¿Quí los podrié contar? Interrogative acts in the Cantar de mio Cid

The study of interrogative acts in the Old Spanish Cantar de mio Cid is based on the premise that speech acts not only have to be located in the context of dialogue interaction but also in the frame of the traditions that mark the (literary) text. Because of this context dependency the pragmatic profile of interrogative acts has to be worked out by means of close philological interpretations. After sketching some methodological premises and a definition of the interrogative act, two question types are described in detail: the rhetorical question and a phatic use of the where-question. The analysis illustrates how the interrogative power of questions is shaped by the dialogue context and demonstrates the impact of text traditions like narrative techniques. Thus, the twofold contextualization of the interrogative acts shows the need for an interdisciplinary analysis that integrates sociohistorical considerations as well as literary reflections.