Evidentiality and Epistemic Modality in Spanish (Semi-)Auxiliaries

This book is the first in-depth study of the conceptual and formal differences between evidential and epistemic auxiliaries in Spanish. The proposed account explores the parallelism between form and meaning and is based on frequency tests in spoken, written, synchronic and diachronic corpora. By doing so, the book not only constitutes a considerable innovation with respect to the previous Spanish accounts in terms of (subject) raising, but also adds a new dimension to Cognitive Grammar notions such as transparency, focal prominence, profile, dynamic reference point and subjectification.

Auteur

Bert Cornillie, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium.

Texte du rabat

Key features

• Major linguistic study applying well-known tenets from Cognitive Linguistics to the investigation of Spanish auxiliaries
• Clearly-written, accessible, and corpus-based
• The important descriptive and theoretical insights presented in the volume are linked to many phenomena of modern linguistics.

Résumé

This volume presents a systematic and comprehensive analysis of the Spanish evidential semi-auxiliaries parecer and resultar, the modal constructions with amenazar and prometer, and the modal auxiliaries poder, deber and tener que. These verbs have never been considered together in a global approach that transcends the classical "verbal periphrases" model.

The book proposes a cognitive-functional account of evidentiality and modality in Spanish with special attention to subjectivity and grounding. The theoretical reflection relies on empirical evidence of two sorts: synchronic and diachronic corpus-analyses alternate with tests that measure the semantic and pragmatic compatibility of the evidential and epistemic constructions with specific sentences. Following the assumption that linguistic forms are determined by their meaning, the array of constructions that characterizes the different verbs justifies their grouping in three pairs of (semi-)auxiliaries: parecer vs resultar, amenazar vs prometer and poder vs deber/tener que. The distributional differences observed in the corpus are further shown to correlate with different degrees of grammaticalization.

Primarily intended for scholars working in the field of Spanish functional linguistics, the monograph is also relevant for grammaticalization studies and for cognitive-semantic research at large. Given its combined theoretical and applied character, the volume is also of interest to anyone concerned with syntactic processes, lexical semantics or the wider area of discourse analysis and pragmatics.