Chapter in:
Syntactic Geolectal Variation: Traditional approaches, current challenges and new tools
Edited by Alba Cerrudo, Ángel J. Gallego and Francesc Roca
[Issues in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics 34] 2021

Gerund structures in Ecuadorian Spanish

| Universitat de Girona
| Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
| Escola Oficial d’Idiomes de Barcelona
In this chapter we study non-prototypical values of gerunds in Ecuadorian and Andean Spanish. Apart from the standard aspectual simultaneity reading, gerunds in Andean Spanish encode an anteriority reading that has been associated to contact with Quechua. The chapter focuses on this value and claims that there are two patterns of gerund verbal complexes that exhibit it: an embedding and a periphrastic one. We provide a syntactic analysis to account for both and we draw the connection between Ecuadorian gerunds and converbs in Quechua. Finally, we offer relevant diachronic evidence that the aspectual values of Andean gerunds are also attested in the history of Spanish, which supports our explanation in terms of contact-induced linguistic change.
Keywords: Andean Spanish gerunds, syntax, synchronic and diachronic variation, linguistic change
References

References

Avellana, A. M.
(2012) Las categorías funcionales en el español en contacto con lenguas indígenas en la argentina: Tiempo, aspecto y modo (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). University of Buenos Aires.Google Scholar
Batllori, M., Hernanz, M. L., & Rubio-Alcalá, C.
In press). Análisis de algunos complejos verbales del ecuatoriano. In Lenguas en contacto: Desafíos en la diversidad. Quito: PUCE (Pontificia Universidad Católica de Ecuador).
Bruil, M.
(2008) Innovations in the Ecuadorian Converb Systems: Grammatical change in language contact situations (Unpublished master’s thesis). Leiden University.Google Scholar
Cardinaletti, A., & Giusti, G.
2001 Semi-lexical’ motion verbs in Romance and Germanic. In N. Corver & H. van Riemsdijk (Eds.), Semi-lexical categories: The function of content words and the content of function words (pp. 371–414). Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Cinque, G.
(1999) Adverbs and functional heads: A cross-linguistic perspective. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
(2001) Restructuring and the order of aspectual and root modal heads. In G. Cinque & G. Salvi (Eds.), Current studies in Italian Syntax: Essays offered to Lorenzo Renzi. Re-edited in G. Cinque, (Ed.) (2006) Restructuring and functional heads (pp. 81–98). Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
(2003) The interaction of passive, causative, and restructuring in Romance. In C. Tortora (Ed.), The syntax of Italian dialects (pp. 50–66). Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
(2004)  Restructuring and functional structure. In A. Belletti (Ed.), Structures and beyond (pp. 132–191). Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Cole, P.
(1982) Imbabura Quechua. Amsterdam: North Holland.Google Scholar
Fernández Lagunilla, M.
(1999) Las construcciones de gerundio. In I. Bosque & V. Demonte (Eds.), Gramática descriptiva de la lengua española (pp. 3443–3503). Madrid: Espasa Calpe.Google Scholar
Gallego, Á., & Hernanz, M. L.
(2012) Tipos de tiempo defectivo. In E. Ridruejo, T. Solías, N. Mendizábal, & S. Alonso (Eds.), Tradición y progreso en la lingüística general (pp. 192–215). Valladolid: University of Valladolid.Google Scholar
García Fernández, L.
(2006) Diccionario de perífrasis verbales. Madrid: Gredos.Google Scholar
Giammatteo, M., & Marcovecchio, A. M.
(2007) Las perífrasis verbales del español en un enfoque léxico-sintáctico (Unpublished manuscript). National University of Buenos Aires.Google Scholar
Haboud, M.
(2005) El gerundio de anterioridad entre bilingües quichua-castellano y monolingües hispanohablantes de la Sierra ecuatoriana. UniverSOS, 2, 9–38.Google Scholar
Haegeman, L.
