Cover not available
Part of
Left Sentence Peripheries in Spanish: Diachronic, Variationist and Comparative Perspectives
Edited by Andreas Dufter and Álvaro S. Octavio de Toledo y Huerta
[Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today 214] 2014
► pp. 217–252

Chapter 8. Evidentiality and illocutionary force

Spanish matrix que at the syntax-pragmatics interface

| ILLA-CCHS-CSIC
| Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
This paper centers on certain aspects of the syntax-semantics-pragmatics interface. Its main contribution is that it incorporates into the wide crosslinguistic list of grammatical evidentials one type of Spanish que ‘that’, which is claimed to have evolved into this category from a complementizer. To set our argument two cases are described: (i) (discourse initial) root clauses headed by que introducing a speech event (Etxepare 2007, 2010) which is reported; (ii) que-clauses reproducing previous discourse. Both descriptive and theoretical approaches group these instances of que together. We show, instead, that the first que is a “reportative evidential” while the second one is an ‘echoic’ que, a true (‘insubordinate’) complementizer, in some cases selected by a silent communication verb. The semantic and syntactic properties of both types of que are carefully described and syntactic-semantic analyses in terms of “illocutionary force” and discourse operators are proposed. Implications for the theory of the Left Periphery are also discussed.
Published online: 31 July 2014
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/la.214.13dem
References
Aikhenvald, Aleksandra Y.
2004  Evidentiality . Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar
2006 Evidentiality in grammar. In Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics , 2nd edn, Vol. 4, Keith Brown (ed.), 320–325. Oxford: Elsevier.Google Scholar
Alcina, Juan & Blecua, José Manuel
1975  Gramática española . Barcelona: Ariel.Google Scholar
Bello, Andrés
1847  Gramática de la lengua española destinada al uso de los americanos. Santiago de Chile: Imprenta del Progreso.Google Scholar
Brucart, José María
2009 Sobre el valor evidencial de como en español. In La Lingüística como Reto Epistemológico y como Acción Social. Estudios dedicados al profesor Ángel López García , Montserrat Veyrat Rigat & Enrique Serra Alegre (eds), 583–593. Madrid: Arco Libros.Google Scholar
Cable, Seth A.
2011 Insubordination in Tlingit: An areal effect? Northwest Journal of Linguistics 5(1):1–38.Google Scholar
Chafe, Wallace L. & Nichols, Johanna
(eds) 1986  Evidentiality: the Linguistic Coding of Epistemology . Norwood NJ: Ablex.Google Scholar
Chomsky, Noam
2005 Three factors in language design. Linguistic Inquiry 36(1): 1–22. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Chung, Kyung-Sook
2007 Spatial deictic tense and evidentials in Korean. Natural Language Semantics 15(3): 187–219. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cinque, Guglielmo
1999  Adverbs and Functional Heads. A Crosslinguistic Perspective . Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar
Cornillie, Bert
2007  Evidentiality and Epistemic Modality in Spanish (Semi)-Auxiliaries. A Cognitive-Functional Approach . Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Demonte, Violeta & Fernández-Soriano, Olga
2009 Force and finiteness in the Spanish complementizer system. Probus 21(1): 23–49. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2013a El ‘que’ citativo en español y otros elementos de la periferia oracional. Variación inter e intralingüística. In Autour de ‘que’. El entorno de ‘que’’ . Daniel Jacob & Katja Ploog (eds), 47–69. Frankfurt: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
. 2013b. Evidentials dizque and que in Spanish. Grammaticalization, parameters and the (fine) structure of Comp. Linguística. Revista de Estudos linguísticos da Universidade do Porto 8: 211–234.Google Scholar
Escandell, Victoria
1999 Los enunciados interrogativos. Aspectos semánticos y pragmáticos. In Gramática descriptiva de la lengua española, Ignacio Bosque & Violeta Demonte (eds), Vol. 3, 3929–3992. Madrid: Espasa Calpe.Google Scholar
Etxepare, Ricardo
2007 Some aspects of the quotative construction in Iberian Spanish. Anuario del Seminario de Filología Vasca Julio de Urquijo: International Journal of Basque Linguistics and Philology 41(2): 25–58.Google Scholar
2010 From hearsay evidentiality to samesaying relations. Lingua 120(3): 604–627. Thematic issue Exploring the Left Periphery , Kleanthes K. Grohmann & Ianthi Maria Tsimpli (eds). DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Evans, Nicholas
2007 Insubordination and its uses. In Finiteness , Irina Nikolaeva (ed.), 366–431. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar
Faller, Martina
2002 Semantics and Pragmatics of Evidentials in Cuzco Quechua. PhD dissertation, Stanford University.Google Scholar
2006 Evidentiality and epistemic modality at the semantics/pragmatics interface. Talk presented at the Workshop on Philosophy and Linguistics , November 3–5, University of Michigan at Ann Arbor.
