Verbal Periphrases in the Expression of Obligation in Colombian Spanish: A Study of Modal Semantic

Authors

  • Manuel Medardo Montero Cádiz

    Facultad de Educación, Universidad Cooperativa de Colombia, Bucaramanga, Santander 680001, Colombia
  • Ana Curbeira Cancela

    Facultad de Lenguas Extranjeras, Universidad de la Habana, La Habana 10400, Cuba
  • Juan David Cruz Duarte

    Facultad de Educación, Universidad Cooperativa de Colombia, Bucaramanga, Santander 680001, Colombia

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.30564/fls.v7i9.9918
Received: 8 May 2025 | Revised: 3 June 2025 | Accepted: 10 June 2025 | Published Online: 15 September 2025

Abstract

The teaching of Spanish to non-native speakers in immersion settings requires instructors who not only master the “standard” form of the language but are also familiar with the  specific linguistic features of the region. Although Colombian Spanish has been widely studied, no analyses were found concerning the use of periphrastic constructions expressing obligation. This study aims to describe the use of verbal periphrases to express obligation in the Colombian variety of Spanish spoken in Bucaramanga. Adopting an onomasiological approach to the study of the relevant modal semantic category, the study identifies corpus instances in which  obligation is expressed and the periphrastic constructions used.. An oral language corpus was created, and a mediated survey was conducted to examine Colombians’ perceptions of the degree of obligation conveyed by different verbal periphrases. The results indicate that the phrase me toca + infinitive is perceived by respondents as conveying the highest degree of obligation, while deber + infinitive is perceived as expressing the lowest. It was also observed that deber + infinitive and tener que + infinitive are regarded as expressing the same degree of obligation. The study concludes that, in addition to the well-known periphrases tener que + infinitive, haber que + infinitive, and deber + infinitive, the periphrasis tocar + infinitive is also used—both in personal and impersonal forms—in 13% of the contextual fragments identified. An interesting finding is the use of the verb tocar without an accompanying infinitive.

Keywords:

Obligation; Onomasiological Approach; Verbal Periphrasis

References

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How to Cite

Montero Cádiz, M. M., Curbeira Cancela, A., & Cruz Duarte, J. D. (2025). Verbal Periphrases in the Expression of Obligation in Colombian Spanish: A Study of Modal Semantic. Forum for Linguistic Studies, 7(9), 817–829. https://doi.org/10.30564/fls.v7i9.9918

Issue

Vol. 7 , Iss. 9 (September 2025)

Article Type

Article

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Copyright © 2025 Manuel Medardo Montero Cádiz, Ana Curbeira Cancela, Juan David Cruz Duarte

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This is an open access article under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) License.