The Spanish Synthetic Future as a Means of Expression of Inference

Anja Hennemann

Abstract


The present paper analyses the inferential use of the Spanish synthetic future form, i.e. examples in which the future is used as an inferential marker. The examples are retrieved from the search engine GlossaNet, more precisely, from the Spanish daily newspapers El País and El Mundo. This study does not aim to be a quantitative one. It is a qualitative study where the data are used to verify/refute the theoretical basis. It is, for example, not my intention to show in how many cases of a certain total amount of uses the Spanish synthetic future form is used to express inference. It is argued that the label “inferential future” (instead of “epistemic future”) should be preferred. Additionally, the synthetic future is shown to convey inferences of different strengths: será + sin duda (“it will/must be + without a doubt”), for instance, represents a stronger inference, while with será + probablemente (“it will/must be + probably”) a weaker inference is expressed.


Keywords


Spanish synthetic future; Evidentiality; Inference

Full Text:

PDF

References


Auwera, J. van der, & Plungian, V. A. (1998). Modality’s semantic map. Linguistic Typology, 2, 79–124.

Boye, K. (2006). Epistemic meaning: A cross-linguistic and cognitive study (Doctoral dissertation). Copenhagen: University of Copenhagen.

Bybee, J., Perkins, R., & Pagliuca, W. (1994). The evolution of grammar. tense, aspect, and modality in the languages of the world. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

Cappelli, G. (2007). “I reckon I know how Leonardo da Vinci must have felt...”. Epistemicity, evidentiality and English verbs of cognitive attitude. Pari: Pari Publishing.

Cornillie, B. (2009). Evidentiality and epistemic modality. On the close relationship between two different categories. Functions of Language, 16 (1), 44–62.

Dendale, P., & Van Bogaert, J. (2007). A semantic description of French lexical evidential markers and the classification of evidentials. Italian Journal of Linguistics (Evidentiality between Lexicon and Grammar), 19 (1), 65–89.

Diewald, G., & Smirnova, E. (2010). Evidentiality in German. linguistic realization and regularities in grammaticalization. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.

Fried, M. (2009). Construction Grammar as a tool for diachronic analysis. Constructions and Frames, 1(2), 262–291.

Giacalone Ramat, A., & Topadze, M. (2007). The coding of evidentiality: a comparative look at Georgian and Italian. Italian Journal of Linguistics (Evidentiality between Lexicon and Grammar), 19 (1), 7–38.

Gómez Rendón, J. (2006). Interpersonal Aspects of Evidentiality in Ecuadorian Quechua. ACLC Working Papers, 1, 37–50.

Haan, F. de (2006). Typological approaches to modality. In W. Frawley (Ed.), The Expression of Modality (pp. 27–69). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.

Haßler, G. (1997). Texte im Text. Überlegungen zu einem textlinguistischen Problem. In G. Haßler (Ed.), Texte im Text: Untersuchungen zur Intertextualität und ihren sprachlichen Formen (pp. 11–58). Münster: Nodus.

Haßler, G. (1998). Die Markierung der Herkunft des Sprecherwissens – ein grammatisches und pragmatisches Problem. In U. L. Figge, F.-J. Klein & A. Martínez Moreno (Eds.), Gram­matische Strukturen und grammatischer Wandel im Französischen. Festschrift für Klaus Hunnius zum 65. Geburtstag (pp.169–191). Bonn: Romanistischer Verlag.

Haßler, G. (2003). Modalisierung und Vagheit in der italienischen Pressesprache. In H.-I. Radatz & R. Schlösser (Eds.), Donum grammaticorum. Festschrift für Harro Stammerjohann (pp.115–129). Tübingen: Max Niemeyer Verlag.

Hayashi, M., & Yoon, K-E. (2010). A cross-linguistic exploration of demonstratives in interactions: With particular reference to the context of word-formulation trouble. In N. Amiridze, B. H. Davis & M. Maclagan (Eds.), Fillers, Pauses and Placeholders (pp.33–66). Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company.

