Quedar and Quedarse

Quedar and quedarse form one of the pairs of a fairly large number of common intransitive verbs ( caer, morir, ir, reír, venir, estar, parecer, salir , etc.) the uses of whose pseudo-reflexive and non-reflexive forms have traditionally been catalogued in that limbo category of constructions which can only be explained by the Sprachgefühl of the native. Information on the uses of these forms is, consequently, exceedingly scant. The Diccionario de la lengua espanola notes the presence of some of the most troublesome aspects of the problem only with its uncritical and ubiquitous ‘Úsase también como reflexivo.’ The one indexed reference to quedar in the Academy grammar is concerned with an unqualified, one-sentence statement indicating that quedar , like dejar, llevar , and estar , may be used as an auxiliary to form a compound with a past participle. Andrés Bello recognizes the problem but confines his explanation to the assertion that in the use of the reflexive form of intransitive verbs ‘percibiremos cierto color de acción que el sujeto parece ejercer en sí mismo.’ Bello also maintains that ‘estarse es permanecer voluntariamente en cierta situación o estaoo’ and that ‘la misma diferencia aparece entre quedar y quedarse, ir e irse. ' On the American scene, M. M. Ramsey categorically states that quedar ‘may be used optionally with or without the reflexive., Hayward Keniston is more cautious. He includes quedar in the general group of intransitives sometimes used reflexively and affirms that ‘the use of the reflexive pronoun’ with intransitive verbs ‘is strongly affective in character and indicates that the speaker has some special interest in relating the action or state to the subject of the sentence.‘

Contrastive analysis · Linguistics · Philosophy · Psychology · Spanish Linguistics and Language Studies

• Construcciones transitivas en español con clítico paradigmático, no reflexivo, concordado con el sujeto y no modificador de la estructura oracional. El clítico enfático

  Open Access•Pedro Pablo Devís Márquez•Estudios de Linguistica del Espanol•2020

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