Los Verbos ser Y estar Explicados por un Nativo

Crespo, Luis Bermello

doi:10.2307/333126

Cited by 15 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…I will not go through all of the objections that have been raised (see esp. Bull 1942;Crespo 1946;Luján 1981) or discuss all of the adjustments to the general picture that have been made to cope with these objections. Instead, I will present a single example, which I find most instructive because it shows that any explanation of the ser/estar puzzle that relies somehow on a division of the adjectives into two conceptual categories is essentially wrong and cannot be rescued.…”

Section: As Followsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Discourse-Based Account of Spanish ser/estar

2005

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The study offers a discourse-based account of the Spanish copula forms ser and estar, which are generally considered to be lexical exponents of the stage-level/individual-level contrast. It argues against the popular view that the distinction between SLPs and ILPs rests on a fundamental cognitive division of the world that is reflected in the grammar. As it happens, conceptual oppositions like "temporary vs. permanent" or "arbitrary vs. essential" provide only a preference for the interpretation of estar and ser. In addition, the evidence for an SLP/ILP impact on the grammar turns out to be far less conclusive than is currently assumed. The study argues against event-based accounts of the ser/estar contrast in particular, showing that ser and estar pattern alike in failing all of the standard eventuality tests. The discourse-based account proposed instead assumes that ser and estar both display the same lexical semantics (which is identical to the semantics of English be, German sein, etc.); estar differs from ser only in presupposing a relation to a specific discourse situation. By using estar a speaker restricts his or her claim to a specific discourse situation, whereas by using ser, the speaker makes no such restriction. The preference for interpreting estar predications as denoting temporary properties and ser predications as denoting permanent properties follows from economy principles driving the pragmatic legitimation of estar's discourse dependence. The analysis proposed in this paper can also account for the observation that ser predications do not give rise to thetic judgements. The proposal is couched in terms of the framework of DRT.Estoy por creer que el verbo 'estar' es el anarquista más grande, que ha cruzado el Atlántico. Crespo (1946: 45)

show abstract

Section: As Followsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Discourse-Based Account of Spanish ser/estar

2005

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…For instance, differences between the copulas were blurred in Crespo's (1946) analysis when he argued that estar could refer to permanent, inherent, or normal states in addition to temporary and accidental ones. Crespo expanded the theory that ser referred to the subject's membership in a class and estar to its condition or state, arguing that estar not only referred to a state or condition of the subject established through a comparison to itself, but that it also could refer to a comparison of the subject with other similar objects, as for example when a tourist contemplates the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel for the first time and utters qué hermoso está esto 'how beautiful this is' (p.49).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…Some background of the long debate on the copulas is in order, given that linguists have long grappled with their notorious behavior preceding predicate adjectives (Bolinger 1947, Bull 1942, Clements 1988, Crespo 1946, Luján 1981, Falk 1979, Franco & Steinmetz 1983, 1986, de Mello 1979, Navas-Ruiz 1963, Roldán 1974). On the one hand, grammars and textbooks have long explained the distribution of ser and estar with predicate adjectives as expressing relative duration, where ser conveys permanence and estar temporariness (Bello 1847).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Status of the Extension of estar in Cuban Spanish

Alfaraz

2012

Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper presents variationist sociolinguistics research on the copula estar with predicate adjectives in Cuban Spanish, a variety in which it appears to have gone largely uninvestigated. To examine its social and linguistic distribution, a real-time study with data from the 1960s and 1990s was coupled with an apparent-time study with data from the 1990s. Findings showed that generation and adjective type were significant factors constraining the variation. The comparison of different generations in real and apparent time suggested that the frequency of estar had increased significantly in the younger generation compared to older ones, and it had remained stable for the two age cohorts studied in real time. Results for following adjective showed that the extension of estar was favored in two of eight adjective classes. These findings suggest that Cuban Spanish has experienced a change over time in the frequency and distribution of innovative estar with predicate adjectives.

show abstract

“…On the one hand, the differences between ser 'be SER ' and estar 'be ESTAR ' predications have been explained in aspectual/event-structure/ Aktionsart terms (aspectual approaches, Luján, 1981;Clements, 1988;Fernández Leborans, 1999;Gallego & Uriagereka, 2009;Marín, 2010;Zagona, 2012;Gumiel-Molina & Pérez-Jiménez, 2012;Roy, 2013). On the other hand, they have been accounted for in terms of how properties are attributed to subjects (comparisonbased approaches, Crespo, 1946;Bolinger, 1947;Roldán, 1974;Carlson, 1977;Falk, 1979;Franco & Steinmetz, 1983, 1986Gumiel-Molina, Moreno-Quibén & Pérez-Jiménez, 2015a[henceforth, GMP (2015a]). With respect to copular sentences with adjectival predicates, the primary goal of both aspectual and comparison-based approaches has been to account for the fact that some adjectives combine only with one of the copulas while other adjectives combine naturally with both ser 'be SER ' and estar 'be ESTAR '.…”

Section: Introduction Aspectual and Comparison-based Approaches To Tmentioning

confidence: 99%

The inference of temporal persistence and the individual/stage level distinction

Molina

Moreno-Quibén

Pérez-Jiménez

2015

New Perspectives on the Study OfSerandEstar

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In this paper we propose that the differences between ser 'be SER ' and estar 'be ESTAR ' predications traditionally associated with the individual-level/stagelevel (IL/SL) distinction (having to do with their differing combinations with adverbs quantifying over situations, locative and temporal modifiers, etc.) can be explained without arguing that ser 'be SER ' and estar 'be ESTAR ' sentences have different event/aspect/Aktionsart-related properties. Specifically, we claim that in copular sentences with adjectival complements, the different kinds of elements that build up the comparison class needed to evaluate adjectival properties can account for the IL/SL character of the predication and that, specifically, the IL/SL distinction is linked to the relative/absolute distinction. This proposal, together with the hypothesis that relative adjectives trigger by default an inference of temporal persistence, can account for all the aforementioned differences between ser 'be SER ' and estar 'be ESTAR ' sentences. We thus argue for an extension of the explanatory value of the individual/stage-level distinction to the domain of gradability.

show abstract

Los Verbos ser Y estar Explicados por un Nativo

Cited by 15 publications

References 0 publications

A Discourse-Based Account of Spanish ser/estar

A Discourse-Based Account of Spanish ser/estar

The Status of the Extension of estar in Cuban Spanish

The inference of temporal persistence and the individual/stage level distinction

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About