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Constructions in Spanish
Edited by Inga Hennecke and Evelyn Wiesinger
[Constructional Approaches to Language 34] 2023
► pp. 193–223

Chapter 8
Quotative que constructions in Spanish

A constructional variational approach

| University of Antwerp
| University of Antwerp
| University of Antwerp

Construction Grammar is a theoretical approach amenable to accommodating any conventional feature of the meaning or form of a construction as part of its description, including lectal information. This paper provides a constructional analysis of the quotative que construction in Spanish, focusing on discourse and geographical variation. It demonstrates that a model based on different levels of generalization (parent schemas vs. subschemas) allows us not only to describe the specific contexts in which constructions are used (subschemas), but also to incorporate geographical and discourse variation that could not be captured at a higher level of abstraction (parent schema).

Keywords: language variation, Spanish, quotative que construction, constructional schema, constructional networks
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Quotative que constructions in Spanish
    • 2.1Description of quotative que constructions
    • 2.2Formalist approaches
    • 2.3Functionalist approaches
    • 2.4A constructional approach
  • 3.Construction Grammar and language variation
  • 4.Research questions, data and methodology
  • 5.Results
    • 5.1Geographical variation
    • 5.2Discourse variation
    • 5.3The interaction of geographical and discourse variation
  • 6.Discourse and geographical variation in the constructional network
  • 7.Conclusions
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
Published online: 18 July 2023
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/cal.34.08gra
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