Aspects on Aspect : Theory and Applications of Grammatical Aspect in Spanish

Abstract

This thesis provides an overview of disciplines related to the grammatical phenomenon of aspect. There are several claims advocated in this thesis, according to the different disciplines dealt with in each chapter. Chapter 1 claims that intra-sentential semantic structure contains three potential levels of completion, one temporal, two aspectual. The two types of aspectual information are predicational aspect and grammatical aspect. Every language uses different strategies to create interaction between the available levels. Chapter 2 claims that predicational aspect does not influence the grammatical aspect intuitions of L1 speakers of Spanish. With the help of an empirical study. it is demonstrated that native speakers of Spanish decide which past tense form is appropriate according to the context in which the sentence is produced, and not according to its intra-sentential aspectual information. Chapter 3 claims that, with the help of a second empirical study, contrary to what was found in the intuitions of L1 speakers, predicational aspect (intra-sentential aspectual information) interferes with the choice of grammatical aspect forms for Dutch L2 learners of Spanish. Finally, with the help of a third and last empirical study, Chapter 4 claims that showing L2 learners the similarities between the Dutch and the Spanish tense systems and also the differences between the two aspectual notions (predicational and grammatical), will help L2 learners understand the distinction of the two Spanish past tenses.