Abstract:

In this work I analyse a situation of morphosyntactic variation: the use of cantara/cantei in Galician with the same tense-aspect value: the aoristic preterite of the indicative. I will begin by recognising contexts with different degrees of discursive grounding to investigate whether there are variations in the choice between cantara/cantei due to grounding. I will conduct this investigation using two data corpora, oral and written Galician. Finally I will compare the results and determine whether the two registers demonstrate differences in the degree to which cantara is selected as simple preterite over cantei. The main interest of this work concerns the application of methods and tools of classical variationism to the investigation of relative linguistic phenomena, measured in gradual and non-oppositional terms.

Author: Celia Pollán