Lexical–Syntactic Classes of Adjectives in Copular Sentences across Spanish Varieties: The Innovative Use of Estar
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. The Distribution of <ser/estar + Adjectival Phrase> across Spanish Varieties. General/Standard and Innovative Uses
- Qualifying adjectives: the following subclasses have been considered:
- (a)
- Dimensional adjectives: adjectives expressing dimensional properties of entities such as length, height, width, thickness, etc., excluding age (alto “tall”, ancho, “wide”, grueso “thick”, largo “long”, etc.). Dimensional adjectives take measure phrases (5 metros de largo “5 m long”).
- (b)
- Age adjectives: express the chronological age of an animate entity (chavo “little”, joven “young”, pequeño “little”, viejo “old”, etc.).
- (c)
- Property adjectives: non-dimensional adjectives expressing physical or abstract properties of entities (duro “hard”, triste “sad” …—in this paper, subclasses of property adjectives will not be considered, although emotional adjectives also have an evaluative component). Adjectives expressing degrees of price or temperature were included in this class (barato “cheap”, costoso “expensive”, caliente “hot”, etc.).
- (d)
- Color adjectives (blanco “white”, negro “black”, etc.).
- (e)
- Evaluative adjectives: macro-class that includes various subclasses with different syntactic–semantic properties (Demonte 1999a, 1999b, 2011; McNally and Stojanovic 2015; Liao et al. 2016; Moreno-Quibén 2022; Gumiel-Molina et al. 2023). Evaluative adjectives give rise to scalar variation.
- Extreme-degree adjectives (bárbaro “awesome”, terrible “horrible”), which express a very high positive or negative general evaluation of an entity, not necessarily linked to a specific parameter (vs. the following subclasses).
- Aesthetic adjectives (bello “beautiful”, guapo “handsome”, lindo “cute, beautiful“…), which express the aesthetic value of an entity.
- Predicates of personal taste (sabroso, rico “tasty” …), which express evaluation involving direct physical contact with the entity expressed by the subject of predication (i.e., through smelling, eating, or drinking).
- Predicates of personal judgment (difícil “difficult”), which express evaluation of entities not involving physical contact.
- “Other”: This class accommodates other evaluative adjectives that do not fit neatly into the above classes because of their meaning or syntactic behavior. Many of the adjectives grouped in this heterogeneous class only co-occur with ser in copulative sentences in general Spanish (e.g., conflictivo “conflictive”, significativo “significant”, importante “important”, recto “upright”—which is a moral predicate in the sense of Stojanovic and McNally (2022).
- Relational, circumstance or adverbial and modal adjectives.As Demonte (1999b) points out, some adjectives in these classes can be used as predicates: El queso brie es francés “Brie cheese is.SER French”; Esa publicación no es periódica “This publication is.SER not a regular one”; La victoria es posible “Victory is.SER possible”. They are combined with ser in general Spanish. See also RAE-ASALE (2009, p. 37.9b,c).
2.1. <ser/estar + Adjectival Phrase> in General/Standard Spanish
(1) | a. | Físicamente | mi | esposo | es | gordito, | es | alto |
physically | my | husband | is.SER | chubby | is.SER | tall | ||
Physically, my husband is chubby, he’s tall. (Colombia, CALI_M21_041) | ||||||||
b. | Ella | está | desarrollando | y | está | alta | ||
she | is.ESTAR | developing | and | is.ESTAR | tall | |||
She is growing and is tall (now). (Cuba, LHAB_M22_055) |
2.1.1. Age Adjectives
2.1.2. Evaluative Adjectives
(2) | ese | [queso] | está | muy | rico | ||
that | chesse | isESTAR | very | tasty | |||
That cheese is really tasty. (México, MONR_M12_022) |
(3) | a. [Context: Speaking of the impossibility of finding a job] | |||||||
E: en | cualquier | lugar | encuentras | trabajo (…) | ||||
in | any | place | find.2.SG.PRES | job | ||||
I: pues no/ | no | está | fácil | |||||
well, no | not | is.3.SG.ESTAR | easy | |||||
You can find a job anywhere? no, it is not easy [to find a job]. (México, MEXI_H21_090) | ||||||||
b. [Context: Talking about Christmas plans] | ||||||||
debe | de | estar | re divertido | salir | un veinticuatro | |||
must | of | be.ESTAR | super fun | going out | on 24th [December] | |||
It must be fun going out on Christmas Eve. (Uruguay, MONV_M12_020) |
(4) | a. [Context: Talking about a just-released show] | |||||||
el | cuerpo | de | baile | estaba | espectacular | |||
the | corps | de | ballet | was.3.SG.ESTAR | spectacular | |||
The corps de ballet was spectacular. (Cuba, LHAB_M13_079) | ||||||||
b. E: aprendés bastante porque //te enseñan a a construir tu propia casa ah (…) | ||||||||
E: you learn a lot because//they teach you how to build your own house ah | ||||||||
I: claro | está | bárbaro | está | genial | eso | |||
I: of course | is.3.SG.ESTAR | awesome | is.3.SG.ESTAR | cool | that | |||
Of course, it [learning how to build your own house] is awesome, it is cool (Uruguay, MONV_H11_035) |
2.2. Innovative <Estar + Adjectival Phrase>
(5) | E: ¿Y | cómo | era | la | fábrica? | ¿Estaba | grande? |
and | how | was. 3.SG.SER | the | factory? | was.3.SG.ESTAR | big? | |
I: Estaba | grande, | sí | estaba | grande | |||
was.3.SG.ESTAR | big | yes | was. 3.SG..ESTAR | big | |||
E: And what was the factory like? Was it big?, I: It was big, yes, it was big. (México MONR_M21_044) |
(6) | luego | salgo/ | voy | a | visitar | usuarios | que | están |
then | go-out.1.SG | go.1.SG | to | visit | users | that | are.3.PL.ESTAR | |
muy | morosos/ | voy a | hacer | cobros | (note) | |||
very | defaulting.MASC.PL | go to | make | collections | ||||
Today I am going out; I am going to visit users who are defaulting debtors; I am going to collect invoices. (MEDE_H22_002, Medellín, Colombia) |
3. Methodology of the Corpus Study
- Mexican and Central American area: Mexico (Mexicali MXLI, Ciudad de Mexico MEXI, Guadalajara GUAD, Monterrey MONR, Puebla PUEB); Guatemala (Ciudad de Guatemala GUAT): 108 interviews, 1,280,631 words (1,158,153 words in Mexico and 122,478 in the Central American area). Data collected between 11-2001 and 03-2018.
- Caribbean area (Continental and Antillean): Colombia (Barranquilla BARR), Venezuela (Caracas CARA), Cuba (La Habana LHAB): 54 interviews, 479,038 words (07-2001–12-2011)
- Andean area: Bolivia (La Paz LPAZ), Colombia (Bogota BOGO, Cali CALI, Medellin MEDE, Pereira PERE), Peru (Lima LIMA), Venezuela (Mérida MEVE): 126 interviews, 969,863 words. (08-2004–10-2022)
- Chilean area: Chile (Santiago de Chile SCHI): 18 interviews, 208,938 words. (05-2007–04-2009)
- Rioplatense area: Argentina (Buenos Aires BAIR), Uruguay (Montevideo MONV): 36 interviews, 339,590 words. (11-2007–06-2012)
- (1) Search 1: any form of the verb estar + an adjective
- ([(lemma=‘estar’ & pos=‘V.+’%c)] [(pos=‘AQ.+’%c)])
- (2) Search 2: any form of the verb estar + an adverb + an adjective
- ([(lemma=‘estar’ & pos=‘V.+’%c)] [(pos=‘R.+’%c)] [(pos=‘AQ.+’%c)]).
