Cover not available
Part of
Perspectives on Evidentiality in Spanish: Explorations across genres
Edited by Carolina Figueras Bates and Adrián Cabedo
[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 290] 2018
► pp. 107–124

Chapter 5
Evidentiality, deonticity and intensification in Internet forum language

| Pompeu Fabra University

We analyze the Spanish verbal periphrases tienes que + infinitive and debes + infini-tive [you have to + infinitive and you should + infinitive], with a deontic meaning, in an Internet forum. These verbal forms are used to give advice to other Internet users. After analyzing their functions, we reached the conclusion that such periphrases, with deontic value, function as epistemic modals: on the part of the speaker, they imply an axiological evaluation of his or her advice in terms of it being essential and necessary. Its evidential value (in the sense of information validation rather than as a source) derives from two factors. From a pragmatic inference: when a speaker expresses a high degree of certainty, to the extent of presenting an act as a requirement or obligation, he or she must have compelling evidence in order to believe that. And from an argumentative strategy: in order to justify their exhortations, the speakers draw on their personal experience and present themselves as witnesses who guarantee the validity of their recommendations.

Keywords: evidentiality, deontic modality, intensification, internet genres
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Work methodology and preliminary considerations concerning the corpus data
  • 3. The theoretical question
  • 4. Tienes que + infinitive [you have to + infinitive] vs. debes + infinitive [you should + infinitive]
    • 4.1The source of necessity in tienes que + infinitive [you have to + infinitive] and debes + infinitive [you should + infinitive]
    • 4.2 Analysis of the periphrasis debes + infinitive [you should + infinitive]
  • 5.Conclusions
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 24 July 2018
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.290.05mic
References
Aikhenvald, Alexandra Y.
2007 “Information Source and Evidentiality: What Can We Conclude?” Rivista di Linguistica 19 (1): 209–227.Google Scholar
Anderson, Lloyd B.
1986 “Evidentials, Path of Change and Mental Maps: Typologically Regular Asymmetries.” In Evidentiality: the Linguistic Coding of Epistemology, ed. by Wallace L. Chafe, and Johanna Nichols, 273–312. Advances in Discourse Processes v. 20. Norwood, New Jersey: Ablez.Google Scholar
Cabedo Nebot, Adrián, and Carolina Figueras Bates
2018/this volume “Evidentiality, Epistemicity and Discourse Genre.” In Perspectives on Evidentiality in Spanish. Explorations across Genres, ed. by Carolina Figueras Bates, and Adrián Cabedo Nebot, 1-24. Amsterdam / Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cassany, Daniel
2002 “La alfabetización digital”. Ponencia plenaria presentada en el XIII Congreso Internacional de la Asociación de Lingüística y Filología de América Latina (ALFAL), Universidad de Costa Rica, San José, Costa Rica, 18–23 de febrero del 2002, con el título ‘La escritura y la enseñanza en el entorno digital’.
Cornillie, Bert
2007 Evidentiality and Epistemic Modality in Spanish (Semi-)Auxiliaries: A Cognitive-Functional Approach. De Gruyter Mouton.Google Scholar
2009 “Evidentiality and Epistemic Modality.” Special Issue of Functions of Language 16:1, 44–62, ed. by Lena Ekberg and Carita Paradis, John Benjamins Publishing Company.Google Scholar
Cornillie, Bert, Marín Arrese, Juana, and Wiemer, Björn
2015 “Evidentiality and the Semantics-Pragmatics Interface.” Belgian Journal of Linguistics 29: 1–17.Google Scholar
Crystal, David
2006 [2001] Lengua y la Internet. Cambridge University Press. [URL] doi: DOI logo
Ducrot, Oswald
1984 Le dire et le dit, Paris: Minuit.Google Scholar
Fernández de Castro, Félix
1999 Las perífrasis verbales en el español actual. (Biblioteca románica hispánica 2). Madrid: Gredos.Google Scholar
Fernández López, Justo
1999 “Perífrasis modales de infinitivo.” [URL]
Fetzer, Anita and Etsuko Oishi
(eds.) 2014 Evidentiality in Discourse. Special Issue Intercultural Pragmatics 11.3.Google Scholar
Gómez Torrego, Leonardo
