El infinitivo enunciativo. Variación textual y sociopragmática.

The infinitive called enunciative, generalizing or introductory is a variable phenomenon in the Spanish grammar very frequently used in diverse kinds of oral and written texts. As a defective or non conjugated verbal form which does not provide any information about the grammatical person (at least not about the subject), the independent infinitive may function as a desubjectivizing resource of discourse. This phenomenon will be studied from a variationist and cognitive-functional framework by the analysis of this kind of infinitive in social media texts (Facebook and Twitter) as well as in the TripAdvisor website. Results indicate that there are not significant differences in the use of the infinitive among these texts. However, the infinitive shows a relevant use with verba dicendi lexemes as well as its coaparition with personal forms in the inmediate context. Thus, it may be concluded that the infinitive is a desubjectivizing device which introduces or closes argumentative utterances contributing to develop a range of sociopragmatic values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]