- (3) Search 3: sequences Qué + adjective + any form of the verb estar
- [(word=‘qué’%c)] [(pos=‘AQ.+’%c)] [(lemma=‘estar’%c)]
- Qualifying adjectives:
- (f)
- Dimensional adjectives.
- (g)
- Age adjectives.
- (h)
- Property adjectives.
- (i)
- Color adjectives.
- (j)
- Evaluative adjectives.
- Extreme-degree adjectives.
- Aesthetic adjectives.
- Predicates of personal taste.
- Predicates of personal judgment.
- Other evaluatives.
- Non-qualifying adjectives: relational, circumstance or adverbial and modal adjectives.
4. Results of the Corpus Study: Lexical–Syntactic Classes of Adjectives in Innovative Estar-Sentences
4.1. Age Adjectives
- Number of age adjectives in the database found in at least one innovative example and total number of examples for this class: 13 age adjectives (expressing the chronological age of an animate entity) occurring in at least one innovative estar-sentence were included in the database, with a total of 419 examples.
- Number of general/innovative examples: As can be seen in Table 3 above, 98.6% of the total of 419 examples illustrate the innovative use of the copular structure.
- Lexical items: The adjectives documented in innovative estar-sentences are the following: adolescente “adolescent”, adulto “adult”, chavo “little”, chico1 “little”, chiquitito “very little”, chiquito1 “very little”, grande1 “old”, joven “young”, mayor “old”, niño “little”, pequeño1 “little”, sardino “adolescent”, viejo1 “old”. Only grande1, mayor, viejo1 “old” also appeared in examples illustrating the standard structure with estar.Some adjectives appear only once and restricted to a single dialectal area: adolescente “adolescent” (Chile), adulto “adult”, sardino “adolescent” (Colombia), chavo “little” (Mexico). On the contrary, the forms chico1 “little”, chiquito1 and chiquitito1 “very little”, are documented in innovative examples in all varieties except in those from the Rioplatense area. Grande1 and viejo1 are documented in innovative examples in all dialectal areas.
- Dialectal distribution: The presence of this class of adjectives in the innovative structure is documented in all the dialectal areas, with similar percentages, except for the Rioplatense area.6 Thus, the appearance of this class of adjectives in combination with estar to express chronological age can be considered a robust innovative characteristic of American Spanish, as has been claimed in the literature. If the row% is considered, it is Mexican and Central American (48%), Andean (31%), and Caribbean (16%) areas that are leading in innovation with age adjectives.
- Other adjectives of this class found in the corpus exclusively in standard estar-sentences: It is also important to note that no age adjective has been documented exclusively in estar-sentences illustrating the standard/general use.
- Examples: Some innovative examples with adjectives of this kind are offered in (7)–(9) below. In these examples, the estar-sentence solely expresses chronological age.
(7) | I: y ya | tiene | una | niña (…) | una beba | de | tres | meses |
and already | has | a | baby | a baby-girl | of | three | months | |
E: está | bien | chiquita | ||||||
is.ESTAR.3.sg | really | small | ||||||
I: and she already has a baby girl (…) a three-month-old baby girl. E: she (the baby) is very little/young. (México, MONR_M21_044) |
(8) | [Context: Talking about the changes that Medellín has undergone] | ||||||
(…) pues | o sea | los | años | cuando | yo | ||
(…) mmm | well | the | years | when | I | ||
estaba | joven// | por ahí | de | quince | de dieciocho | años | |
was.ESTAR | young | around | of | fifteen | of eighteen | years | |
nunca | pensé | ver | esta | ciudad | como está | ahora | |
never | thought.1.sg | see | this | city | as is | now | |
Well, when I was young, around fifteen or eighteen years old, I never thought I would see this city as it is today. (Colombia, MEDE_H21_002) |
(9) | [Context: Telling anecdotes of life] | |||||||
(…) | esa | noche | del | terremoto (…) | /estaba | un | mi | |
(…) | that | night | of.the | earthquake | was.ESTAR.3.sg | a | my | |
hermano/ | (…) con | mis | hijos, | ellos | estaban | pequeños, | mi | |
brother | with | my | children | they | were.ESTAR.3.pl | little | my | |
esposa | y | yo | 30 | |||||
wife | and | I | 30 | |||||
…that night of the earthquake (…)/my brother was there/(…)/with my children, they were young, and my wife and I were 30 years old. (Guatemala, GUAT_H31_031) |
4.2. Evaluative Adjectives
4.2.1. Extreme-Degree Adjectives
- Number of extreme-degree adjectives in the database found in at least one innovative example and total number of examples for this class: five extreme-degree adjectives occurring in at least one innovative estar-sentences were included in the database, with a total of nine examples.
- Number of general/innovative examples: As can be seen in Table 5, eight examples (88.9%) of the total of nine examples illustrate the innovative use of the copular structure.
- Lexical items: The adjectives documented in innovative estar-sentences are the following: especial “special”, impresionante “impressive”, mortal “terrific”, terrible “horrible”, tremendo “tremendous” (with also one occurrence in the general structure).
- Dialectal distribution: The innovative use of this class of adjectives in estar-sentences is documented in the Mexican and Central American and Andean areas.7
- Other adjectives of this class found in the corpus exclusively in standard estar-sentences: It is also important to note that 18 adjectives belonging to this class have been documented in the corpus exclusively in estar-sentences illustrating the standard/general use (occurrence-range from 1 to 22, in a total of 107 examples): bárbaro2 “awesome”, bravo1 “great”, bonito2 “beautiful”, chévere “cool”, chido “cool”, divino “divine”, espantoso “awful”, espectacular “amazing”, fabuloso “fabulous”, feo2 “ugly”, genial “great”, grande3 “great”, horrible “horrible”, ideal “ideal”, lindo2 “nice”, padre “great”, perfecto “perfect”, pésimo “terrible” y rico3 “nice” (some are restricted to specific areas such as padre, chido Mx.).
- Examples: Innovative examples typically have subjects that are not possible in general Spanish in estar-sentences with this kind of adjective. In (10), the subject expresses an unstructured event (collision) in which the experiencer/judge does not play any role (contrary to what happened in (4) above); (11) below refers to magnitudes or abstract entities.
(10) | [Context: Talking about the work and importance of paramedics] | |||||||
ellos | también | ven | muchas | cosas | (…) por | ejemplo | ||
they | also | see.3.PL | many | things | for | example | ||
unos | choques | que | están | impresionantes | ||||
some | collisions | that | are.3.PL.ESTAR | impressive | ||||
They also see many things (…) for example, some collisions that are very impressive. (México, PUEB_M23_069) |
(11) | a. [Context: Someone is narrating coming from a distant city] | |||||||
(…) la | distancia | de | norte | a | sur | está | tremenda | |
the | distance | from | north | to | south | is.ESTAR | tremendous | |
The distance from north to south is tremendous. (México, MEXI_H21_090) | ||||||||
b. (…) | ni | de | ir | a | ningún | lugar | porque | |
or | of | going | to | any | place | because | ||
el | frío | está | terrible | |||||
the | cold | is.ESTAR | terrible | |||||
You cannot go anywhere because the cold is terrible (Bolivia, LPAZ_M32_016) |
4.2.2. Adjectives of Personal Judgment
- Number of adjectives of personal judgment in the database found in at least one innovative example and total number of examples for this class: nine adjectives of personal judgment occurring in at least one innovative estar-sentence were included in the data base, with a total of 102 examples.
