Cover not available

Article published In: Extending the notion of near-synonymy: Studies in morphological, syntactic and pragmatic equivalence
Edited by Renata Enghels
[Languages in Contrast 18:1] 2018
► pp. 69–98

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload PDF
authorization required

‘Exclamative’ and ‘quotative’ illocutionary complementisers in Catalan, European Portuguese and Spanish

A study in Ibero-Romance syntactic ‘near-synonymy’

 | University of Cambridge
Published online: 22 February 2018
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/lic.00004.cor
Abstract
The use of the Ibero-Romance complementiser que in non-embedded contexts with various illocutionary functions is argued to be non-trivially distinct from its canonical function as a marker of subordination. Interpretative and grammatical differences, and variation in the availability and clause-typing of non-embedded ‘exclamative’ and ‘quotative’ illocutionary que across Catalan, European Portuguese and Spanish provide evidence that the subordinating complementiser has been repurposed for the representation of pragmatic information in the complementiser systems of Ibero-Romance, a hypothesis supported by analogies drawn between illocutionary que and illocutionary functions of the interrogative complementiser si/se in Catalan and European Portuguese.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The Ibero-Romance (finite) complementiser system
  • 3.Interpretative contribution of illocutionary que
    • 3.1Exclamative que
    • 3.2Quotative que
  • 4.The Ibero-Romance (finite) complementiser system
    • 4.1Clause typing
      • 4.1.1 Exclamative que
      • 4.1.2 Quotative que
    • 4.2Clause typing
      • 4.2.1 Exclamative que
      • 4.2.2Quotative que
    • 4.3Conjunction and disjunction
      • 4.3.1Exclamative que
      • 4.3.2Quotative que
    • 4.4Summary
  • 5.Multifunctionality of que and Ibero-Romance dialectology
  • 6.Conclusions
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations and glosses
  • References
References (57)
References
Alturo, N., Bladas, Ò., Payà, M. and Payrató, L. (eds). 2004. Corpus oral de registres. Materials de treball (COR). Barcelona: Publicacions i Edicions de la Universitat de Barcelona. Available at [URL] [last accessed 22 December 2016].
Biezma, M. 2008. An Expressive Analysis of Exclamatives in Spanish. Ms. University of Massachusetts.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bresnan, J. W. 1970. On complementizers: toward a syntactic theory of complement types. Foundations of language 6(3): 297–321.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Campos, H. 1992. Enunciative elements in Gascon. Linguistics 30(5): 911–940. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Corr, A. 2016. Ibero-Romance and the syntax of the utterance. PhD Thesis, University of Cambridge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2017. Collecting non-standard dialect data online: a case study. Paper presented at the Rethinking Grammaticality Judgments workshop, University of Cambridge, 11 March 2017.
Forthcoming. Matrix complementizers and ‘speech act’ syntax: formalizing insubordination in Catalan and Spanish. Romance Languages and Linguistic Theory.
D’Alessandro, R. and Ledgeway, A. 2010. At the CT boundary: Investigating Abruzzese complementation. Lingua 120(8): 2040–2060. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Déchaine, R., Cook, C., Muehlbauer, J. and Waldie, R. 2015. (De)-constructing Evidentiality. Available at [URL] [last accessed 22 December 2016].
Demonte, V. and Fernández Soriano, O. 2013. Evidentials dizque and que in Spanish. Grammaticalization, parameters and the (fine) structure of Comp. Revista de Estudos Linguísticos da Univerdade do Porto 81: 211–234.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2014. Evidentiality and illocutionary force: Spanish matrix que at the syntax-pragmatics interface. In Left sentence peripheries in Spanish: Diachronic, variationist, and typological perspectives, A. Dufter and Á. S. Octavio de Toledo y Huerta (eds), 217–252. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Demonte, V. and Fernández-Soriano, O. 2009. Force and finiteness in the Spanish complementizer system. Probus 21(1): 23–49. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Escandell Vidal, V. 1999. Los enunciados interrogativos: aspectos semánticos y pragmáticos. In Gramática descriptiva de la lengua española, I. Bosque and V. Demonte (eds), 3929–3991. Madrid: Real Academia Española/Espasa Calpe.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Etxepare, R. 2007. Aspects of quotative constructions in Iberian Spanish. Anuario del Seminario de Filología Vasca Julio de Urquijo 41(2): 25–58.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2008. On quotative constructions in Iberian Spanish. In Crosslinguistic Studies of Clause Combining: The multifunctionality of conjunctions, R. Laury (ed), 35–77. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2010. From hearsay evidentiality to samesaying relations. Lingua 120(3): 604–627. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2013. Quotative expansions. In Romance Languages and Linguistic Theory, S. Baauw, F. Drijkoningen, L. Meroni and M. Pinto (eds), 93–123. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Evans, N. 2007. Insubordination and its uses. In Finiteness: Theoretical and Empirical Foundations, I. Nikolaeva (ed), 366–431. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2009. Insubordination and the grammaticalisation of interactive presuppositions. Paper presented at the conference Methodologies in Determining Morphosyntactic Change, Museum of Ethnography, Osaka, Japan, March 2009.
Faller, M. T. 2002. Semantics and pragmatics of evidentials in Cuzco Quechua. PhD Thesis, Stanford University.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ferreiro, M. (ed). 2014-. Glosario da poesía medieval profana galego-portuguesa (GMPG). Universidade da Coruña. Available at [URL] [last accessed 22 December 2016].
