ABSTRACT
In this chapter, we will examine a number of well-known features of modern Spanish grammar. These have been chosen because they illustrate very clearly the tension which exists between form and meaning, and show the unsatisfactoriness of assuming that a oneto-one relation between form and meaning exists. In each topic, therefore, we will try to keep categories of form and meaning apart, using if necessary different terms, which may not be the traditional ones, to make the distinction. Each of the features we shall study represents what might be deemed a special characteristic of Spanish which has been exploited for a considerable period in the history of the language and which continues to be exploited today. This phenomenon, which is perhaps not recognised as extensively as it merits, was described by Sapir (1921:60) in the following terms:
It is what I have referred to elsewhere, following an interesting French tradition, as the ‘genius’ (génie) of the language.1