- Number of general/innovative examples: As shown in Table 6, there are 41 innovative examples (40.2%) vs. 62 examples (59.8%) illustrating the standard/general use of the copular structure.
- Lexical items: The adjectives documented in innovative estar-sentences are the following: bizarro “bizarre”, difícil “difficult”, fuerte2 “strong”, grueso2 (meaning “difícil”) “difficult”, leve “slight”, pesado “heavy”, raro “weird”, suave2 “pleasant”, trabajoso “laborious” (range of innovative examples of each item from 1 to 18).
- Dialectal distribution: Standard examples are documented in all dialectal areas; innovative examples are restricted to the Mexican and Central American, Caribbean and Andean areas.
- Other adjectives of this class found in the corpus exclusively in standard estar-sentences: It is also important to note that 10 adjectives belonging to this class have been documented in the corpus exclusively in estar-sentences illustrating the standard/general use, with a total of 14 examples (range of occurrences of each adjective 1–3): aceptable “acceptable”, agradable “pleasant”, cómico (meaning “divertido”) “funny”, complicado “complicated”, crítico (meaning “difícil”) “difficult”, divertido “fun, amusing”, duro2 “hard”, extraño “strange”, fácil “easy”, fastidioso “annoying”. Examples:
- Examples: The following examples below are illustrative of the innovative construction. In (12), a lexical item (fuerte “strong”) that does not combine with estar in standard Spanish is presented (note that the same lexical item is combined with ser in the same context in the previous discourse. In (13) and (14), subjects that are not possible in standard sentences with these predicates are illustrated, that is to say, events in which the experiencer/judge does not participate or other kinds of abstract nouns.
- (12)
- [Context: talking about religious life]Previous paragraph:
I: [La muerte] (…)/no posee nada//no tiene nada…
E: pero que a la vez eso también es muy fuerte/¿no? o sea no poseer nada…
(…)
I: (…) yo tengo por ahí un amigo/muy querido que renunció a todo (…) es un misionero/franciscano
E: y su amigo por ejemplo/¿a qué edad decidió?
I: muy joven/a los veinticinco años
“I: [Death] (…)/possesses nothing//has nothing…
E: but, at the same time, that is.SER also very harsh/isn’t it? that is to say, not owning anything?
(…)
I: (…) I have a very dear friend who renounced everything (…) he is a Franciscan/Franciscan missionary.
E: and your friend for example/at what age did he decide?
I: very young/at the age of twenty-five.”
es que | está | muy | fuerte | eso/ | tienes | que | estar | |
well | is.3.SG.ESTAR | very | strong | that | have.2.SG | to | be | |
muy | convencido | |||||||
very | convinced | |||||||
That’s very strong, you have to be very convinced. (México, MONR_M22_060) |
- (13)
- Previous paragraph:
I: …incrédulos de lo que estaba pasando porque pues/nosotros lo habíamos visto ayer y ahora ya no está/así como que te quedas/(…)/
“we were incredulous at what was going on because/we had seen him yesterday and now he’s gone/so you’re just like…”
te | digo | que | estuvo | muy | rara | su | muerte | |
you.DAT | tell | that | was.3.SG.ESTAR | very | weird | his | death | |
I tell you that his death was very weird. (México, MONR_M22_060) |
(14) | a. | [Context: Talking about the psychology studies that the speaker completed in her youth] | ||||||
¿Está | muy | difícil | la | carrera? | ||||
is.3.SG.ESTAR | very | difficult | the | degree | ||||
Is the degree very difficult? (México, MXLI_M23_032) |
4.2.3. Aesthetic Adjectives
- Number of aesthetic adjectives in the database found in at least one innovative example and total number of examples for this class: seven aesthetic adjectives with at least one innovative occurrence were found in the database, with a total of 74 examples.
- Number of general/innovative examples: As shown in Table 7, 41 examples (55.4%) of the total of 74 examples illustrate the innovative use of the copular structure. 33 examples (44.6%) illustrate the standard/general use.
- Lexical items: The adjectives documented in innovative estar-sentences are the following: bello, bonito1 “beautiful”, feo1 “ugly”, guapo “handsome”, hermoso, lindo1 “beautiful”, precioso “precious” (the number of examples obtained for each ranges from 1 to 25—bonito1 “beautiful”––). The adjectives bello, bonito1 “beautiful”, feo1 “ugly”, precioso “precious” and lindo “cute, beautiful” were also documented in examples illustrating the general use of estar-sentences.
- Dialectal distribution: As can be seen in Table 7, the number of innovative examples exceeds the number of standard estar-sentences, but this pattern is marked only in the Mexican and Central American area and the Caribbean area. These results are consistent with the conclusions reached by Moreno-Quibén (2022) and Gumiel-Molina et al. (2023), where the innovative use of estar-sentences with aesthetic adjectives is explored in detail.
- Other adjectives of this class found in the corpus exclusively in standard estar-sentences: It is important to note that no adjectives of this kind appeared only in standard context in the corpus.
- Examples:
- (15)
- Previous paragraph:
- … ahora/te voy a contar/si me lo permites//cómo//conoció (…) a mi madre//mi padre//con veintipico de años//ya tenía/carro propio (…) y pasa/por delante//de uno de los palacios/más/ostentosos de//del Vedado//(…) y da la casualidad/que mi mamá//que era/ayuda de cámara//de la señora/de esa casa//de esa mansión//y mi madre/en ese momento/se encontraba/en el jardín//(…) mi padre/se quedó mirando//detuvo el carro//y lo primero que dijo/“esa gallega/tiene que ser para mí, porque ¡qué hermosa!
- “… now/I’m going to tell you/if you allow me//how//he met (…) my mother//my father//in his early twenties//already had/his own car (…) and passed/in front//of//one of the most/splendid/palaces//in Vedado//(…).) and it so happens/that my mother//who was/a chambermaid//of the lady/of that house//of that mansion//and my mother/at that moment/was/in the garden//(…) my father/stared//stopped the car//and the first thing he said/”that gallega/has to be for me because!
“¡qué | bella | está!” | ¡bueno! | entonces | él | se apea | del carro | |
how | beautiful | is.3.SG.ESTAR | well | then | he | got out | of.the car | |
“How beautiful she is!”//well!//then he got out of the car. (LHAB_H33_097, La Habana, Cuba) |
(16) | y | me | vendió | la | torta | y | la | torta |
and | me.DATIVE | sold.3SG | the | cake | and | the | cake | |
estaba | sabrosa/ | y | estaba | bonita | ||||
was.3.SG.ESTAR | tasty | and | was.3.SG.ESTAR | pretty | ||||
And she sold me the cake and the cake was tasty and it was pretty. (Venezuela, CARA_M11_007) |
- (17)
- Previous paragraph:
- yo mi mundo lo hacía muy cerradito (…)/o sea nunca andaba con alguien que no bailara o que no fuera músico/
- “my world was very closed (…)/I never went with someone who didn’t dance or wasn’t a musician”
o | que | no | estuviera | muy | guapo | o sea | o | que |
or | who | not | was.3.SG.SUBJUNCTIVE.ESTAR | very | handsome | that is | or | who |
no | fuera | como | de | la | moda | |||
not | was.3.SG.SER | like | of | the | fashion | |||
[someone] who wasn’t very handsome or wasn’t fashionable. (Mexico, MEXI_M12_048) |
4.2.4. Other Evaluative Adjectives
- Number of other evaluative adjectives found in the database exclusively in innovative examples and total number of examples for this class: 8 adjectives of this class were included in the database, with a total of 29 examples.