González i Planas, F. 2014. On quotative recomplementation: Between pragmatics and morphosyntax. Lingua 1461: 39–74. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gras, P. 2011. Gramática de Construcciones en Interacción. Propuesta de un modelo y aplicación al análisis de estructuras independientes con marcas de subordinación en español. PhD Thesis, Universitat de Barcelona.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2016. Revisiting the functional typology of insubordination: que-initial sentences in Spanish. In Insubordination, N. Evans and H. Watanabe (eds), 113–144. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gras, P. and Sansiñena, M. S. 2015. An interactional account of discourse-connective que-constructions in Spanish. Text & Talk 35(4): 505–529. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2017. Exclamatives in the functional typology of insubordination: evidence from complement insubordinate constructions in Spanish. Journal of Pragmatics 1151: 21–36. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Forthcoming. Insubordination and regional variation: discourse-connective insubordinate complement constructions in three varieties of Spanish. In Different perspectives on convergence and divergence in Ibero-Romance: language contact and contrasting national varieties, M. Bouzouita, R. Enghels and C. Vanderschueren (eds). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Hernanz, M. L. and Rigau, G. 2006. Variación dialectal y periferia izquierda. In Andolin gogoan. Essays in honour of Professor Eguzkitza, B. Fernández and I. Laka (eds), 435–452. Gipuzkua: Euskal Herriko Unibersitatea.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Krifka, M. 2001. Quantifying into question acts. Natural language semantics 9(1):1–40. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2003. Quantifiers in questions. Korean Journal of English Language and Linguistics 31: 499–526.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Laca, B. 1986. Notes per a un estudi del pleonasme pronominal en català. In Estudis de llengua i literatura catalanes XIII (Miscel·lània Antoni Badia i Margarit) 51, 65–88. Publicacions de L’Abadia de Montserrat.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ledgeway, A. 2005. Moving through the left periphery: the dual complementizer system in the dialects of Southern Italy. Transactions of the Philological Society 103(3): 336–396. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2012. From Latin to Romance: Morphosyntactic typology and change. Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2016. Clausal complementation. In The Oxford Guide to the Romance Languages, A. Ledgeway and M. Maiden (eds), 1013–1028. Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ludlow, P. 2011. Data, intuitions, judgments. In The Philosophy of Generative Linguistics, P. Ludlow (ed), 64–89. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Martins, A. M. 2013. The interplay between VSO and coordination in two types of non-degree exclamatives. Catalan journal of linguistics 121: 83–109. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mascarenhas, S. 2015. Complementizer doubling in European Portuguese. Master’s Dissertation, St Catherine’s College, Oxford.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Matos, G. and Brito, A. -M. 2013. The alternation between improper indirect questions and restrictive relatives. In Agreement, Information Structure and the CP, V. Camacho-Taboada, Á. Jiménez-Fernández, J. Martín-González and M. Reyes-Tejedor (eds), 83–116. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pons Bordería, S. 2003. Que inicial átono como marca de modalidad. ELUA. Estudios de Lingüística 171: 531–545.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Porroche Ballesteros, M. 2000. Algunos aspectos del uso de que en el español conversacional. Círculo de lingüística aplicada a la comunicación 31: 100–116.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Portner, P. 2006. Comments on Martina Faller’s paper. Paper presented at the Workshop on Philosophy and Linguistics, University of Michigan, 4 November 2006.
Potts, C. 2007. The expressive dimension. Theoretical Linguistics 33(2): 165–197. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Prieto, P. and Rigau, G. 2007. The Syntax-Prosody Interface: Catalan interrogative sentences headed by que . Journal of Portuguese Linguistics 6(2): 29–59. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rigau, G. and Suïls, J. 2010. Microvariation in Catalan and Occitan complementizers: the so-called expletive se . Catalan Journal of Linguistics 91: 151–165. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rizzi, L. 1997. The fine structure of the left periphery. In Elements of grammar, L. Haegeman (ed), 281–337. Springer Netherlands. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rodríguez Ramalle, T. M. 2008a. Estudio sintáctico y discursivo de algunas estructuras enunciativas y citativas del español. Revista Española De Lingüística Aplicada 211: 269–288.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2008b. Marcas enunciativas y evidenciales en el discurso periodístico. In Actas del XXXVII simposio de la sociedad española de lingüística (SEL), I. Olza, M. Casado Velarde and R. González Ruiz (eds), 735–744. Pamplona: Servicio de Publicaciones de la Universidad de Navarra.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rosenbaum, P. S. 1967. The grammar of English predicate complement constructions. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sansiñena, M. S. 2017. Eliciting evidence of functional differences: The imperative versus free-standing que-clauses in Spanish. In Imperatives and Directive Strategies, D. Van Olmen and S. Heinold (eds), 265–289. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schütze, C. 2016. The empirical basis of linguistics: grammaticality judgments and linguistic methodology. Language Science Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Spitzer, L. 1942. Notas sintáctico-estilísticas a propósito del español que . Revista de filología hispánica 4(2): 105–126.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stalnaker, R. 1974. Pragmatic presuppositions. In Semantics and philosophy, M. K. Munitz and P. Unger (eds), 197–213. New York University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Süils, J. and Ribes, S. 2015. Modality markers in Gascon, between grammar and stylistic variation. eHumanista/IVITRA 81: 544–576.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Suñer, M. 1999. La subordinación sustantiva: La interrogación indirecta. In Gramática descriptiva de la lengua española, I. Bosque y V. Demonte (eds), 2149–2195. Madrid: Espasa.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Villa-García, J. 2015. The Syntax of Multiple-que Sentences in Spanish. Along the left periphery. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wheeler, M., Yates, A. and Dols, N. 1999. Catalan: A comprehensive grammar. Psychology Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zanuttini, R. and Portner, P. 2003. Exclamative Clauses: at the Syntax-Semantics Interface. Language 79(1): 39–81. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (7)

