Valor gramatical de ESTAR + gerundio

This book deals with the grammatical value of the ESTAR + GERUND structure (equivalent to BE+ING in English). This value, according to the thesis presented here, is not found in the different aspectual and temporal interpretations that are usually given or can be given to the use of the periphrasis, which are highly fluctuating, nor in the different illocutionary values that can be activated with its use in different communicative situations. All these values are reviewed to present, in the end, the grammatical value that we assign to it: that of reference to a given situation to say or make think something about it, as well as about the subject that is immersed in it. The approach used, and in this we see its greatest importance, allows us to demarcate, in language analyses, what belongs to the linguistic system (grammatical value) and what belongs rather to the extralinguistic world (aspectual or temporal values), as well as to incorporate an aspect traditionally neglected in the analysis of this periphrasis as are the communicative functions it has. The text is intended for a general public, although teachers of Spanish as a Foreign Language or second language will surely be able to get more out of it, on the one hand – think about teaching Spanish to students of languages that do not have this structure –, and secondary and higher education teachers, on the other. In any case, it is presented and written in such a way that both students and those interested in linguistic issues in general can benefit from it.