- Number of general/innovative examples: All the examples illustrate the innovative use of copular estar-sentences.
- Lexical items: The adjectives documented in innovative estar-sentences are the following: (occurrence range 1–15 –peligroso “dangerous”–): conflictivo “conflictive”, correcto “correct”, importante “important”, inseguro “insecure”, peligroso “dangerous”, recto “upright” (moral predicates, Stojanovic and McNally 2022), seguro3 “secure”, significativo “significant”.
- Dialectal distribution: These evaluative adjectives are documented in all dialect areas, although their number is higher in the Mexican and Central American area. Examples: Some innovative examples are shown below. The adjectives in (18), (19), and (20) are ungrammatical in standard Spanish with the copula estar. In these examples, the subjects refer to abstract entities, situations or propositional contents. When the subject refers to places, (21), no counterparts of the entity referred to are compared.
- (18)
- Previous paragraph:
E: ¿y vio bastantes cambios en su casa o sigue estando así/desde siempre?
I: la casa ha tenido cambios/(…) pero últimamente está muy estático (…) hacemos pequeños cambios
“E: and did you see many changes in your house or has it always been like this?
I: the house has had changes/(...) but lately it is very static (…) we make small changes”
pero | que | no | están | muy | significativos | |||
but | that | not | are.3.PL.ESTAR | very | significant | |||
but they are not very significant. (Bolivia, LPAZ_M23_012) |
- (19)
- Previous paragraph:
- [alguien recibe una llamada de teléfono]… “chamo vente para tu casa ¿no viste el mensaje?/te mandé un mensaje ahorita/que hay un primo tuyo herido”, y yo “¿herido güevón?”/no le paré mucho/me vuelvo a meter en clase/leo el mensaje ¡verga! (…) y entonces/yo bueno vamos a esperar un ratico a ver/
- “[someone receives a phone call]… “boy, come home, didn’t you see the message?/I sent you a message right now/that your cousin is hurt”, and I “hurt, asshole?”/I didn’t pay much attention/I go back to class/I read the message (…) and then/well, let’s wait a little while to see/”
la | clase | estaba | muy | importante | ta ta ta | y | yo | estaba |
the | class | was.3.SG.ESTAR | very | important | uh | and | I | was |
preocupado | ya, | ¿no? | ||||||
worried | already | wasn’t I | ||||||
the class was very important, uh, and I was already worried, wasn’t I? (Venezuela, CARA_H13_073) |
- (20) [Context: talking about punishments in cases of corruption or criminal acts in the armed forces; the speaker refers to the military base of Sonoyta, Mexico, where in his opinion the law is applied fairly and equally regardless of military rank]
- Previous paragraph:
I: sí pero estamos hablando que/estamos hablando de que la gente de arriba/entre más estrellas y más barras tengan/menos les pasan cosas pues (…)
E: siempre es así //pero te voy a decir que
“I: yes but we are saying that/we are saying that the people at the top/the more stars and bars they have/the less things happen to them so (…).
E: it’s always like that//but I’m going to tell you that
ahí | la | de | Sonoyta | estaba | muy | recto | todo | |
there | the | of | Sonoyta | was.3.SG.ESTAR | very | upright | everything | |
there in Sonoyta everything was very upright. (México, MXLI_H12_011) |
- (21)
- Previous paragraph:
E: sí/lo/pues nosotros siempre/en mi familia siempre vamos a la playa en semana santa/nada más que/lo único malo es como que el tráfico/que hay muchísima gente en esa en esa semana
I: sí
E: sí, y hay muchos accidentes
I: y luego para allá, para Autlán/eres de Autlán ¿verdad?
E: sí
“E: yes/well/well we always/in my family we always go to the beach during Easter week/the only bad thing is the traffic/there are a lot of people during that week
I: yes
I: yes and there are a lot of accidents
I: and then to Autlan/you are from Autlan, right?
E: yes”
I: | para | allá | las | curvas | están | medias | peligrosas | |
over | there | the | bends | are.3.SG.ESTAR | half | dangerous | ||
Over there the bends are quite dangerous (continuation: Sí sí, he manejado para allá y está complicadón “Yes, yes, I have driven there and it is very complicated”). (Mexico, GUAD_H23_004) |
4.3. Dimensional Adjectives
- Number of general/innovative examples: As can be seen in Table 9, 48 examples (80%) of the total of 60 examples with dimensional adjectives illustrate the innovative use of the copular structure. However, these examples are restricted mainly to the Mexican and Central American area.
- Lexical items: The adjectives documented in innovative estar-sentences are the following: (occurrence range 1–4): amplio “large”, ancho “wide”, bajo1 “short”, chaparrito “short”, chico2, chiquito2 “little”, enano “tiny”, enorme “huge”, espacioso “spacious”, extenso “large”, grande2 “big”, grueso1 “thick”, largo “long”, pequeño2 “small”, reducido “cramped”. Only the adjective grande2 “big” has been documented also in standard examples (12 standard examples and 22 innovative examples).
- Dialectal distribution: The innovative use of this class of adjectives in estar-sentences is documented in the Mexican and Central American area, and also in the Caribbean and Andean areas. If the row% of innovative use is considered, it is the Mexican and Central American area that is leading in innovation with this adjectival class.
- Other adjectives of this class found in the corpus exclusively in standard estar-sentences: six dimensional adjectives belonging to this class have been documented in the corpus exclusively in estar-sentences illustrating the standard/general use (occurrence-range from 1 to 18 –gordo–, in a total of 29 examples, distributed in all dialectal areas): alto1 “tall”, corto “short” (in examples such as Estamos cortos de dinero “We are short of money”), and adjectives expressing weight: delgado “thin”, gordo “fat”, flaco “thin”.
- Examples: Some innovative examples are offered in (22)–(26) below; see also (5) above. None of them express a comparison between counterparts of the subject of predication with respect to the dimensional property expressed by the adjective. The innovative use is more frequent when the subject does not refer to human or animate entities but to places, inanimate objects, or abstract concepts.
- (22)
- Previous paragraph:
I: pues ahora luego nos buscamos un lugar más grandecito porque sí
“I: well, now we are looking for a bigger place because”
están | muy | reducidas | las | recámaras/ | apenas | una | camita |
are.3.PL.ESTAR | very | small | the | bedrooms | just | a | bed |
y | un | buró. | |||||
And | a | desk | |||||
E: | Ah | o sea sí | está | chiquito. | |||
E: | Oh | yes | is.3.SG.ESTAR | small | |||
The bedrooms are very small, just a bed and a bureau/E: Oh yes, it is very small. (Mexico, MEXI_M21_096) |
(23) | E: (…) | ¿cómo | es | tu | casa? | ||
How | is.3.SG.SER | your | house | ||||
I: (…) | era | con | cochera/(…) | sala/(…) | estaba | muy | |
was.3.SG.SER | with | garage | living room | was.3.SG.ESTAR | very | ||
pequeña | la | casa | pero | estaba | muy | chida | |
small | the | house | but | was.3.SG.ESTAR | very | nice | |
E: What was your house like?/I: (…) it had a garage/living room/the house was very small but it was very nice. (Mexico, GUAD_H13_014) |
- (24) [Context: Talking about the interviewee’s participation in the dance of the Curpites in the role of a Curpite and about the costume he wore in that dance]
- Previous paragraph:
I: y la máscara pues de plano no te deja ver ni mais
E: sí/sí
I: y luego las mangas/o sea/sí me gustó
E: ¡y pesan!/¿no?
