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Article published In: Discourse approaches to evidentiality in Spanish
Edited by Marta Albelda Marco and María Estellés
[Pragmatics and Society 9:3] 2018
► pp. 429–453

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Special Issue Section

Evidentials as a mark of genre

A study of four oral and written genres

 | University of Valencia
Published online: 28 June 2018
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/ps.16035.alb
Abstract
This paper aims to study the different types and pragmatic functions of the Spanish evidential forms found in four discursive genres, in order to observe if any restrictions apply. All the evidentials are studied in a corpus containing 100,000 words, evenly distributed over colloquial conversations, press news, academic papers, and parliamentary debates. Specifically, together with the pragmatic functions of these evidentials, the four dimensions mode of knowing, type of source, accessibility, and degree of precision are analysed. The results reveal different tendencies in the use of evidentials, depending on the genre, and support the claim that the behaviour of evidentials is conditioned by the specific characteristics of each genre.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Methodology
    • 2.1Parameters of analysis
    • 2.2Corpus
  • 3.Results and discussion
    • 3.1Quantitative analysis. Total number of evidential resources in the corpus
    • 3.2Characteristics of evidentials in conversations – Theoretical implications
    • 3.3Characteristics of evidentials in press news – Theoretical implications
    • 3.4Characteristics of evidentials in academic papers – Theoretical implications
    • 3.5Characteristics of evidentials in parliamentary debates – Theoretical implications
  • 4.Conclusions
  • Notes
  • References
References (54)
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