Abstract:
This paper studies the pluralization of existential haber ‘there is/are’
as found at two points in time, 1977 and 1987, and it examines the
evolution of this phenomenon in Venezuelan Spanish. Many studies
(Bello 1972, Bentivoglio & Sedano 1987, De Mello 1991, Kany 1945,
among others) have documented the pluralization of haber in several
varieties of Spanish at one point in time, but there is no research
examining this phenomenon in what sociolinguists have called real time.
According to Labov (1994:73), real-time studies “observe a speech
community at two discrete points in time.”
