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Discourse Segmentation in Romance Languages
Edited by Salvador Pons Bordería
[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 250] 2014
► pp. 157–183

On the delimitation of discursive units in colloquial Spanish

Val.Es.Co application model

| Val.Es.Co Research Group, University of Valencia

This paper outlines the theoretical framework of the Val.Es.Co Research Group, dealing with the description and delimitation of discourse units; more concretely, minor discourse units will be dealt with. To set the limits of discourse units, this system combines both prosodic and semantic/pragmatic features, being their combination not hierarchical but complementary. In other words, either prosodic, semantic or pragmatic features can become determining when identifying conversational units in specific contexts. Finally, two cases of colloquial Spanish are analysed in which delimiting discourse units becomes a problematic task, namely the Spanish discourse marker bueno (‘well’) and suspended utterances. In the first case, prosody is not as relevant as semantics, whereas in the second one the contrary holds. In both cases, the Val.Es.Co system provides a solution to help delimit this units.

Keywords: act, bueno, discourse units, prosody, subact, suspended utterances, Val.Es.Co system
Published online: 14 November 2014
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.250.06cab
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