I: sí/pesan
E: sí pesa un buen/y la máscara es de madera/¿verdad?
I: sí
“I: and the mask doesn’t let you see anything else.
E: yes/yes
I: and then the sleeves/I mean/yes, I liked it.
E: and they are heavy, aren’t they?
I: yes/they are heavy
E: they do weigh a lot/and the mask is made of wood/isn’t it?
I: yes”
E: | pero | sí | está | gruesa | ¿no? | ||
but | yes | is.3.SG.ESTAR | thick | isn’t it | |||
But it really is thick, isn’t it? (Mexico, MEXI_H12_042) |
- (25) [Context: Talking about the causes that make it take a long time to travel the distance between two nearby cities]
- Previous paragraph:
E: ¿porque están los precipicios?
I: sí/porque están los precipicios muy feos
E: y vienen los traileres bien rápido y puedes chocar de frente
I: sí entonces tienes que ir despacio/
“E: because of the cliffs?
I: yes/because the cliffs are very ugly (“bad”)
E: and the trailers come very fast and you can crash head-on.
I: yes then you have to go slowly/”
eso | es | lo que | lo | hace | largo, | ||
that | is.3.SG.SER | what | it.ACCUSATIVE | makes | long | ||
pero | no | está | largo. | ||||
but | not | is.3.SG.ESTAR | long | ||||
That’s what makes it long/but it’s not long. (Mexico, MONR_M13_033) |
- (26)
- Previous paragraph:
I: porque mira/si tú vas y compras/un largo de tu pantalón/te cuesta cincuenta pesos/hay telas hasta de cuarenta pesos/y con un largo te haces un pantalón/con un largo de altura/a tu gusto/a tu medida/como tú lo quieras
“I: because, look/if you go and buy (…)/there are fabrics that cost up to forty pesos/and with a piece of fabric you can make a pair of pants/(…) according to your taste/to your size/the way you want them”
E: eso | sí, | porque | ahorita, | ¿no?, | están | muy | chiquitas |
E: yes, | because | now | right? | are.3.PL.ESTAR | very | small | |
las | tallas | y | uno | batalla, | ¿no? | ||
the | sizes | and | one | struggles, | right? | ||
E: yes, because right now/right?/the sizes are too small and you struggle/right? (México, MONR_M31_082) |
4.4. Property Adjectives
- Number of property adjectives in the database found in at least one innovative example and total number of examples for this class: 24 adjectives expressing non-dimensional properties were found in at least one innovative example and included in the database, with a total of 144 examples.
- Number of general/innovative examples: As can be seen in Table 10, 102 examples (70.8%) of the total of 144 examples illustrate the general use of the copular structure, vs. 42 examples (29.2%) illustrate the innovative use.
- Lexical items: The following adjectives were documented exclusively in innovative sentences (occurrence range of each lexical item 1–6): accesible (meaning “cheap”), cariñoso (“expensive” in El Salvador and Mexico), chistoso “jokey”, cálido “warm”, costoso “expensive”, descarado “brazen”, despierto2 “alert”, entendible “comprehensible”, fuerte1 “hard”(“having strength or intensity”), invisible “invisible”, moderno (“modern, showing signs of modernity”), moroso “owing money”, pobre “poor”, puntual “punctual”, tenaz “tenacious”, raquítico “scarce, low in number”. On the other hand, the following adjectives appeared in both standard and innovative estar-sentences (the number of examples obtained for each of the adjectives ranged from one to seven in the innovative context and from one to 18 in the standard sentences): barato “cheap”, caliente “hot”, caro “expensive”, cómodo “comfortable”, cruel “unforgiving (applied to weather conditions)”, duro1 (“severe, intense”), frío “cold”, triste “sad”.
- Dialectal distribution: As shown in Table 8, the number of examples illustrating the general use exceeds the number of innovative sentences in all dialectal areas. The presence of this class of adjectives in the innovative structure is restricted to the Mexican and Central American, Caribbean and Andean areas. If the row% of innovative use is considered, it is the Mexican and Central American area that is clearly leading in innovation with this adjectival class.
- Other adjectives of this class found in the corpus exclusively in standard estar-sentences: It is important to note that a further 82 property adjectives were documented in the corpus exclusively in sentences illustrating the general use, in all dialect areas, with a total of 369 examples (occurrence range from 1 to 114) (e.g., alegre “cheerful”, blando “soft”, débil “weak”, feliz “happy”, incómodo “uncomfortable”, nervioso “nervous”, plano “flat”, suave1 “smooth”, tranquilo “quiet” etc.).
- Examples: Some innovative examples are offered in (27)–(31) below, with different kinds of semantic entities as subjects. None of them express a comparison between counterparts of the subject of predication with respect to the property denoted by the adjective.
- (27)
- Previous paragraph:
I: ahí deportes cómo no/me gusta más verlo no hacerlo/es un/es es admirar a los atletas
“I: sports, of course/I like more to watch sports, not to practice/to admire the athletes”
E: | Sí, sí | está | más | cómodo | |||
yes, yes | is.3.SG.ESTAR | more | comfortable | ||||
I: | Me | canso | nomás | de | verlos | ||
myself | get.tired.1.SG | just | of | watch.them | |||
E: yes, yes, it’s more comfortable/I: I get tired just by watching them (Mexico, MONR_H13_025) |
- (28)
- Previous paragraph:
- me regalaron unas blusas y no me atrevo a ponérmelas/le digo a mi hija “ay nomás de pensar en mis brazotes que se me vean” (…) “ya estoy viejita”/“ay pero no” dice
- “they gave me some blouses as a present and I don’t dare to wear them/I tell my daughter “oh, just to think of my arms showing” (…) “I’m already old”/”oh, but no” she says
“no | están | descaradas | tus | blusas | mama, | póntelas” |
not | are.3.PL.ESTAR | brazen | your | blouses | mom | put-you.DAT-them.ACC |
“Your blouses are not brazen, mom, put them on” (Mexico, MEXI_M21_096) |
(29) | [Context: Talking about a performance that the speaker has attended] | ||||||
y | el | guión | yo | siento | que | estuvo | |
and | the | script | I | feel | that | was.3.SG.ESTAR | |
muy | entendible, | pero | la | coreografía | ya | no | |
very | comprehensible | but | the | choreography | then | not | |
And the script, I feel that it was very comprehensible, but the choreography was not. (México, MEXI_H12_042) |
- (30) [Context: Talking about a cotton processing plant]
- Previous paragraph:
I: (…) están esperando venderla pero piden mucho dinero/no se ponen de acuerdo/(…) o sea/todos/cualquiera de los algodoneros que está ahí se las compra pero/que les den precio//un buen precio
E: sí
“I: (…) they are waiting to sell it but they are asking for a lot of money/they do not agree/(…) that is/everyone/any of the cotton growers that are there would buy it but/they have to give them a good price//a good price.
E: yes”
I: | porque | está | buena | esta | planta | ||
because | is.3.SG.ESTAR | good | that | plant | |||
E: | está | muy | grande | también | |||
is.3.SG.ESTAR | very | big | too | ||||
I: | está | moderna | pues | y | tiene | mucha | velocidad |
is.3.SG.ESTAR | modern | indeed | and | has | much | speed | |
I: because that plant is good/E: it is also very big/I: it is modern and it is very fast. (Mexico, MXLI_H32_018) |
- (31) [Context: The interviewer anticipates the questions he/she is going to ask the interviewee next]
las | siguientes | preguntas | están | bien | tristes | para | ti | |
the | following | questions | are.3.PL.ESTAR | very | sad | for | you.OBL | |
“The following questions are very sad for you”. (Mexico, GUAD_H12_098) |
4.5. Non-Qualifying (Adverbial, Relational and Modal) Adjectives Used as Predicates
- Number of non-qualifying adjectives in the database found in innovative examples and total number of examples for this class: seven non-qualifying adjectives occurring in innovative estar-sentences were included in the database, with a total of 10 examples (four adverbial adjectives with a total of seven examples, two relational adjectives with a total of two examples, one modal adjective found in one example).