Cited by seven other publications

Villalba, Xavier
2024. Romance exclamative markers at the syntax-pragmatics interface: A compositional approach to exclamativity. Journal of Pragmatics 226 ► pp. 64 ff. DOI logo
Del Barrio de la Rosa, Florencio
2023. Preguntó (que) si qué quería: si como operador interrogativo en español vernáculo. Cuadernos de Lingüística Hispánica :42 ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
Gras, Pedro, Sofía Pérez Fernández & Frank Brisard
2023. Quotative que constructions in Spanish. In Constructions in Spanish [Constructional Approaches to Language, 34], ► pp. 193 ff. DOI logo
Hennecke, Inga & Evelyn Wiesinger
2023. Construction Grammar meets Hispanic linguistics. In Constructions in Spanish [Constructional Approaches to Language, 34], ► pp. 2 ff. DOI logo
Pérez Fernández, Sofía, Pedro Gras & Frank Brisard
2022. Geographical and discursive variation of discourse-connective que in Spanish. Círculo de Lingüística Aplicada a la Comunicación 92 ► pp. 219 ff. DOI logo
Badan, Linda
2020. Italian Discourse Markers: The Case ofGuarda te*. Studia Linguistica 74:2 ► pp. 303 ff. DOI logo
Trotzke, Andreas & Xavier Villalba
2020. Exclamatives as responses at the syntax-pragmatics interface. Journal of Pragmatics 168 ► pp. 139 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 25 november 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue