The Retrospective Infinitive in Spanish, a form of reproach? A discursive approach

This study presents a discursive characterization of the Spanish construction haber + past infinitive, also known as the retrospective infinitive (Bosque, 1980), as a form used to convey reproach. To this end, several research questions are asked. First, what are the main characteristic attributes of haber + past participle? Is there a high degree of coincidence between the inherent features of this construction and the defining characteristics of reproaches in general? To what extent does context condition the relation between haber + past participle in a reproach? Finally, and in relation to the latter question, what discursive patterns can be identified in the use of the construction? Examples will be drawn from five corpora, thus real data are used in support of the conclusions, which constitutes one of the main novelties of the study in relation to previous work in the area. Results reveal that there is a high degree of coincidence between the attributes that characterize the past infinitive and the criteria that typically convey the reproach itself. From a discursive perspective, three main patterns are observed to emerge when this structure is used: neutralization and mitigation of the reproach, the expression of rebuttal and disagreement, and the development of argumentation.