Introduction

This book is about describing the Spanish language. Take some time to think about what the word ‘description’ actually means. It means standing back from language and looking at it objectively. In doing this, we have no preconceptions about what might be ‘better’ or ‘worse’ or what might be deemed ‘correct’ or ‘incorrect’. If you are not a native speaker of Spanish, you are at something of an advantage in this respect, because you will not have been brought up to have value judgements about the way in which people use the language, and you will not be defensive about a particular variety of it. But you will probably have encountered reactions from native speakers about the way in which you use Spanish as a foreigner. Sometimes a native-speaking friend will simply point out that a particular form does not exist in the language, and that you have made a foreigner’s ‘mistake’, as, for example, if you use *devolvido as the past participle of devolver instead of devuelto.1 You may also, however, be taken to task for having adopted a local usage. In Chile, verb forms such as hablái(s) rather than standard hablas for the second person singular are used, though no one (except authors trying to give an impression of local colour) would write them (see 6.2.4.2.3). This is a different kind of phenomenon, since some native speakers use such forms all the time, and they are an integral part of their language. This kind of ‘mistake’ consists of using forms that are not part of the ‘standard’ language even though they are a part of many native speakers’ usage. This is an important distinction from the descriptive point of view, for while it would be inappropriate to include devolvido in a description of Spanish, it would be arbitrary, or prescriptive, to exclude hablái(s). Descriptively, we simply observe that there are a number of variant ways of speaking, some of which are associated with the standard language, and some of which are considered non-standard.