Changing frequencies in a constructional landscape: the case of two epistemic constructions in Spanish

Abstract

Many studies on Spanish verbal periphrases either discuss the general features of the syntactic category or analyse the semantic and functional differences between specific members of that category. The present paper focusses on one particular periphrasis, parecer “to seem” + infinitive but, at the same time, takes into account a similar, impersonal construction with parecer. Adopting a constructionist, usage-based approach, data are drawn from a large diachronic corpus, which makes it possible to describe the interplay between the two competing constructions and identify different semantic and syntactic contexts that favoured the increase of the periphrasis in the 19th century at the cost of the impersonal construction. More generally, the paper addresses the relevance of studying individual constructions in the context of other semantically and/or formally related constructions, since a change in one particular area of the constructional landscape can have repercussions on other areas as well.