Franco, Irene
2009 Verbs, Subjects and Stylistic Fronting. PhD dissertation, University of Siena.Google Scholar
Garrett, Edward
2001 Evidentiality and Assertion in Tibetan. PhD dissertation, UCLA.Google Scholar
Gili Gaya, Samuel
1943  Curso superior de sintaxis española . Reed 1961 Barcelona: Bibliograf.Google Scholar
Giorgi, Alessandra
2010  About the Speaker: Towards a Syntax of Indexicality . Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar
Gordon, Lynn
1986 The development of evidentials in Maricopa. In Chafe & Nichols (eds), 75–88.
Gras, Pedro
2010 Gramática de Construcciones en Interacción. Propuesta de un modelo y aplicación al análisis de estructuras independientes con marcas de subordinación en español. PhD dissertation, University of Barcelona.Google Scholar
Haegeman, Liliane
2010 The internal syntax of adverbial clauses. In Lingua 120(3): 628–648. Thematic issue Exploring the Left Periphery , Kleanthes K. Grohmann & Ianthi Maria Tsimpli (eds).Google Scholar
Hardman, Martha
1986 Data source marking in the Jaqi languages. In Chafe & Nichols (eds), 113–116.Google Scholar
Hernanz, M. Lluïsa
2007 From polarity to modality: Some (a)symmetries between bien and sí in Spanish. In Coreference, Modality and Focus. Studies on the Syntax–Semantics Interface [Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today 111], Luis Eguren & Olga Fernández-Soriano (eds), 133–170. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Heycock, Caroline
2006 Embedded root phenomena. In The Blackwell Companion to Syntax, Vol. II, Ch. 23 , Martin Everaert & Henk van Riemsdijk (eds), 174–209. Oxford: Blackwell. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hooper, Joan B. & Thompson, Sandra A.
1973 On the applicability of root transformations. Linguistic Inquiry 4(4): 465–497.Google Scholar
Izvorski, Roumyana
1997 The present perfect as an epistemic modal. In Proceedings of SALT VIII , Aaron Lawson (ed.), 222–239. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Jackendoff, Ray
1990  Semantic Structures . Cambridge MA: The MIT Press.Google Scholar
2002  Foundations of Language: Brain, Meaning, Grammar, Evolution . Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar
Jacobsen William, H.
1986 The heterogeneity of evidentials in Makah. In Chafe & Nichols (eds), 3–28.
Jakobson, Roman
1957  Shifters, Verbal Categories and the Russian Verb . Cambridge MA: Harvard University.Google Scholar
Kierstead, Gregory & Martin, Scott
2012 The hybrid status of the reportative evidential in Tagalog. Paper presented at Semantics and Linguistic Theory 22, University of Chicago.
Klee, Carol A. & Ocampo, Alicia
1995 The expression of past reference in Spanish-Quechua bilingual speakers. In Spanish in Four Continents: Studies in Language Contact and Bilingualism, Carmen Silva-Corvalán (ed.), 52–70. Washington DC: Georgetown University Press.Google Scholar
Krifka, Manfred
2001 Quantifying into question acts. Natural Language Semantics 9(1): 1–40. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Laprade, Richard A.
