The use of the imperfect subjunctive in the Spanish of Lima

Abstract

This study has the purpose of describing the uses of the imperfect subjunctive in modern Spanish. To carry out this work, the corpus of Lima, Peru, offered by PRESEEA, is used. All the forms of the imperfect subjunctive found in the corpus were first classified into two large groups: independent sentences and dependent sentences. 26 cases were found in which the imperfect subjunctive appears in independent sentences and 107 cases in which the imperfect subjunctive appears in substantive, adjective and circumstantial subordinate clauses. Through the analysis it has been shown that, like other Latin American countries, the form '-ra' is predominant in the Spanish of Lima. The '-se' form has not completely disappeared but its use is quite limited. It was also found that in the Spanish of Lima the imperfect subjunctive is used in some contexts, a use that is not recommended in other varieties of modern Spanish.