Periphrases in Spanish: properties, diagnostics and research questions

Abstract

This article provides an overview of the main facts and analytical problems that relate to verbal periphrases. The article is structured as follows. In §1 I provide an overview of the main criteria for being a periphrasis, and the constructions that it should be differentiated from. §2 is devoted to the nature of the auxiliary verb, and its limits with other types of verbs. In §3 I talk about the auxiliated verb, and the linking element that sometimes appears in connection to it. §4 briefly discusses the main structure of a periphrasis, and is followed by a few sections about the syntactic behaviour of these linguistic objects. §5 discusses the behaviour of clitics within periphrases; §6 talks about the selectional restrictions; §7 talks about the behaviour of passives with these structures. §8 discusses the semantic classification of periphrases and some of the research problems that they trigger. §9 talks about sequences of periphrases, and their additional restrictions.