Resumo

D´AQUINO RUIZ, Giovanna. The Linguistic Change of the Impersonal Verb Haber. Núcleo [online]. 2008, vol.20, n.25, pp.103-124. ISSN 0798-9784.

The purpose of this article is to analyze the singular-plural variation phenomenon of the verb haber (there is/there are) in the Spanish spoken in Caracas, in relation to its development as a case of linguistic change, according to Silva-Corvalán’s (2001) indicators of linguistic change. The article intends to answer the following questions: 1) Has the proportion of use of the verb in plural changed regarding the results of previous studies carried out in Caracas?; 2) is the proportion of use in plural similar to  the  findings  of  researchers  in  other  Spanish-speaking  cities?; 3)  are  there  any indicators  of  a  real  linguistic  change? The  following  sociolinguistic  variables  are analyzed: 1)  generational  group, 2)  sex, and  3)  socioeconomic  level. The  corpus includes 706 cases of haber, 465 in plural (66%) and 241 in singular (34%). The study concludes that the high levels of pluralization in Caracas, especially among young and lower-class speakers, as well as the related diachronic increase and the apparent lack of negative perception by the speakers may suggest that we are facing an actual linguistic change in progress. This change would be in its final phase.

Palavras-chave : impersonal verb haber; sociolinguistic variation; linguistic change.