Cover not available

In:Insubordination
Edited by Nicholas Evans and Honoré Watanabe
[Typological Studies in Language 115] 2016
► pp. 113–144

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

Chapter 5. Revisiting the functional typology of insubordination

Insubordinate que-constructions in Spanish*

 | Universiteit Antwerpen
Published online: 18 November 2016
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/tsl.115.05gra
The aim of this chapter is to discuss the functional typology of insubordination in the light of Spanish data. The empirical focus is on the functional load of que-initial sentences, which are the most frequent insubordinate constructions in Peninsular Spanish. Que-initial sentences can display several functions in interaction: third person imperatives, optatives, evaluative modality, echo-sentences, self-repetition, signalling relevant information, among others. Considering their high polyfunctionality, I address two interrelated questions. Firstly, I examine whether que-initial sentences can be considered instances of a single polysemous construction or whether they are different form-meaning pairings with their own grammatical and/or discursive features. A corpus-based constructional analysis allows the identification of two insubordinate que-constructions that differ not only in their meaning, but also in their formal and discourse properties. Secondly, I examine to what extent the functional typology of insubordination proposed in Evans (2007) can account for the wide array of functions displayed by que-initial sentences and I propose a typology of insubordination which considers two main macrofunctions: (i) non-declarative sentence modality and (ii) context dependency.
References (43)
References
Bello, Andrés. [1847]1984. Gramática de la lengua castellana destinada al uso de los americanos. Madrid: Edaf.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bergs, Alexander & Diewald, Gabriele (eds). 2009. Contexts and Constructions [Constructional Approaches to Language 9]. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bosque, Ignacio & Demonte, Violeta (eds). 1999. Gramática descriptiva de la lengua española. Madrid: Espasa.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Briz, Antonio & Grupo Val.Es.Co. 2002. Corpus de conversaciones coloquiales. Special volume of Oralia. Madrid: Arco-Libros.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Croft, William & Cruse, D. Alan. 2004. Cognitive Linguistics. Cambridge: CUP. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Debaisieux, Jeanne-Marie & Deulofeu, Henri-José. 2003. Fonctionnement microsyntaxique de modifieur et fonctionnement macrosyntaxique en parataxe des constructions introduites par que et parce que en français parlé, avec extension au cas de perché et che en italien parlé. In Il Parlato Italiano. Atti del Convegno Nazionale, Federico Albano Leoni, Francesco Cutugno, Massimo Pettorino & Renata Savy (eds). Napoli: D’Auria.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Demonte, Violeta & Fernández Soriano, Olga. 2009. Force and finiteness in the Spanish complementizer system. Probus 21(1): 23–49. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Escandell [Vidal], María Victoria. 1999. Los enunciados interrogativos. Aspectos semánticos y pragmáticos. In Bosque & Demonte (eds), 3929–3992.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Etxepare, Ricardo. 2008. On quotative constructions in Iberian Spanish. In Crosslinguistic Studies of Clause Combining. The Multifunctionality of Conjunctions [Typological Studies in Language 80], Ritva Laury (ed.), 35–78. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2010. From hearsay evidentiality to samesaying relations. Lingua 120: 604–627. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Evans, Nicholas. 1993. Code, inference, placedness and ellipsis. In The Role of Theory in Linguistic Description, William A. Foley (ed.), 243–280. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2007. Insubordination and its uses. In Finiteness: Theoretical and Empirical Foundations, Irina Nikolaeva (ed.), 366–431. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fillmore, Charles J. 1989. Grammatical Construction Theory and the familiar dichotomies. In Language Processing in Social Context, Rainer Dietrich & Carl Friedrich Graumann (eds), 17–38. Amsterdam: North-Holland. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1999. Inversion and constructional inheritance. In Lexical and Constructional Aspects of Linguistc Explanation, Gert Webelhuth, Jean-Pierre Koening & Andreas Kathol (eds), 113–128. Stanford, CA: CSLI.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ford, Cecilia E. 1993. Grammar in Interaction: Adverbial Clauses in American English Conversations. Cambridge: CUP. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ford, Cecilia E., Fox, Barbara A. &Thompson, Sandra A . (eds). 2002. The Language of Turn and Sequence. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fujii, Seiko. 2004. Lexically (un)filled constructional schemes and construction types: The case of Japanese modal conditional constructions. In Construction Grammar in a Cross-language Perspective [Constructional Approaches to Language 2], Mirjam Fried & Jan-Ola Östman (eds), 121–156. