“Ser” and “Estar”: Individual/Stage level predicates or aspect?

نویسنده

  • José Camacho
چکیده

The distribution of copular verbs in Spanish is one of the most researched topics in Spanish linguistics: from traditional grammarians to contemporary linguists, many have attempted to capture a very complex and puzzling distribution. As is well-known, Spanish has two main copular verbs, ser and estar, that overlap in a number of contexts. As a first approximation ser combines with predicates that denote a permanent characterization of the subject, whereas estar + predicate denotes non-permanent traits, as seen in (1). In the first example, being pleasant is perceived as a character trait of Alejandro’s, whereas in the second one, it is seen as a temporary situation that happens to be true today.

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تاریخ انتشار 2010