| Summary: | This article analyzes four interpretations of the adverb <i>siempre</i> ‘always’ that do not belong to general Spanish. The continuative and the progressive-comparative interpretations are argued to be calques of Italian, often attested in Rioplatense Spanish. In the first one, <i>siempre</i> is equivalent to Eng. <i>still</i> or ‘<i>continue to</i> + infinitive’, while in the second one it admits paraphrases with <i>more and more, less and less</i>, and the adverbs <i>gradually</i> and <i>progressively</i>. The third interpretation, in which <i>siempre</i> is roughly equivalent to <i>after all, finally,</i> and ‘<i>end up</i> + gerund’, will be argued to be concessive-adversative. This reading is more frequent in Mexico and Central America, but it is also attested in other American countries. The fourth reading is the attenuated interpretation, registered in part of the Andean area. In this meaning, <i>siempre</i> is equivalent to <i>roughly</i> or <i>so so</i>. It is argued that, with the possible exception of the last reading (whose origin is insecure), these different meanings of <i>siempre</i> coincide in the interpretation of this adverb as a universal quantifier, while they differ in the semantic nature of the quantified variable.
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