Henneman, A. (2012). The epistemic and evidential use of Spanish modal adverbs and verbs of cognitive attitude. Folia Linguistica, 46 (1), 133–170.

Hennemann, A. (2013). A Context-sensitive and Functional Approach to Evidentiality in Spanish or Why Evidentiality needs a Superordinate Category. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.

Koch, P., & Oesterreicher, W. (1994). Schrift und Schriftlichkeit. In Ein interdisziplinäres Handbuch internationaler Forschung (pp. 587–604). Berlin: de Gruyter.

Lazard, G. (2001). On the grammaticalization of evidentiality. Journal of Pragmatics. Special Issue on “Evidentiality”, 33 (3), 359–367.

Lyons, J. (1977). Semantics (Vols. 2). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Lyons, J. (1995). Linguistic semantics. An introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Montolío, E. (1999). Las construcciones condicionales. In I. Bosque & V. Demonte (Eds.), Gramática descriptiva de la lengua española (pp.3643–3738). Madrid: Espasa Calpe.

Nuyts, J. (2001). Epistemic modality, language, and conceptualization. A cognitive-pragmatic perspective. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company.

Pietrandrea, P. (2005). Epistemic Modality. Functional properties and the Italian system. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company.

Pietrandrea, P. (2007). The grammatical nature of some epistemic-evidential adverbs in spoken Italian. Italian Journal of Linguistics (Evidentiality between Lexicon and Grammar), 19 (1), 39–64.

Real Academia Española (2010): Nueva gramática de la lengua española. Manual. Madrid: Espasa Libros.

Simon-Vandenbergen, A.-M., & Aijmer, K. (2007). The Semantic Field of Modal Certainty. A Corpus-Based Study of English Adverbs. Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter.

Squartini, M. (2001). The internal structure of evidentiality in Romance. Studies in Language, 25 (2), 297–334.

Traugott, E. C. (2003). Constructions in grammaticalization. In The Handbook of Historical Linguistics (pp. 624–647). Oxford: Blackwell.

Vega Moreno, R. E. (2007). Creativity and convention. The pragmatics of everyday figurative speech. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company.

Volkmann, G. (2005). Weltsicht und sprache. epistemische relativierung am beispiel des spanischen. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag.

Wachtmeister Bermúdez, F. (2004). “La categoría evidencial del castellano: metonimia y elevación del sujeto. Boletín de Lingüística, 22, 3–31. Retrieved from http://redalyc.uaemex.mx/redalyc/pdf/347/34702201.pdf (23/07/2008).

Wachtmeister Bermúdez, F. (2005). Evidencialidad. La codificación lingüística del punto de vista (Doctoral dissertation). Stockholms Universitet. Retrieved from http:// su.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:199511/FULLTEXT01 (27/11/2007).

Willett, T. (1988). A cross-linguistic survey of the grammaticization of evidentiality. Studies in Language, 12(1), 51–97




DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3968/n

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Copyright (c)



Share us to:   

 

Online Submission: http://cscanada.org/index.php/sll/submission/wizard

Please send your manuscripts to sll@cscanada.net，or  sll@cscanada.org  for consideration. We look forward to receiving your work.


We only use three mailboxes as follows to deal with issues about paper acceptance, payment and submission of electronic versions of our journals to databases: caooc@hotmail.com; sll@cscanada.net; sll@cscanada.org

 Articles published in Studies in Literature and Language are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC-BY).

 STUDIES IN LITERATURE AND LANGUAGE Editorial Office

Address: 1055 Rue Lucien-L'Allier, Unit #772, Montreal, QC H3G 3C4, Canada.
Telephone: 1-514-558 6138 
Website: Http://www.cscanada.net; Http://www.cscanada.org 
E-mail: office@cscanada.net; office@cscanada.org; caooc@hotmail.com

Copyright © 2010 Canadian Academy of Oriental and Occidental Culture