Dialectology as a matter of gradience

Abstract

This article demonstrates how corpus linguistics may help to unveil the gradience of dialectal phenomena through a study of the remote present perfect (PP) in European Spanish. I will address how the fulfilment of certain conditions may account for the use of Spanish aoristic PP, and whether this is reflected in a geographical pattern mirroring its degree of grammaticalization. To this end, a sample taken from the Audible Corpus of Spoken Rural Spanish is analysed and mapped. The evidence supports the proposal that Spanish remote PP exhibits traits of a geographically influenced gradient phenomenon, as strongly grammaticalized PPs concentrate in focal areas, while those whose presence is more easily explained from context are spread out around the periphery.