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Article published In: Revista Española de Lingüística Aplicada/Spanish Journal of Applied Linguistics
Vol. 31:2 (2018) ► pp.520–549

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The discourse functions of certainly and its Spanish counterparts in journalistic opinion discourse

 | Universidad de León

Article language: Spanish

Published online: 27 December 2018
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https://doi.org/10.1075/resla.16026.per
Abstract
This paper explores the discourse functions of certainly and its Spanish equivalents in the genre of newspaper opinion discourse. Certainty markers seem to have a presence intrinsic to the opinion genre and, therefore, are expected to “exhibit a certain uniformity across languages” ( (2008). The pragmatic role of textual and interpersonal metadiscourse markers in the construction and attainment of persuasion: a cross-linguistic study of newspaper discourse. Journal of Pragmatics, 40(1), 95–113. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar, p. 110). Whereas the non-correspondence between certainly and ciertamente soon becomes apparent, the results of earlier studies (Ramón, N. (2009). Translating epistemic Adverbs from English into Spanish: Evidence from a parallel corpus. Meta: Translator’s Journal, 54(1), 73–96. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar; (2012). Los adverbios ingleses de certeza certainly, naturally y surely, y su traducción al español. In P. Martino Alba & C. Lebsanft (Eds.), Telar de traducción especializada (pp. 141–152). Madrid: Dykinson.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar) might well lead to the hypothesis that the PPs sin duda and desde luego realize in Spanish opinion articles the same discourse functions as certainly does in English newspapers. Drawing on naturally-occurring linguistic data from a corpus of English and Spanish opinion texts (C-OPRES), this study (1) investigates the non-correspondence between cognates and (2) explores the aforesaid research hypothesis. Finally, a translation corpus is used (P-ACTRES) to address the complex relationships between seemingly equivalent words, filling in the gaps of the contrastive analysis. The findings reveal a partial overlap between certainly and its Spanish counterparts as epistemic markers or in concessive contexts; whereas there are also significant differences in the distribution of other discourse functions, mainly regarding the emphasizing use of certainly and the grammaticalization of its so-called equivalents in Spanish as textual and/or interpersonal discourse markers.
Resumen
El presente artículo analiza las funciones discursivas de certainly y sus equivalentes en español en el género del periodismo de opinión. Los marcadores de certeza constituyen un rasgo característico de los géneros de opinión, por lo que cabría esperar “una cierta uniformidad” en lo que respecta a su uso en distintas lenguas ( (2008). The pragmatic role of textual and interpersonal metadiscourse markers in the construction and attainment of persuasion: a cross-linguistic study of newspaper discourse. Journal of Pragmatics, 40(1), 95–113. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar, p. 110). Mientras que la no correspondencia entre certainly y ciertamente resulta evidente a simple vista, los resultados de estudios anteriores (Ramón, N. (2009). Translating epistemic Adverbs from English into Spanish: Evidence from a parallel corpus. Meta: Translator’s Journal, 54(1), 73–96. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar; (2012). Los adverbios ingleses de certeza certainly, naturally y surely, y su traducción al español. In P. Martino Alba & C. Lebsanft (Eds.), Telar de traducción especializada (pp. 141–152). Madrid: Dykinson.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar) conducen a la hipótesis de que los sintagmas preposicionales sin duda y desde luego pudieran comportarse como equivalentes funcionales de certainly en los artículos de opinión en español. Basándose en datos lingüísticos procedentes de un corpus inglés-español de textos periodísticos de opinión (C-OPRES), el presente trabajo (1) investiga la falta de correspondencia entre cognados y (2) analiza la hipótesis previamente mencionada. Finalmente, como complemento al análisis contrastivo, se utiliza un corpus de traducción (P-ACTRES) que busca dar respuesta a las complejas relaciones interlingüísticas entre términos en apariencia equivalentes. Los resultados revelan una correspondencia parcial entre certainly y sus equivalentes en español en su uso como marcadores epistémicos o en estructuras concesivas; al mismo tiempo que se observan diferencias significativas en la distribución de otras funciones discursivas, principalmente, en el empleo de certainly como intensificador en los textos ingleses o la gramaticalización de sus equivalentes en español y su uso como marcadores del discurso y/o interpersonales.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Theoretical background
    • 2.1Journalistic opinion discourse: A persuasive genre
    • 2.2Epistemic markers: The grammaticalization of adverbs of certainty
  • 3.Methodology and working procedure
    • 3.1Description of corpora
    • 3.2Working procedure
  • 4.‘Certainly’ and ‘ciertamente’ in newspaper opinion discourse
    • 4.1Scope and clausal position
    • 4.2Parentheticality
    • 4.3Discourse functions of ‘certainly’ and ‘ciertamente’
      • 1.Purely epistemic marker: Truth
      • 2.Emphasizer: Strengthening or intensifying function
      • 3.Concessive function
      • 4.Discourse marker: Interpersonal and/or textual function
      • 5.Response marker: Emphatic agreement
  • 5.‘Certainly’ and its Spanish counterparts: ‘Sin duda’ and ‘desde luego’
    • 5.1Scope and clausal position
    • 5.2Parentheticality
    • 5.3Discourse functions and uses of ‘certainly’ and its Spanish equivalents ‘sin duda’ and ‘desde luego’
  • 6.Translation as a tool for cross-linguistic research: The Spanish counterparts of ‘certainly’ as an emphasizer
  • 7.Concluding remarks
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
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