In Eight Days... or Seven? The Expression of Temporal Distances in Costa Rican Spanish

Temporal distances are usually indicated by expressions that specify a quantity of certain time unit (e. g., days, weeks or months). In different varieties of Spanish, two distinct ways of calculating this number are reported: (1) counting only the units that pass by between two events, or (2) taking into account both units within which the events take place. This study examines the use of these two strategies by the means of a questionnaire applied to Costa Rican students. It concludes that the former is the most general one, but that, when specifying distances close to a week and above in terms of days, both strategies are used, which causes ambiguity.