Exploring future-in-the-past variation in Seville and Caracas

Abstract

Research on Spanish future-time expression has revealed a diachronic rise for the periphrastic future. However, future-in-the-past expression remains understudied. Two common variants are the periphrastic future in the imperfect (e.g., iba a bailar ‘I was going to dance’) and the conditional (e.g., bailaría ‘I would dance’). Our study is unique in assessing future-in-the-past expression through a controlled task able to elicit greater token counts and its consideration of data beyond Spain. In this exploratory study, we analyzed residents of Seville, Spain and Caracas, Venezuela via a written contextualized task, examining linguistic predictors (temporal distance, polarity, and verb type). Results echo research on future-time expression: the periphrastic form has gained traction and has developed through analogous predictors. Moreover, findings reveal notable cross-variety similarity.