1976 Some Salient Dialectal Features of La Paz Spanish. MA thesis, University of Florida.Google Scholar
1981 Some cases of Aymara influence on La Paz Spanish. In The Aymara Language in its Social and Cultural Context: A Collection of Essays on Aspects of Aymara Language and Culture , Martha J. Hardman (ed.), 207–227. Gainesville FL: University Press of Florida.Google Scholar
Ledgeway, Adam
2005 Moving through the left periphery: The dual complementiser system in the dialects of southern Italy. Transactions of the Philological Society 103(3): 339–396. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lim, Dongsik
2010 Evidentials and Interrogatives: A Case Study from Korean. PhD dissertation, University of Southern California.Google Scholar
Matthewson, Lisa, Davis, Henry & Rullmann, Hotze
2007 Evidentials as epistemic modals: Evidence from St’át’imcets. Linguistic Variation Yearbook 7: 201–254.Google Scholar
Murray, Sara
2010 Evidentiality and the Structure of Speech Acts. PhD dissertation, Rutgers University.Google Scholar
Palmer, Frank R.
1986  Mood and Modality . Cambridge: CUP.Google Scholar
Porroche Ballesteros, Margarita
2000 Algunos aspectos del uso de que en el español conversacional (que como introductor de oraciones “independientes”). Círculo de Lingüística Aplicada (CLAC) 3: 100–116.Google Scholar
Reis, Marga
2006 Is German V-to-C movement really semantically motivated? Some empirical problems. Theoretical Linguistics 32(3): 369–380. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Rizzi, Luigi
1997 The fine structure of the left periphery. In Elements of Grammar. Handbook of Generative Syntax , Liliane Haegeman (ed.), 281–337. Dordrecht: Kluwer.Google Scholar
Rodríguez Ramalle, Teresa M.
2008a El que como marca enfática discursiva en adverbios e interjecciones. In 25 años de Lingüística Aplicada en España: hitos y retos, Rafael Monroy & Aquilino Sánchez (eds), 811–816. Murcia: EDITUM.Google Scholar
2008b Estudio sintáctico y discursivo de algunas estructuras enunciativas y citativas del español. Revista Española de Lingüística Aplicada (RESLA) 21: 269–288.Google Scholar
Rooryck, Johan
2001a Evidentiality, Part I. Glot International 5(4): 125–133.Google Scholar
2001b Evidentiality, Part II. Glot International 5(5): 161–168.Google Scholar
Rullmann, Hotze, Matthewson, Lisa & Davis, Henry
2008 Modals as distributive indefinites. Natural Language Semantics 16(4): 271–295. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Searle, John
1969  Speech Acts . Cambridge: CUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Searle, John & Vanderveken, Daniel
1985  Foundations of Illocutionary Logic . Cambridge: CUP.Google Scholar
Sheehan, Michelle & Hinzen, Wolfram
2011 Moving towards the edge: The grammar of Reference. Linguistic Analysis 37(3–4): 405–458.Google Scholar
Sigurðsson, Halldór Á.
2004 The syntax of Person, Tense, and speech features. Italian Journal of Linguistics 16(1): 219–251.Google Scholar
Speas, Margaret
2004 Evidentiality, logophoricity and the syntactic representation of pragmatic features. Lingua 114(3): 255–276. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Speas, Peggy & Tenny, Carol
2003 Configurational properties of point of view roles. In Asymmetry in Grammar, Vol. 1: Syntax and Semantics [Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today 57], Anna Maria Di Sciullo (ed.), 315–344. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Spitzer, Leo
1942 Notas sintáctico-estilísticas a propósito del español “que”. Revista de Filología Hispánica 4: 105–126.Google Scholar
Travis, Catherine E.
2006  Dizque: A Colombian evidentiality strategy. Linguistics 44(6): 1269–1297. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Treviño, Esthela
2008  Que, una marca de evidencialidad en español. Paper presented at X Encuentro Internacional de Lingüística en el Noroeste , UNISON, Hermosillo, Mexico.
Truckenbrodt, Hubert
2006 On the semantic motivation of syntactic verb movement to C in German. Theoretical Linguistics 32(3): 257–306.Google Scholar
Vallejo, Fernando
1994  La virgen de los sicarios . Bogotá: Alfaguara.Google Scholar
Villa-García, Julio
2012 Recomplementation and locality of movement in Spanish. Probus 24(2): 257–314.Google Scholar
Weber, David J.
