El sistema de oposición PPC / PPS en el español del s. XVII. Análisis de la primera parte del Quijote (1605)

Abstract

This paper deals with the use of the Present Perfect (PP) and its contrast with the Simple Past (SP) in the First Part of Cervantes’ Don Quijote (1605). The opposition of both forms is studied from the point of view of the temporal reference, as well as of their later development in Peninsular Spanish. It is claimed that in this century, when the compound form is already consolidated as a form of the temporal paradigm, it assumes firstly temporal indeterminate functions that become increasingly more determinate. Inside the determinate uses, there is also a progression from temporal closeness to the speech act to temporal remoteness. In the 17th century, the so-called “indeterminate” context, linked to telic and unique events but with no specific temporal reference adverbs is developing and becomes the key for understanding the later evolution of the PP in Peninsular Spanish, for it prepares the path to the immediate and hodiernal uses of the form, as well as for the prehodiernal ones, still unsteady. The data of our corpus show a system in which the PP is clearly extending its functional possibilities at the expense of the SP, which nevertheless retains uses we should consider characteristic of the Perfect. On the other hand, our results force us to question the claim that the immediate past context, a determinate temporal one, was at that time more favourable to the use of the PP than the indeterminate context.