, shape the linguistic communities establishing their norms. Based on these precepts, this research, of quantitative and qualitative nature, has as general objective to describe and analyze the dependent variable past perfect form of the Spanish, through the compound past perfect variants (CPP) and the simple past perfect (SPP) in order to identify the alternation between these forms in two dialects of Mexico, in Monterrey City and in Ciudad de México. For this reason, 36 sociolinguistic interviews were selected, 18 of each city being based on the linguistic corpus PRESEEA – Proyecto para el estudio sociolinguístico del español de España y de América. In order to reach this goal, we started from the conceptualization of the past forms, as well as the possible time-aspectual differentiation that may exist between the CPP and SPP, as pointed out by Cartagena (1999), Lope Blanch (1992) and Moreno de Alba (2002). Then, there were considered the linguistic and extralinguistic conditioning factors. As linguistic factors, we had: a) the presence and/or absence of adverbs that indicate anteriority to the zero point of the enunciation; b) the presence and/or absence of adverbs that indicate simultaneity at the time of enunciation; the extralinguistic conditioners are: c) age; d) schooling; e) locality and f) sex. The results obtained in the analysis of the 3644 occurrences of the past forms (in which 3174 were events marked with SPP, while 470 with CPP) pointed to a predominance of SPP, including the presence of ADVs that establishes the speaker's current link to the enunciative moment, revealing a variation of the form ADVs + CPP replaced by the form ADVs + SPP; thus, the temporality related to the zero point of the enunciation, which should refer to the prototypical CPP form, was expressed by the use of SPP, demonstrating how the variation is evident in the examined interviews. In addition, data pointed to the need for a future classificatory study of forms under the lexical-semantic perspective, with the purpose of defining whether the variation occurs by the temporality established in the enunciative contexts or by the verbal aspectuality expressed by the events.