Cover not available
Article published In:
Discourse approaches to evidentiality in Spanish
Edited by Marta Albelda Marco and María Estellés
[Pragmatics and Society 9:3] 2018
► pp. 402–428
Special Issue Section

What genres tell us about evidentials and vice versa

A study of al parecer in Spanish parliamentary debates

| University of Valencia

The aim of this paper is twofold. First, it aims to delve into the influence of contextual discursive factors in determining the type of evidential chosen and the pragmatic functions developed by evidentials in Spanish parliamentary discourse; second, it shows how evidentials can also provide useful new insight on the genre. A corpus study has been carried out studying the Spanish evidential discourse marker al parecer in parliamentary debates. The analysis shows how real examples of al parecer hardly fit any category of evidentials posited previously; data also illustrates how factors such as the discursive role or the part of the parliamentary process do affect the meaning of al parecer and change the pragmatic nuances conveyed by the discourse marker.

Keywords: Evidentiality, Spanish, parliamentary discourse, al parecer , genre
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The evidential discourse marker al parecer: Semantic and pragmatic approaches
    • 2.1Semantic aspects: The evidential basis of al parecer
    • 2.2Pragmatic aspects – linguistic variation of al parecer: Genres and contextual preferences
  • 3.Methodology: Corpus and selection of the examples
    • 3.1Corpus selection
    • 3.2Database
  • 4.Results and discussion
    • 4.1What parliamentary discourse can tell us about al parecer
      • a. Al parecer as a general indirect evidential
      • b. Al parecer as a reportative evidential
      • c. Al parecer as a non-firsthand evidential (Aikhenvald 2003)
      • d. Al parecer as a circumstantial evidential
      • e. Al parecer as a generic inferential
    • 4.2What al parecer can tell us about parliamentary discourse
      • 4.2.1Internal variables
      • 4.2.2External variables
      • 4.2.3External criteria, internal criteria: A cross comparison
  • 5.Taxonomical complexity of evidentials in parliamentary discourse
  • 6.Conclusions
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 28 June 2018
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ps.16034.est
References
Aikhenvald, Alexandra
2003 “Evidentiality in typological perspective”. In Studies in Evidentiality, ed. by Alexandra Aikhenvald and R. M. W. Dixon, 1–31. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2004 Evidentiality. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Albelda, Marta
2008 Al parecer. In Diccionario de partículas discursivas del español, ed. by Antonio Briz et al. Available online at [URL].
2016 “La expresión de la evidencialidad en la construcción se ve (que)”. Spanish in Context. 13(2): 237–262. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
This volume. “Evidentials as a mark of genre: A study of four oral and written genres”.
Alonso-Almeida, Francisco
2014 “Evidential and epistemic devices in English and Spanish medical, computing and legal scientific abstracts: A contrastive study”. In Abstracts in academic discourse: Variation and change, ed. by Marina Bondi and Rosa Lorés, 21–42. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
Blas-Arroyo, José Luis
2002 “En los límites de la (des)cortesía formas atenuadas de la agresividad verbal en el debate político español”. International Journal of Applied Linguistics, 137–138: 181–204.Google Scholar
Cornillie, Bert
2007 Epistemic Modality and Evidentiality in Spanish (semi)auxiliaries. A Cognitive-functional Approach. Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
2010 “An interactional approach to evidential and epistemic adverbs in Spanish conversation”. In The linguistic realization of evidentiality in European Languages, 309–330, ed. by Gabriele Diewald and Elena Smirnova. Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Cornillie, Bert, and Pedro Gras
2015 “On the interactional dimension of evidentials: The case of the Spanish evidential discourse markers.” Discourse Studies 17(2): 141–161. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
De Cock, Barbara
2006 El discurso político entre oral y escrito. In Usos sociales del lenguaje y aspectos psicolingüísticos: perspectivas aplicadas, ed. by Joana Salazar, Marian Amengual, and Mari Juan, 123–130. Palma de Mallorca: Universitat de les Illes Balears.Google Scholar
2012 El debate parlamentario frente al lenguaje coloquial y al debate televisivo: una caracterización lingüística basada en el uso de la referencia de persona. In Retórica y política. Los discursos de la construcción de la sociedad, ed. by Emilio del Río et alii, 729–744. Logroño: Instituto de Estudios Riojanos.Google Scholar
De Haan, Ferdinand
2001 “The place of inference within the evidential system”. International Journal of American Linguistics 671: 193–219. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2013 “Semantic distinctions of evidentiality”. In The World Atlas of Language Structures Online, ed. by Matthew S. Dryer and Martin Haspelmath. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. Available online at [URL].
Estellés, Maria
In Press. “Evidential discourse markers in Spanish parliamentary debates. Change in their use as a reflection of a change in the genre (1977–2016)”.
Estellés, Maria, and Marta Albelda
2014 “Intonation, evidentials and politeness in Spanish. A corpus analysis”. Journal of Politeness Research 10 (1): 29–62.Google Scholar
2017 “Evidencialidad, atenuación y descortesía en al parecer y por lo visto. Influencias del género discursivo”. In Gramática, semántica y pragmática de la evidencialidad, ed. by Bert Cornillie and Dámaso Izquierdo-Alegría. Navarra: EUNSA.Google Scholar
In press. “On the dynamicity of evidential scales. Pragmatic indirectness in evidentiality as a rhetorical strategy in academic and political discourse”. In Evidentiality in Spanish: Explorations across Genres ed. by Carolina Figuera Bates and Adrián Cabedo-Nebot Amsterdam & Philadelphia John Benjamins
Frawley, William
1992 Linguistic Semantics. Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Fuentes, Catalina
2012 “Introducción a “Discurso parlamentario y género. Perspectivas de investigación”. Revista iberoamericana de discurso y sociedad 61: 1–4.Google Scholar
Givón, Talmy
1982 “Evidentiality and epistemic space”. Studies in Language 6(2): 23–49. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
González, Montserrat, Paolo Roseano, Joan Borràs and Pilar Prieto
In press. “Epistemic and evidential marking in discourse: effects of register and debatability”. Special Issue ‘Evidentiality’ ed. by Willem Adelaar and Monica Lau Lingua forthc.
González Ramos, Elisa
2005 “ Por lo visto y al parecer: comparación de dos locuciones modales epistémicas de evidencialidad en español actual. Interlingüística 16(1): 541–554.Google Scholar
Ilie, Cornelia
2006 “Parliamentary Discourses”. In Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics, 188–197, ed. by Keith Brown, 2nd ed. Oxford: Elsevier. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kotwica, Dorota
2013 “Los valores del significado de la partícula evidencial al parecer: la atenuación y el efecto de disociación”. In Estudios de lingüística: investigaciones, propuestas y aplicaciones, 403–410, ed. by Adrián Cabedo-Nebot, M. Aguilar-Ruiz & E. López-Navarro. Valencia: Universidad de Valencia.Google Scholar
2015 “Evidential al parecer: Between the physical and the cognitive meaning in Spanish scientific prose of the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries” Journal of Pragmatics 851: 155–167. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Locher, Miriam A., and Richard Watts
2005 “Politeness theory and relational work”. Journal of Politeness Research 1 (1): 9–33. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Marcos, Mercedes
2006 “Evidencialidad y género discursivo”. In Análisis del discurso: lengua, cultura, valores. Actas del I Congreso Internacional 11, ed. by Manuel Casado-Velarde, Ramón González Ruiz, María Victoria Romero Gualda. 579–592. Madrid: Arco.Google Scholar
Martín-Zorraquino, María Antonia
2010 “Las partículas discursivas en los diccionarios y los diccionarios de partículas discursivas (con referencia especial a desde luego/sin duda; por lo visto/al parecer)”. In Estudis de Lexicografia 2003–2005, ed. by Elisenda Bernal, Sergi Torner & Janet DeCesaris, 231–257. Barcelona: Universitat Pompeu Fabra.Google Scholar
Martín-Zorraquino, María Antonia, and José Portolés
1999 “Los marcadores del discurso”. In Gramática Descriptiva de la Lengua Española, ed. by Ignacio Bosque and Violeta Demonte III, 4051–4214. RAE/Espasa Calpe: Madrid.Google Scholar
Squartini, Mario
2008 “Lexical vs. grammatical evidentiality in French and Italian”. Linguistics 46(5): 917–947. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Terkourafi, Marina
2008 “Toward a unified theory of politeness, impoliteness and rudeness”. In Impoliteness in language: Studies on its interplay with power in theory and practice, ed. by Derek Bousfield and Miriam A. Locher, 45–78. Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Wiemer, Björn
2010 “Hearsay in European languages: toward an interactive account of grammatical and lexical marking”. In Linguistic Realization of Evidentiality in European Languages, ed. by Gabriele Diewald and Elena Smirnova, 59–129. Berlin: De Gruyter.Google Scholar
Willett, Thomas L.
1988 “A cross-linguistic survey of the grammaticalization of evidentiality”. Studies in Language 12(1): 51–97. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 8 other publications

