On tense choices in Spanish anaphoric references to what has been said earlier in the same text

Abstract

The article treats tense choices in Spanish (and, to some extent, French) anaphoric references to what has previously been said in the same non-literary text. Attention is focused on verbs of saying, such as decir, señalar y mencionar, as well as on verbs related to the illustration and perception of information and facts, such as ver and mostrar. The material consists of non-literary, or documentary, scientific and informative texts, of which the frequent use of anaphoric references is characteristic. The material also represents the two main regional varieties of Spanish, Peninsular and American Spanish. Although mainstream American Spanish almost exclusively uses the simple perfect (dijimos) in oral communication in aoristic (or perfective) past contexts, the use of the compound perfect (hemos dicho) is surprisingly common also among Hispano-American authors of scientific texts, in whose varieties the aoristic drift of the compound perfect has never taken place. Another interesting result is the relatively frequent use of the imperfect tense (decíamos) in scientific texts in Spanish as well in French ones. It is not clear if these cases express the imperfective or the aorist aspect: it is generally known that the imperfect tense can also be used to express the latter for purely stylistic reasons.  

Keywords: Spanish language, French language, tenses, anaphoric references, non-literary texts