Semantic persistence in Spanish temporal constructions

In Spanish, the verbs llevar and tener variably occur in durative temporal constructions, as in “ llevo dos años cantando ” and “ tengo dos años cantando .” Despite occurring in functionally equivalent contexts, the distinct semantic origin of the verbs – llevar encoding movement, direction, and causativity, and tener being a prototypical possession verb– makes these constructions an ideal locus to examine how the persistence of core semantic properties influence alternation in grammaticalizing constructions. Adopting a variationist approach, we analyzed internal and external factors affecting the use of 221 occurrences of temporal constructions in Mexican Spanish. Results reveal that llevar + time is favored in contexts associated with change and affectedness, whereas tener + time is preferred in contexts associated with control and invariability. These findings suggest that despite semantic bleaching, the core semantic features of llevar and tener persist, shaping the distribution of their corresponding durative constructions. This can be taken as further evidence for the grammaticalization of durative temporal constructions in Spanish.