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These past decades have seen an emergence of studies on speech acts. Condolences, however, are among the least addressed out of them. Bibliography on this subject is scarce if compared to that of petitions, promises, offers, and so on, more so in Spanish, where papers on this subject are few and far between. This gap is especially notable in diachronic studies. This paper aims to offer a first approach to strategies for delivering condolences in 18th and 19th century letters written in the Canary Islands, Spain. Its goal is to describe which are the most common semantic formulas used to give condolences, and how much they resemble those described by different authors regarding this speech act in modern languages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews the concepts of modality and subjectivity, according to different bibliographic studies. The main purpose of the review is to note the defining flaws of both domains, which cause confusion when it comes to being explained in the uses of different linguistic units (from verbs to adverbs and discursive particles). The approximation carried out shows that the description of both concepts is intertwined from the beginning of the theorizing about it, but, above all, that its descriptive features are eminently semantic, although the grammatical (and functional) categories that mainly manifest these phenomena operate at the pragmatic level. Thus, here we propose new definitions of modality and subjectivity that they are not mutually exclusive nor overshadow either of the two domains. For this purpose, it is proposed a conception of the studied terms based in some definition of last year's cognitive-functional theories (Nuyts and Van der Auwera 2016, Abraham 2020). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the diatopic variation of the periphrasis andar + ger, comparing its use in Mexican and Peninsular Spanish. To this end, the relative frequency of the construction is analyzed in several corpora, as well as its most distinctive semantic and syntactic features. Our quantitative analysis shows, on the one hand, the high frequency of andar + ger in Mexican Spanish as compared to Peninsular Spanish. On the other hand, it reveals that the periphrasis occurs, above all, in informal language modalities. Semantically, the present study corroborates that, in periphrases with a gerund, the verb andar ('to walk'), has progressively lost its lexical meaning of physical movement and has come to transmit pragmatic values, particularly of determination and insistence. In addition, unlike Peninsular Spanish, in Mexican Spanish the periphrasis is less subject to selectional restrictions with respect to the gerund, a relatively recent change that points to a strong grammaticalization. Syntactically, the grammaticalization process is reflected in the adjacency of the auxiliary and the gerund, the fixed internal order of the two components of the periphrasis, clitic climbing and a drop in the frequency of coordinated gerunds. The case of andar + ger demonstrates that grammaticalization of the same construction can take place in different ways depending on the specific dialectal environment. Likewise, and at a more general level, it stresses the importance of a diatopic approach in studies on verbal periphrases and grammaticalization processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a diachronic study of the inchoative periphrases comenzar a and empezar a + infinitive drawing upon grammaticalization theory, in an attempt to contribute to the history of Spanish and, particularly, to the studies focused on verbal periphrases. Based on the results of an analysis of a large number of documented occurrences between the 11th and 21st centuries, we propose that the lexical meaning of words to be relevant in the construction of grammatical pieces; therefore synonymy seems to play an important role in shaping the grammar of a language. As we will see, alternation of the studied forms shows that both coexist nowadays, and that their use is conditioned both by contextual and chronological factors, because both express the same semantic values. Since the use of empezar a + infinitive increases around the 19th century, we reflect on other change processes linked to verbal periphrases during this period, and on their importance in the syntactic periodization of Spanish. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers a broad overview, seen from the perspective of Diachronic Construction Grammar, of the readings and values developed in Latin by the construction so/eo+iNF. The evidence provided and the analysis of the various factors involved in the interpretation of this periphrasis show that its original and basic value is not the expression of habitual aspect, as traditional models maintain, but a typifying meaning that should be considered in the framework of the continuous aspect. On the other hand, the structural possibilities and the behavior of so/eo+iNF in Latin allow to set an interesting reference framework to explain some particular uses of so/er+ INF in the earliest stages of the Spanish language. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the main results of the allophonic variation of the consonantal group /tr/ in a variety of Chilean Spanish -that of speakers that have not completed secondary education- obtained from eight cities (Iquique, La Serena, Valparaíso, Santiago, Concepción, Temuco, Coyhaique and Punta Arenas), using two elicitation tasks -semi-spontaneous interview and reading-aloud- completed by male and female speakers. The results showed that the sequence of plosive followed by a tap, that is /tr/, was more frequent. In addition, the independent variables geographic origin, elicitation task and gender were shown to have a statistically significant effect on the phonetic realizations of /tr/. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the description of the verb soleo, the Latin cognate of the Spanish auxiliary soler, with the aim of contributing to the explanation of the Spanish lexical periphrasis soler + INF, when considering it from a diachronic perspective. Soleo is an especial verb whose singularity is manifested in its etymology and its grammatical particularities. Concerning its etymology, two hypotheses have been considered which start from two different Aktionsart stems: one makes it derive from a Proto-Indo-European iterative stem, the other from a stative one. From this second etymological hypothesis, soleo could be included among Latin denominative stative *e-presents with the basic meaning of 'to be of oneself, to have as one's own, to be normal, to be custom'. Regarding its morphosyntactic features, the semi-deponent soleo has a morphologically passive perfect stem, solitus sum, whose use with aoristic value comes into contradiction with the morphological restriction of the Spanish auxiliary soler and with the aspectual categorization of habitual auxiliary attributed to it. Together with the function as an auxiliary verb constituting a periphrasis with an infinitive, it also presents a use as a full lexical verb in which the prototypical semantic value of its etymology emerges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditional grammarians have pointed out a co reference relation between the constituents in apposition. They argue that this semantic equivalence allows the two component structures to be easily reversible. Some authors tend to associate apposition with paraphrase, which is usually defined as a restatement of the meaning of a text or passage using other words. Within the framework of the Cognitive- Prototype Theory, we have stated in previous studies (Barbeito, 1999 and 2007a) that speakers use apposition to (re)conceptualize in a different way an entity already mentioned. Also that apposition shows a great degree of coherence between its component structures. This paper deals with a qualitative description of semantic, pragmatic and syntactic features of apposition in order to establish the relation between apposition and paraphrase. We argue that apposition is a grammaticalization of prototypical paraphrasing strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]