- Number of general/innovative examples: Estar-sentences with adverbial, relational and modal adjectives as predicates exemplify a radically innovative use since these classes of adjectives are only combined with ser when they appear in copular structures in general Spanish.
- Lexical items: Regarding adverbial adjectives, the following lexical items were documented in the innovative structure: antiguo “old, ancient, antique”, frecuente “frequent”, incipiente “incipient”, nuevo2 “new”. Two color items were found used as relational adjectives to express a person’s race: negro “black”, moreno “brown” (other color adjectives have been found only in standard examples in the corpus; blanco “white”, gris “grey”, verde “green”, and also claro “clear”, pálido “pale”, with a total of nine examples). Finally, one modal adjective was documented: imposible “impossible”.
- Dialectal distribution: The innovative use of this class of adjectives in estar-sentences is documented in the Mexican and Central American, Caribbean and Andean areas.
- No other adjectives of this class were found in the corpus in estar-sentences.
- Examples: Adverbial adjectives are illustrated in (32) and (33) (note, in this example, that each of the participants in the conversation use different copulas with this lexical item). Relational adjectives and modal adjectives are illustrated in (34) and (35) respectively.
- (32) [Context: The interviewer asks if the interviewee has ever quit a job before and why]
- Previous paragraph:
I: en primer lugar//uno como vendedor rutero, no es un trabajo estable//que lo tenga uno//¿porque?//primero/por la situación que se está viviendo en Guatemala veá//
“I: first of all//one job as a route salesperson, it’s not a stable job//that you have//why?//first//because of the situation that Guatemala is going through//you see
Que | los | asaltos | están | muy | frecuentes | ||
That | the | muggings | are.3.PL.ESTAR | very | frequent | ||
Muggings are very frequent. (Guatemala, GUAT_H12_044) |
- (33) [Context: Speaking of a store in the neighborhood]
- Previous paragraphs:
I: creo que ya tiene cuarenta/o más de cuarenta años (…) ese negocio sí
E: no pues sí ya está
I: sí ya/está
E: ya es
I: es antiguo
“I: I think it is already forty/or more than forty years old (…) that store yes.
E: no well, it is.ESTAR already
I: yes it already/is.ESTAR
E: it is.SER already
I: it is.SER old”
E: | sí | ya | está | antiguo | |||
yes | already | is.3.SG.ESTAR | old | ||||
I: | sí | ||||||
Yes | |||||||
“E: Yes, it is already old. I: Yes, it is.” (Mexico, PUEB_M11_023) |
- (34) Complete paragraph: I: (…) porque él sí fue mi papá/imagínate/rubio de ojos verdes/pues no parecía para nada mi papá/pero él, yo le/yo le gustaba mucho/¿no?/o sea aunque fue muy difícil porque/porque su familia/y más en ese tiempo <cita>es que está negrita, ¿por qué? dile a tu hija que deje a ese señor/todos le van a salir así<cita> que, o sea, sí era muy muy—E: racista el asunto. (México, MEXI_M12_048)
“I: (…) because he was my father/imagine/blond with green eyes/he didn’t look like my father at all/but he, he liked me/he liked me a lot/right?/I mean, although it was very difficult because/because his family/and even more at that time <cite>she is.ESTAR black, why? tell your daughter to leave that man/all her children will turn out like that<cite> that, I mean, it was very racist/I: the whole thing was very racist.
- (35)
- Complete paragraph:
I: pero, pero bueno, yo insisto, lo menos importante es el toro ¿eh?, lo menos importante para los antitaurinos es que se maten o no los toros, creo que hay mucho/mucho aderezo y algunos otros objetivos que realmente son su//eh eso, su objetivo (…) espero que tenga muchos alumnos que se pongan a teclear por evitar eso, está imposible eh, bueno (Mexico, PUEB_H33_086)
“I: but, but well, I insist, the least important thing is the bull, eh, the least important thing for the anti-bullfighting people is whether the bulls are killed or not, I think there is much/much pretending and some other objectives that are really their//eh that, their objective (…) I hope you have many students who will start typing to avoid that, it is.ESTAR impossible eh, well”
5. Discussion
- Generalization Ia (considering evaluative adjectives as a macro-class):
- Generalization Ib (considering subclasses of evaluative adjectives):
- Generalization IIa (considering evaluative adjectives as a macro-class):
- Generalization IIb (considering subclasses of evaluative adjectives):
- Adverbial, relational, and modal adjectives used as predicates: These adjectives only combine with ser in copulative sentences in general/standard Spanish. Their combination with estar is restricted to the Mexican and Central American area, and secondarily to the Caribbean and Andean areas.
- Evaluative adjectives of the “Other” class: The number of innovative examples with adjectives of this class exceeds the number of standard examples in all dialectal areas. Moreover, no other adjectives of this class were documented in the corpus exclusively in standard estar-examples. It should also be noted that many of the lexical items in this class only co-occur with ser in copular sentences in general/standard Spanish (e.g., significativo “significant”, importante “important”).
- Age adjectives: The proportion of innovative examples with adjectives of this class compared to the standard examples in the database is 98.6% vs. 1.4%. The innovative structure is documented in all dialectal areas. Furthermore, there are no further age adjectives in the corpus that appear exclusively in examples illustrating the standard use of estar + A structures.
- Extreme degree adjectives: nine examples of this class were included in the database, eight of which are innovative examples in the Mexican, Central American and Andean areas. However, further lexical items (18) appeared exclusively in standard estar-sentences in the corpus, with a total of 107 examples.
- Dimensional adjectives: The number of innovative examples with adjectives of this class was found to exceed the number of standard examples only in the Mexican and Central American area (but not in the Caribbean and Andean areas). There are also further adjectives of this class documented only in standard examples in the corpus in all dialectal areas.
- Aesthetic evaluative adjectives: The number of innovative examples with adjectives of this class exceeds that of standard examples in the Mexican and Central American area and in the Caribbean area (also in the Rio de la Plata area, although there are only four examples ascribed to this area). No further aesthetic adjectives were documented in the corpus exclusively in standard examples.
- In the case of evaluative adjectives of personal judgment, the number of standard examples exceeds the number of innovative examples in all areas. Further adjectives belonging to this class were documented in the corpus exclusively in standard examples.
- Finally, regarding adjectives expressing properties, the number of standard examples exceeds that of innovative examples in all the areas in which both uses are documented (Mexican and Central American, Caribbean and Andean areas). Additionally, there is a high number of adjectives of this class in the corpus documented only in standard examples in all dialectal areas.
