Dale and meta again: events, quantification and aspect

Abstract

The present paper pretends to analyze from a descriptive and theoretical point of view the grammaticalized verbal forms meta and dale, particularly when combined with infinitives (e.g., Meta/ Dale charlar ese día). In these sequences, they behave as aspectual operators with durative or iterative meanings (as we will discuss here) and can be assimilated to periphrastic auxiliaries (Di Tullio, 2006). The paper tries to determine the distribution, the semantics and the syntactic analysis of meta and dale in different kinds of infinitival clauses, but also in their combination with nouns (e.g., meta charla) and prepositional constructions (e.g., meta a la charla, dale con la charla). The descriptive interest of this exploration is grounded on the fact that meta and dale had only been marginally mentioned by specialized literature, with the exception of Di Tullio (2006), perhaps for the reason that they are exclusive of certain varieties of American Spanish (as Argentinian Spanish). From a theoretical point of view, we expect that the systematic analysis of the different constructions constitutes a significant contribution to the discussion about the relations among concepts very relevant for grammar, such as grammatical aspect, Aktionsart, quantification, intensification or ponderation.