1988 Perífrasis verbales (Español para extranjeros). Madrid: Arco Libros.Google Scholar
1999 “Los verbos auxiliares. Las perífrasis verbales de infinitivo.” In Gramática descriptiva de la lengua española, ed. by Ignacio Bosque, and Violeta, Demonte, 3323–3390. Madrid: Espasa Calpe.Google Scholar
González, Montserrat
2014 “Evidentiality, Intersubjectivity and Salience in Spanish and Catalan markers claro/clar and la verdad/veritat.” In Intercultural Pragmatics, 11(3), ed. by Anita Fetzer, and Etsuko Oishi, 411–436.Google Scholar
2015 “From Truth-Attesting to Intensification: The Grammaticalization of Spanish la verdad and Catalan la veritat.” Discourse Studies, special issue ‘Evidential and Epistemic Strategies in Discourse’ (selected papers from MODEVIG workshop 2014), ed. by Montserrat González, 1-20.Google Scholar
González Vázquez, Mercedes
2006 Las fuentes de la información. Tipología, semántica y pragmática de la evidencialidad, Universidad de Vigo. Servicio de Publicaciones Universidade de Vigo.Google Scholar
Hennemann, Anja
2012 A Context-sensitive and Functional Approach to Evidentiality in Spanish or Why Evidentiality needs a Superordinate Category. Peter Lang.Google Scholar
Hyland, Ken
2002 Teaching and Researching Writing. London: Longman.Google Scholar
Miche, Elisabeth, and Clara Lorda
2014 “Probability and Certainty Markers in French and in Spanish (sans doute / sin duda).” Language and Dialogue, 4 (1): 42–57. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Miche, Elisabeth
2015 “An Analysis of Some Evidential Structures in Essays Written by Students of French as a Foreign Language.” In Discourse Studies, special issue ‘Evidential and Epistemic Strategies in Discourse’ (selected papers from MODEVIG workshop 2014), ed. by Montserrat González, 226–240.Google Scholar
NGLE
2009 Nueva gramática de la lengua española. Manual. Madrid: Espasa.Google Scholar
Nuckolls, Janis, and Lev Michael
2012 “Evidentials and Evidential Strategies in Interactional and Socio-cultural Context.” In Evidentiality in Interaction, ed. by Janis Nuckolls, and Lev Michael, 13–20. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company.Google Scholar
Nuyts, Jan
2001a “Subjectivity as an Evidential Dimension in Epistemic Modal Expression.” Journal of Pragmatics 33: 383–400. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2010 “On Deontic Modality, Directivity, and Mood: the Case of Dutch Mogen and Moeten.” Journal of Pragmatics 42 (1): 16–34. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2012 “Notions of (inter)subjectivity.” English Text Construction 5 (1): 53–76. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Silva-Corvalán, Carmen
1995 “Contextual Conditions for the Interpretation of ‘poder’ and ‘deber’ in Spanish.” In Modality in grammar and discourse, ed. by Joan Bybee, and Suzanne Fleischman, 67–105. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sirbu-Dumitrescu, Domnita
1988 “Contribución al studio de la semántica de los verbos modales en español (con ejemplos del habla de Madrid).” Hispania 71 (1): 139–147. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Thegel, Miriam
2017a “¿Opiniones, normas o pura necesidad? La modalidad deóntica y la modalidad dináminca a través de deber y tener que.” Studia Romanica Upsaliensia 85: 221.Google Scholar
2017b “Intersubjective Strategies in Deontic Modality: Evidential Functions of Spanish deber ‘must’.” [URL]
Torrent, Aina
2015 “Evidentiality and Lexicalisation in the Spanish Phraseological System: A Study of the Idiom a fe mía (and its variants).” In Discourse Studies, special issue ‘Evidential and Epistemic Strategies in Discourse’ (selected papers from MODEVIG workshop 2014), ed. by Montserrat González.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wright, Georg Henrik von
1951 An Essay in Modal Logic. Amsterdam: North-Holland.Google Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 1 other publications

Cabedo Nebot, Adrián & Carolina Figueras Bates
2018. Chapter 1. Evidentiality in discourse. In Perspectives on Evidentiality in Spanish [Pragmatics & Beyond New Series, 290], ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 22 april 2024. 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.