- (36) E: ¿era mayor?/I: chs, claro/tenía qué//ni tan mayor porque tenía creo que veintidós años/E: sí estaba joven/I: estaba joven/E: sí era joven//a ver/es decir giremos un poco la conversación (Colombia, BARR_M12_026)
“E: was he old?/I: yeah, sure/he was//not that old because I think he was 22 years old/E: yes he was.ESTAR young/I: he was.ESTAR young/E: yes he was.SER young//let’s see/let’s turn the conversation a bit”
- (37) E: pero tú/el centro ¿en qué sentido?/¿tú cómo te sentías?/I: les causaba mucha curiosidad porque desde chiquita fui muy/muy chistosa/¿no?/o sea estaba muy chistosa y era la única negrita de todas entonces/(…) (Mexico, MEXI_M12_048)
“I: but you/the center of attention in what sense/how did you feel?/I: I caused them a lot of curiosity because since I was a little girl I was.SER very/very funny/wasn’t I/I was.ESTAR very funny and I was the only black girl of all of them so”
- (38) I: ya teníamos casita/era/E: ¿estaba grande la casa?/I: era <alargamiento/>/<silencio/> estaba amplia/estaba amplia/pero teníamos ¿qué?/dos recamaras/estaba bien (Mexico, MXLI_H32_018)
“I: we already had a little house/it was.SER E: was.ESTAR the house big? I: it was.SER <lengthening/>/<silence/> it was.ESTAR big/it was.ESTAR big/but we had what?/two bedrooms/it was fine”
- (39) I: …había tres empresas de Chromaisin/y (…) yo iba y capacitaba a toda la gente de allá (…) pero bien/era/estaba suave mi trabajo (Mexico, MXLI_M33_035)
“I:…there were three Chromaisin companies/and (…) I would go and train all the people there (…) but well/it was.SER/it was.ESTAR soft my job”
6. Towards an Explanation
7. Conclusions
Author Contributions
Funding
Institutional Review Board Statement
Informed Consent Statement
Data Availability Statement
Acknowledgments
Conflicts of Interest
1 | We will use the terms general and standard Spanish interchangeably to refer to the geolectal varieties of Spanish taken together in their standard form. A linguistic use will be called general/standard when it is attested in the standard variety of all Spanish dialect areas. |
2 | In this paper we use the terms experiencer and judge as equivalent to refer to this argument in the argument structure of adjectives, although we do not imply that this argument is necessarily linked to a direct evidence requirement for all adjectival classes. See Moreno-Quibén (2022) for a development of this idea that is tangential to the goals of this paper. |
3 | The classification of an example as standard or innovative thus implies an in-depth analysis of the contexts, necessary to determine the specific meaning of each sentence. The extended context of the examples included in the paper makes clear that they do not describe a change in the property attributed to the subject. Examples classified as “innovative” are those where there is no comparison between stages of the subject. The examples where a change of property was attributed to the subject of predication were classified under the label “standard use”. Examples whose context did not allow a clear interpretation were not included in the database. This problem in analyzing data in regard to the phenomenon under study has already been pointed out by Ortiz-López (2000) and Alfaraz (2012). See below for the methodological choices we have made in our empirical study. |
4 | Specifically, we left out of the study adjectives expressing position and distance: alto2 “high”, bajo2 “low”, cercano “close”, distante “distant”, interno “internal”, profundo “deep”, próximo “near”, reciente “recent”; adjectives expressing similarity and difference: distinto “different”, idéntico “identical”, igual “equal”, diferente “different”, parejo “even”; and other specific lexical items (selecting a PP complement) that do not combine with estar in standard Spanish: bienvenido (a) “welcome (to)”, consciente (de) “aware (of)”; ignorante (de) “ignorant (of)”. Likewise, lexical items whose category as adjectives or adverbs is not clear were also excluded from the study: fatal “fatal”, mejor “better”, peor “worse” (see footnote 6 on bueno “good”, malo “bad”). |
5 | Although the Preseea corpus offers sociolinguistic information regarding gender, age and level of education of the speakers producing the texts, these parameters are not analyzed in this paper. The extra-linguistic factors that have been considered in the literature as relevant to explain the extent of innovative use of estar are age, level of education and text type. Gutiérrez (1994) points out that young speakers, and especially those with lower levels of education, are the most innovative group. Díaz-Campos and Geeslin (2011) (Venezuelan Spanish), Aguilar-Sánchez (2012) (Costa Rican Spanish), and Brown and Cortés-Torres (2012) (Puerto Rican Spanish) make the same claim. García-Márkina (2013) also points to the oral-written difference and register (colloquial-formal) as relevant factors in the distribution of innovative estar in Mexican Spanish. On the contrary, as generally reported in the literature, bilingualism with English does not seem to be a factor favoring the extension of this syntactic pattern. |
6 | Note that, in this case, the percentual differences between dialectal areas cannot be (al least entirely) attributed to the difference size of each dialectal subcorpus. |
7 | Special mention must be made of the forms bueno “good” and malo “bad”, which have been excluded from the study. In Latin American Spanish, these forms express a maximum positive or negative general valuation of an entity, and are equivalent in many examples to the adverbs bien “well”, mal “bad”. In this use, 188 examples of bueno and 14 of malo have been obtained, distributed in all Latin American dialectal areas: -E: …si pudiera cambiarle algo a esa relación qué le cambiaría? -I: no/dejémosla así/está muy buena “-E: …if you could change anything about this relationship, what would you change? -I: no/let’s leave it that way/it’s.ESTAR very good” (Colombia, MEDE_H32_001); -E: ¿y eso de jugar lo del cinco y seis no es complicado?/-I: no//(…) -E: ¿y ya ahorita no juega?/-I: no/ahorita eso está muy malo/ha caído mucho “-E: and playing five and six is not complicated?/-I: no//(…) -E: and now you don’t play anymore?/-I: no/now it’s.ESTAR very bad/it has lost a lot of importance” (Venezuela, CARA_M32_067). See RAE-ASALE (2009, p. 37.9c). |
8 | The detailed statistical analysis for each class can be consulted in the public repository OSF https://osf.io/756j4/?view_only=aab152ac78d7455e82867c55fdd64631 (accessed on 26 December 2023). |
9 | The proposal presented in the text does not imply that the classes of adjectives that acquire an extra arguent in innovative varieties are associated with an evidential semantics of direct experience, such as that associated with the predicates of personal taste in general/standard Spanish. In this paper we have reserved the term evidential to describe the meaning of those estar-sentences in which evaluative adjectives appear that express a property whose attribution requires direct evidence by an experiencer (predicates of personal taste and personal judgment). The deliberately loose usage of the term experiencer/judge to designate the argument that other kinds of adjectives, such as aesthetic adjectives, possess in the innovative varieties, derives from the fact that, in the case of innovative estar-sentences with these adjectives, the dative argument is interpreted as a judge or evaluator (in the sense of Bylinina 2017, a.o.), not necessarily as a direct-evidence-perceiving entity, contrary to what happens with predicates of personal taste in standard Spanish whose interpretation, as just said, is generally linked in the literature to a direct evidential meaning component). This explains why aesthetic adjectives are found in innovative intensional contexts, incompatible with direct evidence perception, as in (i) (from Gumiel-Molina et al. 2023).