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Garrido Medina, Joaquín. 1998. Discourse structure in grammar. Estudios Ingleses de la Universidad Complutense 6: 49–63.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1999. Los actos de habla. Los enunciados imperativos. In Bosque & Demonte (eds), 3879–3928.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gras, Pedro. 2011. Gramática de Construcciones en interacción. Propuesta de un modelo y aplicación al análisis de estructuras independientes con marcas de subordinación en español. Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona. <[URL]>Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2013. Entre la gramática y el discurso: Valores conectivos de que inicial átono en español. Autour de que. In El entorno de que, Daniel Jacob & Katja Ploog (eds), 89–112. Frankfurt: Peter Lang.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. Forthcoming. Entre la codificación y la inferencia. Los valores citativos de que inicial átono en español. In La evidencialidad en español: teoría y descripción, Ramón González, Dámaso Izquierdo & Óscar Loureda (eds), Madrid & Frankfurt: Iberoamericana & Vervuert.
Gras, Pedro & Sansiñena, María Sol. 2014. Exclamative complement insubordination in Spanish. Paper presented at SLE 47 , Poznan.
. 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
Haegeman, Liliane. 2010. West Flemish discourse markers and the articulation of the speech layer. <[URL]>
Lindström, Jan & Londen, Anne-Marie. 2008. Constructing reasoning: The connectives för att (causal), så att (consecutive) and men att (adversative) in Swedish conversations. In Constructional Reorganization [Constructional Approaches to Language 5], Jaakko Leino (ed.), 105–152. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Linell, Per. 2006. Can we formalise the linguistic resources of interactional language? SKY Journal of Linguistics 19: 56–65.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2009. Constructions in dialogue. In Bergs & Diewald (eds), 97–110. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mithun, Marianne. 2008. The extension of dependency beyond the sentence. Language 84(1): 264–280. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Montolío [Durán], Estrella. 1999. ¡Si nunca he dicho que estuviera enamorada de él! Sobre construcciones independientes introducidas por si con valor replicativo. Oralia 2: 37–70.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Núñez-Lagos, Carmen. 2005. Le signifiant espagnol que: quel signifié? PhD dissertaion, Université Sorbonne-Paris 4.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ohori, Toshio. 1995. Remarks on suspended clauses: A contribution to Japanese phraseology. In Essays in Semantics and Pragmatics. In Honor of Charles J. Fillmore [Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 32], Masayoshi Shibatani & Sandra A. Thompson (eds), 201–218. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pons, Salvador. 2003. Que inicial átono como marca de modalidad. Estudios Lingüísticos de la Universidad de Alicante 17: 531–545. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Porroche, Margarita. (1998) 2000. Algunos aspectos del uso de que en el español conversacional (que como introductor de oraciones independientes). Círculo de lingüística aplicada a la comunicación 3. <[URL]>Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Real Academia Española [RAE]. 2009. Nueva gramática de la lengua española. Madrid: Espasa.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rizzi, Luigi. 1997. The fine structure of the left periphery. In Elements of Grammar, Lilian Haegeman (ed.), 281–337. Dordrecht: Kluwer. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rodríguez Ramalle, Teresa Maria. 2008. Estudio sintáctico y discursivo de algunas estructuras enunciativas y citativas del español. Revista Española de Lingüística Aplicada 21: 269–288.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sansiñena, Maria Sol, De Smet, Hendrik & Cornillie, Bert. 2015. Displaced directives: Subjunctive free-standing que-clauses vs. imperatives in Spanish. Folia Linguistica 49(1): 257–285. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schwenter, Scott. 1999. Sobre la sintaxis de una construcción coloquial: Oraciones independientes con si . Anuari de Filologia, XXI/9 [1998–9], secció F, 87–100.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Searle, John. 1969. Speech Acts. Cambridge: CUP. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Selting, Margaret & Couper-Kuhlen, Elizabeth (eds). 2001. Studies in Interactional Linguistics [Studies in Discourse and Grammar 10]. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Verstraete, Jean-Christophe. 2007. Rethinking the Coordinate-Subordinate Dichotomy: Interpersonal Grammar and the Analysis of Adverbial Clauses in English. Berlin: Mouton. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Verstraete, Jean-Christophe, D’Hertefelt, Sarah & Van linden, An. 2012. A typology of complement insubordination in Dutch. Studies in Language 36: 123–153. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (24)

