El morfema de anterioridad en el sistema verbal del antiguo leonés

Abstract

The basic aim of this study is to determine which verbal forms express the content of "anteriority" in Leonese medieval romance. The study is centred on documentation (notarial texts and Fueros - a regional law code) from different arcas of the ancient Kingdom of León and belonging to the 13th century for the most part. The body of texts on which it is based consists of approximately 850 documents and their analysis shows that ancient Leonese romance is characterized by almost complete abscence of compound forms to express "anteriority". Synthetic forms such as amé, amara, etc. are used to express the content of "he amado", "había amado", etc. The few periphrases which appear are in their first evolutionary phase, that is, they use the verb haber with the same meaning as "tener" and refer to the result of the activity expressed rather than its anteriority.