Abstract

This thesis focuses on quedar and quedarse in Spanish when used with adjectives or participles to express a state. There are four main verbs of becoming in Spanish, namely hacerse, volverse, ponerse, and quedar(se), but quedar(se) is the only verb of becoming that can be used both intransitively and pronominally to express a state. This thesis seeks to understand the relationship between adjectives and participles when used in conjunction with quedar intransitively or pronominally, and how the semantics may change based on which form is preferred. There are two largely supported claims in the literature as to when one form is favored over the other. The claims are as follows: one, quedar expresses irreversible, or long-lasting states, while quedarse expresses short lived or temporary states (either with hope or perception), and two, quedar expresses a resulting state, while quedarse expresses a start, change, or becoming from a previous state. Although frequently stated, these claims have surprisingly little empirical support. This study takes 90 adjectives and participles that are commonly expressed with quedar or quedarse, and tests them in Mark Davies' Corpus del EspaÃ±ol to see if the proposed claims in the literature are supported with data from the Corpus.

Degree

College and Department

Humanities; Spanish and Portuguese

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