The modal perfect: haya cantado and habré cantado in some varieties of modern Spanish

Abstract

The numerous studies on the perfect compound form in Spanish lack a detailed analysis of the subjunctive and future forms (haya cantado and habré cantado), which under certain syntactic and pragmatic conditions are parallel to the indicative one, he cantado. Based on our knowledge of the Spanish indicative present perfect and its use in different Spanish-speaking areas, this paper deals with the distribution and functions of these two “modalised perfects” and their relationship with the corresponding simple forms (cantara and cantaría). The aim is to determine the extent to which these two pairs of forms are functionally and diatopically similar (or not) to the pair he cantado – canté. Our findings help us to better understand the functions of all simple and compound perfect forms in Spanish and their development in eight Spanish-speaking cities in Spain and the Americas.