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This paper addresses a problematic issue: the possibility of coordination between elements that appear in the left margin of the utterance. The methodology is a pragmalinguistic approach and a macrosyntactic proposal applied on a corpus. The author proposes a structure of the utterance and analyses the combinatorial possibilities within the left margin, limiting the research to the coordination by conjunction y. The possible interpretations of the results are: to consider a single area on left periphery or more, and consider whether the connectives (discourse markers) belong to that area or are extrasentential elements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The exceptive hypothesis is expressed in current Spanish through different conjunctive phrases. The main aim of paper is to identify the discursive values and argumentative functions performed by them, highlighting the differences and similarities between them. This completes the formal description of these units. The study relies on analysis of two hundred examples of each of these phrases, taken from the CREA and CORPES XXI. Methodologically, we follow the signs of pragmatic Linguistics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From the analysis of the locution gracias a Dios, this article provides a model for the linguistic description of Spanish evaluative expressions according to the objectives that should be considered in an exhaustive study of this kind of modal words. To this end, this paper offers some observations on the categorial characterization of gracias a Dios, the discursive instructions that make up its semantic information and ultimately the pragmatic effects favoured by its meaning. Furthermore, the linguistic study of gracias a Dios can explain relations with other emotive expressions in Spanish that can evaluate a discourse positively, but that offer some differences concerning its distributional properties, its semantic values and the communicative intentions which can be used nowadays. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Verbal politeness is one of the principles which regulate interactional dynamics. Success in communication is the outcome of a conjoint activity carried out by co-communicators. Hence, linguistic activity is also social activity. In this picture, politeness is one of the main social activities contributing to success. Two of the most important semantic and pragmatic ways to express politeness are Face Flattering Acts and mitigating (attenuating or hedging) acts. The former are used to intensify or to enhance the speaker's expressions (in compliments, acknowledgements, and so on), whereas the latter are employed to minimize the speaker's point of view, especially when it affects the hearer's face. If the main goal of conversation is to reach some kind of mutual agreement --be it linguistic or social--, having a good command of both kinds of politeness is a most important advantage for speakers. The present article is an attempt to study mitigating acts, from a threefold approach. Firstly, a semantic approach deals with the meaning encoded in some attenuating devices; attention will be paid to the concept of scale, which provides a partial ordering of terms according to their semantic structure. Secondly, a pragmatic approach studies mitigation as a strategy to gain the hearer's acceptation. Finally, a sociopragmatic approach explains mitigation and politeness on the light of cultural differences, and makes use of concepts such as approach or communicative immediateness. The main hypothesis of this paper is that the threefold approach described above can account for some differences in the use of attenuating devices in American and Peninsular Spanish: for instance if cultures of approaching promote immediateness, this could favour a preference for boosting over attenuating strategies, without being regarded as impolite, threatening or excessively flattering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]