Cited by 24 other publications

García Yanes, Francisco Javier
2025. Forces behind the scene. Review of Cognitive Linguistics DOI logo
Van Praet, Wout, Liesbeth Degand & An Van linden
2025. As if grammar, discourse and prosody don’t interact: a comparative study of hypothetical manner clauses in English and Dutch. Folia Linguistica 59:3 ► pp. 905 ff. DOI logo
Dér, Csilla Ilona & Bálint Sass
2024. Hogy kötőszós inszubordinált mellékmondatok korpuszalapú elemzése. Jelentés és Nyelvhasználat 11:1 ► pp. 39 ff. DOI logo
Horlacher, Anne-Sylvie, F. Neveu, S. Prévost, A. Montébran, A. Steuckardt, G. Bergounioux, G. Merminod & G. Philippe
2024. Les si-indépendantes dans l’interaction : un continuum d’insubordination. SHS Web of Conferences 191 ► pp. 01016 ff. DOI logo
Fuentes Rodríguez, Catalina & Víctor Pérez Béjar
2023.  Que conste/sepas and como si constructions in Spanish. In Constructions in Spanish [Constructional Approaches to Language, 34], ► pp. 224 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
Ordines, Pedro Ivorra
2023.  Por mí como si te operas. Constructional idioms of rejection from a constructionist approach. Yearbook of Phraseology 14:1 ► pp. 89 ff. DOI logo
Corminboeuf, Gilles, Matthieu Monney, F. Neveu, S. Prévost, A. Steuckardt, G. Bergounioux & B. Hamma
2022. Si je t’aime ! Régimes insubordonnés. SHS Web of Conferences 138 ► pp. 13001 ff. DOI logo
Kaltenböck, Gunther & Evelien Keizer
2022. Insubordinateif-clauses in FDG: Degrees of independence. Open Linguistics 8:1 ► pp. 675 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
Visapää, Laura
2022. Infinitives of affect and intersubjectivity: on the indexical interpretation of the Finnish independent infinitives. Cognitive Linguistics 33:3 ► pp. 521 ff. DOI logo
Enghels, Renata & María Sol Sansiñena
2021. Discourse-level phenomena in construction grammars. Constructions and Frames 13:1 ► pp. 3 ff. DOI logo
Gras, Pedro
2021. La gramática de construcciones. Una mirada interna, periférica y aplicada. Borealis – An International Journal of Hispanic Linguistics 10:1 ► pp. 43 ff. DOI logo
Gras, Pedro
2025. Insubordination at the Interaction of Discourse, Grammar, and Prosody. In The Cambridge Handbook of Construction Grammar, ► pp. 354 ff. DOI logo
Rodríguez, Catalina Fuentes
2021. Discursive functions and constructionalization of independent "subordinate" sentences in Spanish. Círculo de Lingüística Aplicada a la Comunicación 87 ► pp. 173 ff. DOI logo
Rodríguez, Catalina Fuentes
2023. Construcciones exclamativas de rechazo. Spanish in Context 20:1 ► pp. 178 ff. DOI logo
DE WIT, ASTRID, PETER PETRÉ & FRANK BRISARD
2020. Standing out with the progressive. Journal of Linguistics 56:3 ► pp. 479 ff. DOI logo
Gras, Pedro & María Sol Sansiñena
2020. Un caso de variación pragmático-discursiva:queinicial en tres variedades dialectales del español. Romanistisches Jahrbuch 71:1 ► pp. 271 ff. DOI logo
Corr, Alice
2018. ‘Exclamative’ and ‘quotative’ illocutionary complementisers in Catalan, European Portuguese and Spanish. Languages in Contrast 18:1 ► pp. 69 ff. DOI logo
Corr, Alice
2018. Matrix complementisers and ‘speech act’ syntax. In Romance Languages and Linguistic Theory 13 [Romance Languages and Linguistic Theory, 13], ► pp. 75 ff. DOI logo
McGregor, William B.
2017. There’s grammar and there’s grammar just as there’s usage and there’s usage. English Text Construction 10:2 ► pp. 199 ff. DOI logo
Sansiñena, María Sol
2017. Eliciting evidence of functional differences. In Imperatives and Directive Strategies [Studies in Language Companion Series, 184], ► pp. 265 ff. DOI logo
Kaltenböck, Gunther
2016. On the grammatical status of insubordinate if-clauses. In Outside the Clause [Studies in Language Companion Series, 178], ► pp. 341 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 7 december 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