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Article published In:
Copulas in Spanish and Beyond
Edited by Silvia Gumiel-Molina and Isabel Pérez-Jiménez
[Spanish in Context 20:2] 2023
► pp. 367–388

Cognitive underpinnings of the meaning of Spanish estar

Implications for its diachronic change

| Yale University
| The Ohio State University

The Spanish copula verb estar is currently taking part in two of the most well-known paths of semantic change across different dialectal varieties of Spanish: (a) as a main copula verb, in its encroachment on the domain of ser, and (b) as the auxiliary in the Present Progressive marker, as it encroaches in the domain of the Simple Present form (i.e., Sánchez-Alonso 2018; Fuchs 2020). Here we argue for the hypothesis that estar’s participation in both paths of change is not coincidental. Focusing on the copular use, we present arguments for the proposal that estar’s encroachment is connected to its lexico-conceptual structure, which, under specific communicative pressures, is afforded greater conversational informativity, thus systematically expanding its licensing contexts and, as a result, bolstering its use. Evidence consistent with this analysis emerges from use variation for estar across several dialects of Spanish, both in its copular and auxiliary uses.

Keywords: semantic change, copula, progressive, estar, Spanish
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The lexical meaning of estar
  • 3.The conceptual underpinnings of estar
  • 4.The readings of estar sentences through the lens of estar’s conceptual structure
  • 5.The diachrony of copular estar and its conceptual basis
  • 6.One communicative mechanism of estar’s expansion: Perspective alignment
  • 7.Conclusions
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 2 November 2023
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/sic.00095.pin
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