Albelda Marco, Marta
2020. On the Mitigating Function of the Spanish Evidential se ve que. Corpus Pragmatics 4:1 ► pp. 83 ff. DOI logo
Albelda Marco, Marta & Marlies Jansegers
2019. From visual perception to evidentiality: A functional empirical approach to se ve que in Spanish. Lingua 220 ► pp. 76 ff. DOI logo
Cestero Mancera, Ana María & Dorota Kotwica
2021. Si todos lo dicen, ¿será cierto? La evidencialidad de folclore o acervo común: de la teoría a la investigación sociopragmática. Círculo de Lingüística Aplicada a la Comunicación 86 ► pp. 151 ff. DOI logo
Estellés Arguedas, Maria
2020. The Evolution of Parliamentary Debates in Light of the Evolution of Evidentials: Al Parecer and Por lo Visto in 40 Years of Parliamentary Proceedings from Spain. Corpus Pragmatics 4:1 ► pp. 59 ff. DOI logo
Figueras Bates, Carolina
2019. Razonamiento y Vigilancia Epistémica: Una Explicación Relevantista de los Evidencialespor lo vistoyse ve que. Pragmática Sociocultural / Sociocultural Pragmatics 7:1 ► pp. 71 ff. DOI logo
Figueras Bates, Carolina & Dorota Kotwica
2020. Introduction: Evidentiality, Epistemicity and Mitigation in Spanish. Corpus Pragmatics 4:1 ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
Kotwica, Dorota
2020. Mitigation and reinforcement in general knowledge expressions. Journal of Pragmatics 169 ► pp. 219 ff. DOI logo
Villalba Ibáñez, Cristina & Dorota Kotwica
2020. ‘Tell Us Only What You Know’: Evidentiality in the Discourse of Participants in Spanish Trials. Corpus Pragmatics 4:1 ► pp. 133 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 13 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.