Contrastive and Innovative Uses of the Present Perfect and the Preterite in Spanish in Contact with Quechua

Abstract

The contrastive use of the present perfect and the preterite in the Spanish-speaking world differs from region to region. For the Andean region, however, where Spanish is in contact with Quechua, it has been claimed that this contrast is neutralized. The thesis proposed is that in this variety the present perfect and the preterite, along with the pluperfect, are in fact in contrast on the basis of a spatio-temporal parameter derived from the notion of present relevance. In particular, the use of the present perfect is sensitive to the relationship between the location of the past event and that of the speaker at the moment of speech. In consequence, the contrasts between the present perfect and the other two forms are modified. These innovative uses are derived from the interaction between the semantic systems of Quechua and Spanish and are consistent with universals of the semantic development of verbal markers.