The non-periphrastic gerund in Havana Spanish speech

Abstract

In our research, we explored the uses of the non-periphrastic gerund in the PRESEEA-Havana corpus and noticed an original construction consisting of the verb ser + gerund. We expanded our study to include both the Ameresco-Havana and Cultured Speech Samples of Havana corpora to focus on this structure. Our analysis examines the function of the non-finite sentence, the subject class of the involved verbs, the lexical and grammatical aspects, and the informative structure. Through this analysis, we were able to demonstrate the interconnection between various grammatical phenomena. We concluded that the gerund clause behaves as an attribute, that there is a high degree of genericity in both the subject of the copulative verb and that of the non-personal form, and that the intrinsic imperfectivity of the gerund is syntactically reinforced. Based on these findings, we propose that this attributive gerund serves as an aspect focalizer.