Functional-Semantic Analysis of Achievement Verbs as Part of the Progressive Periphrasis “Estar + Gerund” in Modern Peninsular Spanish

Abstract

The current article focuses on the progressive aspect and, in particular, the gerundial periphrasis “estar + gerund” as its formal expression in the Spanish language. The progressive is often considered to be a subtype of the imperfective aspect. Consequently, according to numerous studies, the periphrasis “estar + gerund” is an imperfectivizing construction. In addition to the grammatical aspect, the research considers actionality as a semantic characteristic of the verb; in particular, the actional class of the so-called achievement verbs or momentatives. The material for the research are contexts from the corpus of modern Spanish RAE CORPES XXI, the main attention is paid to the Peninsular Spanish variety. The purpose of the article is to study the properties of the considered actional class verbs (using the example of the verb “llegar” ‘to arrive’), to critically analyze and supplement the approach to their characterization and terminology used in the Spanish tradition. The study attempts to clarify Z. Vendler’s classification to describe the cases of using these verb predicate imperfective forms. Based on S. G. Tatevosov’s theory, the research concludes that achievement verbs in Spanish should be viewed as a combination of meanings of both perfective and imperfective forms in episodic interpretation. This perspective facilitates a more comprehensive understanding of their internal actional structure, aiding in a deeper analysis of the progressive aspect’s role in conveying semantic nuances. This observation indicates a somewhat incorrect application of the term “achievements” (“logros”) from the Spanish grammatical tradition to the studied verbs. The context analysis leads to the conclusion that the periphrasis “estar + gerund” predominates in imperfective tenses with the verbs in question. Progressive perfective tense forms (progressive preterite and progressive perfect) are rarely encountered in the Peninsular Spanish variety, although they are quite common with the verbs of other dynamic actional classes. Nevertheless, in the few contexts featuring perfective forms within the imperfectivizing gerundial construction, an active manifestation of the momentaneous aspect of the main verb is noted, such as iterative or distributive meanings, caused by its actional characteristics.