RT Book, Section
T1 A constructional analysis of digo yo in Peninsular Spanish
A1 Martínez Vázquez, Montserrat
K1 (Meta)communicative construction
K1 Constructional network
K1 Epistemic parentheticals
K1 Comment clause
AB This paper examines the variable functions of the clausal construction digo yo (DY) ‘I say’ in contemporary Peninsular Spanish. A corpus-based analysis shows pendulation between a communicative DY, which introduces past quotes, and a metacommunicative DY, which functions as a comment clause. In initial position, DY resembles a matrix clause, however, its subjectverb inversion produces a backgrounding effect which renders the conjunction que (‘that’) unnecessary and favours a parenthetical analysis of DY. In medial and final positions DY is an evidential/epistemic comment clause which overlaps with other epistemic comment clauses (e.g. creo yo ‘I believe’, pienso yo ‘I think’). In order to provide a unified account of the different uses of DY, a constructional approach is taken. In line with Van Bogaert (2010) and Kaltenböck (2010, 2013), the formal and functional features of DY are explained through a constructional network. A hierarchical network captures its links to the communicative construction, while its analogical connections to other epistemic constructions are captured in ahorizontal network (Traugott, 2018).
PB John Benjamins
YR 2023
FD 2023-07-18
LK https://hdl.handle.net/10433/22719
UL https://hdl.handle.net/10433/22719
LA en
NO In Constructions in Spanish. Edited by Inga Hennecke and Evelyn Wiesinger. 2023. John Benjamins. 255-278.
NO Filología y Traducción
DS RIO
RD May 9, 2026