Y luego se pintan patrás…

Abstract

Abstract The expanded use of patrás is among the most salient features of US Spanish and commonly attributed to English influence. For Lipski (1986), it constitutes a syntactic calque from English constructions with back; Otheguy (1999) maintains it shows cultural but not linguistic influence; Villa (2005, 2010) ascribes patrás to grammaticalization processes internal to Spanish. Previous studies lack a detailed account of the semantics of the spatial adverbial in its historical and contemporary usage. Applying Talmy’s (1983) typology of motion events to corpus data, this paper traces a grammaticalization path for patrás from its historical use to its contemporary use in Nuevomexicano Spanish. Patrás has shifted from primarily atelic backwards motion meanings to primarily telic return meanings. This shift is evident across Germanic languages for adverbs deriving from the noun back and in the Romance prefix re- from Latin adverb retro. This study proposes contact with English led to an increased frequency of satellite-framed constructions in Nuevomexicano Spanish, creating the frequency conditions for innovations in the form and meaning of para atrás to conventionalize and lead to systematic linguistic change.