|
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Adjectival Class | Age | Evaluative | Dimensional | Property | Non-Qualifying | Total |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
General use | 6 (1.4%) | 95 (44.4%) | 12 (20%) | 102 (70.8%) | 0 | 215 (25.4%) |
Innovative use | 413 (98.6%) | 119 (55.6%) | 48 (80%) | 42 (29.2%) | 10 (100%) | 632 (74.6%) |
Total | 419 (100%) | 214 (100%) | 60 (100%) | 144 (100%) | 10 (100%) | 847 (100%) |
Adjectival Class | Age | Evaluative | Dimensional | Property | Non-Qualifying | Total |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
American Sp. Variety | ||||||
Mex. and Central Am. | 200 (48.4%) | 86 (72.3%) | 44 (91.8%) | 30 (71.3%) | 7 (70%) | 367 (58%) |
Caribbean | 68 (16.5%) | 8 (6.7%) | 2 (4.1%) | 3 (7.2%) | 2 (20%) | 83 (13.2%) |
Andean | 131 (31.7%) | 18 (15.1%) | 2 (4.1) | 9 (21.5) | 1 (10%) | 161 (25.6%) |
Chilean | 10 (2.4%) | 3 (2.5%) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 13 (2%) |
Rioplatense | 4 (1%) | 4 (3.4%) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 (1.2%) |
Total | 413 (100%) | 119 (100%) | 48 (100%) | 42 (100%) | 10 (100%) | 632 (100%) |
Dialectal Area | Mexican and Central American | Caribbean | Andean | Chilean | Rioplatense | Total |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
General use | 2 (1%) row% 33.4 | 0 | 1 (0.8%) row% 16.6 | 0 | 3 (42.9%) row% 50 | 6 (1.4%) row% 100 |
Innovative use | 200 (99%) row% 48.4 | 68 (100%) row% 16.5 | 131 (99.2%) row% 31.7 | 10 (100%) row% 2.4 | 4 (57.1%) row% 1 | 413 (98.6%) row% 100 |
Total | 202 (100%) row% 48.2 | 68 (100%) row% 16.2 | 132 (100%) row% 31.5 | 10 (100%) row% 2.4 | 7 (100%) row% 1.7 | 419 (100%) |
Dialectal Area | Mexican and Central American | Caribbean | Andean | Chilean | Rioplatense | Total |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
General use | 52 (37.7%) row% 54.7 | 9 (53%) row% 9.5 | 26 (59%) row% 27.4 | 4 (57%) row% 4.2 | 4 (50%) row% 4.2 | 95 (44.4%) row% 100 |
Innovative use | 86 (62.3%) row% 72.3 | 8 (47%) row% 6.7 | 18 (41%) row% 15.1 | 3 (43%) row% 2.5 | 4 (50%) row% 3.4 | 119 (55.6%) row% 100 |
Total | 138 (100%) row% 64.5 | 17 (100%) row% 8 | 44 (100%) row% 20.5 | 7 (100%) row% 3.3 | 8 (100%) row% 3.7 | 214 (100%) |
Dialectal Area | Mexican and Central American | Caribbean | Andean | Chilean | Rioplatense | Total |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
General use | 1 (14.3%) row% 100 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 (11.1%) row% 100 |
Innovative use | 6 (85.7%) row% 75 | 0 | 2 (100%) row% 25 | 0 | 0 | 8 (88.9%) row% 100 |
Total | 7 (100%) row% 77.8 | 0 | 2 (100%) row% 22.2 | 0 | 0 | 9 (100%) |
Dialectal Area | Mexican and Central American | Caribbean | Andean | Chilean | Rioplatense | Total |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
General use | 35 (53.8%) row% 57.4 | 5 (83.3%) row% 8.2 | 17 (63%) row% 27.8 | 1 (100%) row% 1.6 | 3 (100%) row% 5 | 61 (59.8%) row% 100 |
Innovative use | 30 (46.2%) row% 73.2 | 1 (16.7%) row% 2.4 | 10 (37%) row% 24.4 | 0 | 0 | 41 (40.2%) row 100 |
Total | 65 (100%) row% 63.7 | 6 (100%) row% 5.9 | 27 (100%) row% 26.5 | 1 (100%) row% 1 | 3 (100%) row% 2.9 | 102 (100%) |
Dialectal Area | Mexican and Central American | Caribbean | Andean | Chilean | Rioplatense | Total |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
General use | 16 (34.8%) row% 48.5 | 4 (44.4%) row% 12.2 | 9 (75%) row% 27.2 | 3 (100%) row% 9.1 | 1 (25%) row% 3 | 33 (44.6%) row% 100 |
Innovative use | 30 (65.2%) row% 73.2 | 5 (55.6%) row% 12.2 | 3 (25%) row% 7.3 | 0 | 3 (75%) row% 7.3 | 41 (55.4%) row% 100 |
Total | 46 (100%) row% 62.2 | 9 (100%) row% 12.2 | 12 (100%) row% 16.2 | 3 (100%) row% 4 | 4 (100%) row% 5.4 | 74 (100%) |
Dialectal Area | Mexican and Central American | Caribbean | Andean | Chilean | Rioplatense | Total |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
General use | 0 (%) row% | 0 (%) row% | 0 (%) row% | 0 (%) row% | 0 (%) row% | 0 (%) row% 100 |
Innovative use | 20 (%) row% 69 | 2 (%) row% 6.7 | 3 (%) row% 10.4 | 3 (%) row% 10.4 | 1 (%) row% 3.5 | 29 (100%) row% 100 |
Total | 20 (100%) row% 69 | 2 (100%) row% 6.7 | 3 (100%) row% 10.4 | 3 (100%) row% 10.4 | 1 (100%) row% 3.5 | 29 (100%) |
Dialectal Area | Mexican and Central American | Caribbean | Andean | Chilean | Rioplatense | Total |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
General use | 7 (13.7%) row% 58.3 | 3 (60%) row% 25 | 2 (50%) row% 16.7 | 0 | 0 | 12 (20%) row% 100 |
Innovative use | 44 (86.3%) row% 91.6 | 2 (40%) row% 4.2 | 2 (50%) row% 4.2 | 0 | 0 | 48 (80%) row% 100 |
Total | 51 (100%) row% 85 | 5 (100%) row% 8.3 | 4 (100%) row% 6.7 | 0 | 0 | 60 (100%) |
Dialectal Area | Mexican and Central American | Caribbean | Andean | Chilean | Rioplatense | Total |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
General use | 51 (63%) row% 50 | 9 (75%) row% 8.8 | 23 (72%) row% 22.5 | 2 (100%) row% 2 | 17 (100%) row% 16.7 | 102 (70.8%) row% 100 |
Innovative use | 30 (37%) row% 71.4 | 3 (25%) row% 7.2 | 9 (28%) row% 21.4 | 0 | 0 | 42 (29.2%) row% 100 |
Total | 81 (100%) row% 56.2 | 12 (100%) row% 8.3 | 32 (100%) row% 22.3 | 2 (100%) row% 1.4 | 17 (100%) row% 11.8 | 144 (100%) |
Dialectal Area | Mexican and Central American | Caribbean | Andean | Chilean | Rioplatense | Total |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
General use | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Innovative use | 7 (100%) row% | 2 (100%) row% | 1 (100%) row% | 0 | 0 | 10 (%) row% 100 |
Total | 7 (100%) row% 7 | 2 (100%) row% 2 | 1 (100%) row% 2 | 0 | 0 | 10 (100%) |
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Gumiel-Molina, S.; Moreno-Quibén, N.; Pérez-Jiménez, I. Lexical–Syntactic Classes of Adjectives in Copular Sentences across Spanish Varieties: The Innovative Use of Estar. Languages 2024, 9, 20. https://doi.org/10.3390/languages9010020
Gumiel-Molina S, Moreno-Quibén N, Pérez-Jiménez I. Lexical–Syntactic Classes of Adjectives in Copular Sentences across Spanish Varieties: The Innovative Use of Estar. Languages. 2024; 9(1):20. https://doi.org/10.3390/languages9010020
Chicago/Turabian StyleGumiel-Molina, Silvia, Norberto Moreno-Quibén, and Isabel Pérez-Jiménez. 2024. "Lexical–Syntactic Classes of Adjectives in Copular Sentences across Spanish Varieties: The Innovative Use of Estar" Languages 9, no. 1: 20. https://doi.org/10.3390/languages9010020