ON THE QUESTION OF THE MEANING OF RELATIVE ANTERIORITY IN THE SPANISH INDICATIVE IN COMPARISON WITH BULGARIAN

Abstract

The object of the present study is the Spanish grammeme cantara1 which functions with its etymological indicative meaning of relative anteriority in the Spanish verb paradigm. Тhe perception of cantara1 as a biparticiple grammeme in Spanish (with its invariant meaning of indicative relative anteriority) is argued. However, it also functions as a form “by compatibility” in the conjunctive paradigm (cantara2) where it modalizes and expresses a subjective situation, covering the three temporal relations (anteriority, simultaneity and posteriority). In terms of comparisson, the emphasis is on the lack of a similar grammeme in Bulgarian, considering some possible functional translation equivalents.