Search

The aim of this paper is to study the syntactic structure of a paroemiac subcategory: tautologies. We will observe the diachronic evolution of this type of formulas from the Middle Ages to the present day. The diachronic study confirms the idea according to which sententious phrases, in this case tautologies, are not transmitted in the same form from generation to generation. They adapt to the times in which they are uttered. The structures are reduced over the centuries in both French and Spanish. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to analyse the Spanish construction resulta que + [clause] from a discourse syntax approach, a macro-syntax. The current use of the structure shows that its conceptual meaning fades and acquires a procedural one related to discourse’s informative dimension; mainly, the characterisation of the information introduced as “surprising” or “not expected”: resulta que mis amigos nunca quisieron que me fuera [“as it turns out, my friends never wanted me to leave”]. Resulta que + [clause] is not as fixated as other discourse elements, such as discourse operators or markers. However, it belongs to the same category of other syntactic constructions which trigger a wide range of discursive values and are not usually tackled by traditional syntactic studies. This research analyses its internal structure and its discourse functioning in order to embed it in a framework which takes into account the potential of this kind of structure in grammar. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we analyze the expressions formed by ni with non clausal phrases (noun phrase with preposition, adjective phrase, adverbial phrase, infinitive, gerund). From this structure come several expressions of rejection very common ones in the current colloquial Spanish, like ni hablar, ni pensarlo, ni queriendo, ni soñando, ni de coña, etc. emerge from this structure. The starting hypothesis is that these expressions, despite coming from different base categories, have a very similar discursive behavior in conversational discourse and show a high level of grammaticalization. To carry out this research, we use the communicative exchanges included in the Corpus MEsA, which includes discourse from Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, WhatsApp, YouTube, blogs, digital forums and web pages of diverse themes. The methodology followed is the Macrosyntax model of Fuentes Rodríguez (2019a), developed from Pragmatic Linguistics (Fuentes Rodríguez 2000). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes a kind of discourse operator insufficiently studied: the operators that indicate deontic modality, especially those introduced by modal operators in Spanish like por fuerza, in order to locate the insertion of elements belonging to the plane of the modality in the structure of sentence. Checking characteristics of these terms: its distribution, its incidence, its grammaticalization, it can contribute, on the one hand, to its categorical and functional definition and, on the other hand, to development of discourse grammar or macrosyntax. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Micro-discourses are blocks of text that enjoy unity of meaning. A new hypothesis holds that micro-discourses also enjoy syntactic unity. The syntactic structure of micro-discourses is formed by pragmatic statements that have functions and are combined through relationships. This paper tries to test if the syntactic structure of microdiscourses is kept in their translations. A positive result would be empirical proof that the aforementioned hypothesis is true. Our analysis compares the syntactic structure of different translated micro- texts (exposition, enumeration, conversation, etc.) and shows that their syntagmatic structure is almost the same when translated, thus confirming the initial hypothesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents certain cases in which the Spanish discourse marker por (lo) tanto connects non-phrasal utterances, in a type of contexts that we propose to call "reduced contexts". This marker takes part in consecutive structures and in most cases alternates with other expressions, such as por consiguiente, en consecuencia, así que and conque. This study aims to analyze the syntactic, semantics and macrosyntactic features of the structure introduced by the form marker, in both prototypical and reduced contexts, with the goal of considering possible differences when comparing it with examples in which the latter expressions introduce an illative relation. This study was preceded by a previous one in which the quantitative and formal features of this discourse marker were analyzed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes a kind of discourse operator insufficiently studied: the operators that indicate deontic modality, especially those introduced by modal operators in Spanish like por fuerza, in order to locate the insertion of elements belonging to the plane of the modality in the structure of sentence. Checking characteristics of these terms: its distribution, its incidence, its grammaticalization, it can contribute, on the one hand, to its categorical and functional definition and, on the other hand, to development of discourse grammar or macrosyntax. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to analyse the Spanish construction resulta que + [clause] from a discourse syntax approach, a macro-syntax. The current use of the structure shows that its conceptual meaning fades and acquires a procedural one related to discourse's informative dimension; mainly, the characterisation of the information introduced as "surprising" or "not expected": resulta que mis amigos nunca quisieron que me fuera ["as it turns out, my friends never wanted me to leave"]. Resulta que + [clause] is not as fixated as other discourse elements, such as discourse operators or markers. However, it belongs to the same category of other syntactic constructions which trigger a wide range of discursive values and are not usually tackled by traditional syntactic studies. This research analyses its internal structure and its discourse functioning in order to embed it in a framework which takes into account the potential of this kind of structure in grammar. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study of no obstante ('notwithstanding') has been affected by some theoretical preconceptions, which have influenced both the explanation of its emergence as a grammatical device in Castilian language and its description in contemporary Spanish. These misguided descriptions have been motivated by the use of our current grammatical intuition, which considers no obstante the result of a Latin heritage. The entailment to Latin has supported, also, the description of no obstante + NP as an absolute construction. Moreover, the influence of the Theory of Grammaticalization, which usually does not pay much attention to the textual conditions of grammatical forms production, has favoured the neglect of textual contexts that give rise to the Castilian discourse marker no obstante. In this paper, we try to demonstrate that, in the sequences no obstante + NP and no obstante que, no obstante has been reanalyzed as being only a grammatical element with a prepositional function. Further, we deal with the evidence that, in spite of its Latin form, no obstante was introduced into Castilian language via Catalan or Aragonese languages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a new framework for the grammaticalization of the Old Spanish manner adverb sí so / yes' as a positive polarity item. My proposal is that Old Spanish and Modern Spanish display different syntactic structures to convey positive polarity; in Old Spanish it involves not only the adverb sí, but it is related to verb movement, focus, clitic placement, VP-ellipsis and the properties of the Po/(arity) Head. I claim that the restructuring of the Left Periphery in Renaissance Spanish set the scenario for the reanalysis of sí as a polarity item and led to the emergence of previously unknown syntactic structures related to the expression of positive polarity, such as sí que or bare sí. Since the strong or weak features of the Pol Head is what regulates whether sí was a polarity item or not, strong features of Pol appear to be the underlying factor which determines the syntactic properties of positive polarity in Old Spanish. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]