| Summary: | <p>In this article, we address the imperfect and imperfective periphrases and their relationship to the figure and background discursive levels. Our theoretical background includes Language Functionalism assumptions (marking and grammaticalization). Our hypothesis is that, in a narrative, we find imperfective forms acting as the narrative background that are also present in the progression of events. Our data comes from twenty-four short stories written by Spanish language authors selected according to the cultural district parameter: the Caribbean; Mexico and Central America; Andes; La Plata River; Chile and Spain. We obtained 2,093 tokens, 1,803 of which are forms of the imperfect indicative past, 86.15% of the total, and 290 are instances of imperfective past periphrases, which corresponds to 13.85% of the total. The results confirm that the imperfective forms may also act as a figure, since 30.2% of the imperfect forms and 10% of the imperfective past periphrases play a significant role in the progression of events and actions in the various stories analyzed. With regard to the percentage of forms classified as background 1, we observed imperfect past data was less frequent: 505 forms, or 28% of the 1,803 imperfect forms found in the narratives analyzed. On the other hand, there were 122 occurrences of imperfective past periphrases, (42% of the total 290 periphrastical forms in the corpus analyzed). Less frequent forms with imperfect data classified as background 2 were also identified: 754 forms, namely, 41.8% of the 1,803 forms of imperfect. On the other hand, the 139 occurrences of imperfective past periphrases correspond to 48% of the total periphrastical forms. Finally, it is important to point out, based on the occurrences observed, that imperfective verb forms broadened the original sense of acting only on the background due to a grammaticalization process, and begin to act also in the figure level.</p><p><strong>Keywords:</strong> discursive levels, imperfective periphrasis, imperfect past tense.</p>
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