1986 Information perspective, profile, and patterns in Quechua. In Chafe & Nichols (eds), 137–155.
Willett, Thomas
1988 A cross-linguistic survey of the grammaticization of evidentiality. Studies in Language 12(1): 51–97. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wilson, Deirdre
2006 The pragmatics of verbal irony: Echo or pretence? Lingua 116(10): 1722–1743.Google Scholar
Zaefferer, Dietmar
2006 Types, moods, and force potentials. Towards a comprehensive account of German sentence mood meanings. Theoretical Linguistics 32(3): 335–352. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 24 other publications

Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald
2018. The Oxford Handbook of Evidentiality, DOI logo
Corr, Alice
2022. The grammar of dialogue. In The Grammar of the Utterance, ► pp. 251 ff. DOI logo
Corr, Alice
2022. The Grammar of the Utterance, DOI logo
Corr, Alice
2022. Utterances without commitment. In The Grammar of the Utterance, ► pp. 203 ff. DOI logo
Corr, Alice
2022. Doing things with utterance grammar. In The Grammar of the Utterance, ► pp. 135 ff. DOI logo
Corr, Alice
2022. Introduction. In The Grammar of the Utterance, ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
Corr, Alice
2022. A grammar for the utterance. In The Grammar of the Utterance, ► pp. 15 ff. DOI logo
Corr, Alice
2022. The expression of affect. In The Grammar of the Utterance, ► pp. 157 ff. DOI logo
Corr, Alice
2022. Conclusions. In The Grammar of the Utterance, ► pp. 299 ff. DOI logo
Corr, Alice
2022. Vocatives. In The Grammar of the Utterance, ► pp. 51 ff. DOI logo
Corr, Alice
2022. Interjections and particles. In The Grammar of the Utterance, ► pp. 99 ff. DOI logo
Cruschina, Silvio & Eva-Maria Remberger
2017. Chapter 3. Before the complementizer. In Adjective Adverb Interfaces in Romance [Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today, 242], ► pp. 81 ff. DOI logo
Del Barrio de la Rosa, Florencio
2023. Preguntó (que) si qué quería: si como operador interrogativo en español vernáculo. Cuadernos de Lingüística Hispánica :42 ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
Demonte, Violeta & Olga Fernández-Soriano
2022. A multidimensional analysis of the Spanish reportative epistemic evidential dizque. Lingua 266 ► pp. 103168 ff. DOI logo
Duță, Oana-Adriana
2021. Algunas observaciones sobre el funcionamiento del adverbio dizque, un elemento de discontinuidad diacrónica y diatópica en español. Studia Universitatis Babeș-Bolyai Philologia 66:4 ► pp. 53 ff. DOI logo
Frank, Joshua
2016. On the grammaticality of recomplementation in Spanish. In Inquiries in Hispanic Linguistics [Issues in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics, 12], ► pp. 39 ff. DOI logo
Goria, Eugenio
2016. The role of extra-clausal constituents in bilingual speech. In Outside the Clause [Studies in Language Companion Series, 178], ► pp. 273 ff. DOI logo
Heine, Bernd
2016. Extra-clausal constituents and language contact. In Outside the Clause [Studies in Language Companion Series, 178], ► pp. 243 ff. DOI logo
Reda, Ghsoon
2023. Evidential propositions as situational scenarios. Review of Cognitive Linguistics DOI logo
Villa-García, Julio & Raquel González Rodríguez
2020. On the Contrasts Between sí ‘yes’ and sí que ‘yes that’ in Spanish and the Structure of the Complementizer Phrase Domain. Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics 13:2 ► pp. 451 ff. DOI logo
[no author supplied]
2015. The Syntax of Multiple-queSentences in Spanish [Issues in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics, 2], DOI logo
[no author supplied]
2022. Copyright Page. In The Grammar of the Utterance, ► pp. iv ff. DOI logo
[no author supplied]
2022. List of Abbreviations. In The Grammar of the Utterance, ► pp. xi ff. DOI logo
[no author supplied]
2022. General Preface. In The Grammar of the Utterance, ► pp. vii ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 8 november 2023. 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.