TAMN: A NOTATION SYSTEM FOR THE TYPOLOGY OF THE SPANISH VOSEO CONJUGATION

Abstract

The main goal of this work is to present a notation system with which to refer to any of the variants of the Spanish voseo conjugation in terms of the combination of “tú” and “vos” endings in the different verb tenses. A great advantage of this system is not only the unequivocal reference to the variants of interest, but also the transparency with respect to the underlying analysis of the variation. The basic analytical idea is that the interdependencies between the endings is a property not of the tenses themselves but of the groups to which each of the tenses belongs. The groups are based on a TAMn number, or number of features marked in terms of time-aspect-mode. Each of the groups gives rise to a conjugation prototype. Each prototype has a central instance and two subtypes, one reduced and one expansive. The end result is a minimalist notation, transparent and efficient.