(2007) Operator movement and topicalización in adverbial clauses. Folia Linguistica, 41(3–4), 279–325.Google Scholar
(2010) The internal syntax of adverbial clauses. Lingua, 120(3), 628–648.Google Scholar
(2012) Adverbial clauses, main clause phenomena, and the composition of the left periphery. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Heine, B., & Kuteva, T.
(2005) Language Contact and Grammatical Change. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Jaeggli, O., & Hyams, N.
(1993) On the independence and interdependence of syntactic and morphological properties: English aspectual come and go . Natural Language and Linguistic Theory, 11, 313–346.Google Scholar
Lipsky, J. M.
(2013) ¿Qué diciendo nomás? Tracing the sources of the Andean Spanish Gerund. Spanish in Context, 10(2), 227–260.Google Scholar
McEnery, A. M., & Wilson, A.
(2001) Corpus linguistics: An introduction. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.Google Scholar
Muysken, P.
(2005) A modular approach to sociolinguistic variation in syntax. The gerund in Ecuadorian Spanish. In L. Cornips & K. Corrigan (Eds.), Syntax and variation: Reconciling the biological and the social (pp. 31–53). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Olbertz, H.
(2008)  Dar + gerund in Ecuadorian Highland Spanish: Contact-induced grammaticalization? Spanish in Context, 5(1), 89–109.Google Scholar
Pato, E.
(2014) En llegando los datos la intuición se matiza. El gerundio preposicional en la historia de la lengua española. RILCE, 30(3), 833–860.Google Scholar
RAE-ASALE
(2009) Nueva gramática de la lengua española. Madrid: Espasa.Google Scholar
(2010) Nueva gramática de la lengua española. Manual. Madrid: Espasa.Google Scholar
Rizzi, L.
(1997) The fine structure of the left periphery. In L. Haegeman (Ed.), Elements of grammar: A handbook of generative syntax (pp. 281–337). Dordrecht: Kluwer.Google Scholar
Roberts, I.
(2007) Diachronic syntax. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Rodríguez-Ramalle, T. M.
(2016) Gerundio y participio. In J. Gutiérrez-Rexach (Ed.), Enciclopedia de lingüística hispánica (Vol. 1, pp. 640–651). London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Rowlett, P.
(2007) Cinque’s functional verbs in French. Language Sciences, 29, 755–86.Google Scholar
Rubio-Alcalá, C.
(2016) Topic extraction from adverbial clauses. Borealis: An International Journal of Hispanic Linguistics, 5(1), 1–30.Google Scholar
Sánchez, L.
(2003) Quechua-Spanish bilingualism. Interference and convergence in functional categories. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Suñer, A.
(2017) Orden de palabras y periferia izquierda en las construcciones adjuntas de gerundio del castellano medieval. Invited talk in the Seminário Internacional sobre a ordem de palavras nas línguas ibero-românicas, Salvador de Bahia (Brasil), 31 July, 2017.
Tellier, C.
(2015) French expressive motion verbs as functional heads. Probus, 27, 157–192.Google Scholar
Toscano Mateus, H.
(1953) El español en el Ecuador. Revista de Filología Española, Anejo 61.Google Scholar
Tsimpli, T., Sorace, A., Heycock, C., & Filiaci, F.
(2004) First language attrition and syntactic subjects: A study of Greek and Italian near-native speakers of English. International Journal of Bilingualism, 8, 257–277.Google Scholar
Weerman, F. P.
(1993) The diachronic consequences of first and second language acquisition: The change from OV to VO. Linguistics, 31(5), 903–931.Google Scholar
Yllera, A.
(1999) Las perífrasis verbales de gerundio y participio. In I. Bosque & V. Demonte (Eds.), Gramática descriptiva de la lengua española (pp. 3391–3441). Madrid: Espasa Calpe.Google Scholar

Sources

Aguiló, F.
(1992) El hombre del Chimborazo. Quito: Ediciones Abya-Yala.Google Scholar
CORDE. Corpus Diacrónico del Español
http://​www​.RAE​-ASALE​.es
CORDIAM. Corpus Diacrónico y Diatópico del Español de América
http://​www​.cordiam​.org
CREA. Corpus de Referencia del Español Actual
http://​corpus​.RAE​-ASALE​.es​/creanet​.html