Tiempo real y tiempos gramaticales: presente e imperfecto de indicativo

Abstract

The present work deals with the polyfuncionality of two tenses of Spanish indicativo: the presente and the imperfecto, and with the hierarchy of these functions as well. Tenses aren't an isolated grammatical category, there are rather expressions of relations among different linguistic and extralinguistic dimensions. Thus, the given meaning of a grammatical tense is associated with a function which this tense realizes in a specific relation. This text seeks to establish an appropriate classification of these functions. It means, that the author's aim is to isolate the prototypical function of each of these tenses and to define reasons and possibilities of its peripherial uses. Although an expression's meaning and even its grammatical organisation are dependent on context, general knowledge and experience, an important part of each cognitive item is constructed in accordance with stable linguistic patterns. Accordingly, the work tries to discover underlying linguistic patterns (treated here as a prototypical function) of analysed constructions and to describe the validity of these patterns for the peripherial use of lexical terms. Theoretical instruments applied are: the semantic theory known as semantic grammar or semantic syntaxe (St. Karolak, 1991) and the cognitive grammar carried out within the perspective stated by R. Langacker. For the verification of some universal properties and uses of analysed forms appropriate Polish constructions were used.