El uso del imperfecto de subjuntivo en el habla culta de Costa Rica

Abstract

The purpose of this investigation is to describe the use of the imperfect subjunctive tense in educated Spanish of Costa Rica. Furthermore, the study aims to find out the distribution of the two forms of this verbal tense. It is a descriptive study based on the material collected within the framework of the Project of Coordinated Study of the Standard Linguistic Norm of the Principal Cities of Latin America and Spain. Findings are that the -ra form is the prevailing form of the imperfect subjunctive. The -se form has not disappeared completely from the educated Spanish of Costa Rica, but its use is minimal (1,3 % of all documented cases). Results also indicate that the imperfect subjunctive is used mostly in contexts where its use is obligatory and where the use of another verbal form would be unacceptable (81,9 % of all registered cases). It can alternate with another verbal tense in 16,4 % of all documented cases (in independent sentences this possibility comes to 90 % and in adjective clauses to 30 %). Only in 1,7 % of all found cases (all in adverbial clauses) the imperfect subjunctive is used with the meaning of another verbal tense.