Special Issue Section
Evidentials as a mark of genre
A study of four oral and written genres
This paper aims to study the different types and pragmatic functions of the Spanish evidential forms found in four discursive genres, in order to observe if any restrictions apply. All the evidentials are studied in a corpus containing 100,000 words, evenly distributed over colloquial conversations, press news, academic papers, and parliamentary debates. Specifically, together with the pragmatic functions of these evidentials, the four dimensions mode of knowing, type of source, accessibility, and degree of precision are analysed. The results reveal different tendencies in the use of evidentials, depending on the genre, and support the claim that the behaviour of evidentials is conditioned by the specific characteristics of each genre.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Methodology
- 2.1Parameters of analysis
- 2.2Corpus
- 3.Results and discussion
- 3.1Quantitative analysis. Total number of evidential resources in the corpus
- 3.2Characteristics of evidentials in conversations – Theoretical implications
- 3.3Characteristics of evidentials in press news – Theoretical implications
- 3.4Characteristics of evidentials in academic papers – Theoretical implications
- 3.5Characteristics of evidentials in parliamentary debates – Theoretical implications
- 4.Conclusions
- Notes
-
References
References (54)
References
Abouda, Lotfi
2001 “
Les emplois journalistique, polémique et atténuatif du conditionnel. Un traitement unitaire”. In
Le conditionnel en français, ed. by
P. Dendale and
L. Tasmowski, 277–294. Paris: Klincksieck.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Aikhenvald, Alexandra
2004 Evidentiality. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Aikhenvald, Alexandra
2007 “
Information source and evidentiality: what can we conclude?”
Rivista di Linguistica 19(1): 209–227.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
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
M. Bondi and
R. Lorés, 21–42. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Alonso-Almeida, Francisco
2015 “
On the mitigating function of modality and evidentiality. Evidence from English and Spanish medical research papers”.
Intercultural Pragmatics 12(1): 33–57.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Anderson, Lloyd B.
1986 “
Evidentials, paths of change and mental maps: typologically regular asymmetries”. In
Evidentiality: The linguistic coding of epistemology, ed. by
W. Chafe and
J. Nichols, 273–312. Norwood, N.J.: Ablex Publishing,
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Barros, Pedro et al.
2012
cogila: español oral conversacional. Granada: University of Granada.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Bermúdez, Fernando
2005 Evidencialidad. La codificación lingüística del punto de vista. Stockholm: Stockholm University.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Blas, José-Luis
2009 “
Interpersonal issues in political discourse”. In
Handbook of Pragmatics, ed. by
M. Locher and
S. L. Graham, 405–434. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Boye, Kasper
2010 “
Evidence for what? Evidentiality and scope”.
STUF-Language Typology and Universals 63(4): 290–307.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Boye, Kasper, and Peter Harder
Brenes, Ester
2010 “
Evidencialidad, aserción y (des)cortesía verbal: el receptor como garante de lo dicho”.
Español actual 931: 7–28.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Briz, Antonio
2001 El español coloquial en la conversación. Esbozo de pragmagramática. Barcelona: Ariel.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Chafe, Wallace
1986 “
Evidentiality in English Conversation and academic writing”. In
Evidentiality: The linguistic coding of epistemology, ed. by
W. Chafe and
J. Nichols, 261–272. Norwood, N.J.: Ablex Publishing.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Cornillie, Bert
2007 Epistemic Modality and Evidentiality in Spanish (semi)auxiliaries. A Cognitive-functional Approach. Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
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 logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
De Haan, Ferdinand
2001 “
The place of inference within the evidential system”.
International Journal of American Linguistics 67(2): 193–219.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Dehkordi, Mojdeh, and Hamid Allami
2012 “
Evidentiality in Academic Writing”.
Theory and Practice in Language Studies 2(9): 1895–1904.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Diewald, Gabriele, and Elena Smirnova
2010 “
Introduction. Evidentiality in European languages: the lexical-grammatical distinction. In
Linguistic Realization of Evidentiality in European Languages, ed. by
G. Diewald and
E. Smirnova, 1–14. Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Estellés, María
2015 “
Expressing evidentiality through prosody? Prosodic voicing in reported speech in Spanish colloquial conversations”.
Journal of Pragmatics 851: 138–154.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Estellés, María
this volume). “
What genres tell us about evidentials and vice versa: A study of al parecer in Spanish parliamentary debates (1979–2015)”.
Estellés, María, and Marta Albelda
2014 “
Evidentials, politeness and prosody in Spanish: A corpus analysis.”
Journal of Politeness Research 10 (1): 29–62.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Estellés, María, and Marta Albelda
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
B. Cornillie. 169–201. EUNSA: Universidad de Navarra.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Estellés, María, and Marta Albelda
Estrada, Andrea
2008 “
¿Reforzador o atenuador? ‘Evidentemente’ como adverbio evidencial”.
Sintagma 201: 37–52.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Figueras, Carolina
(
2017): “
La relevancia de los adverbios evidenciales”. In
Gramática, semántica y pragmática de la evidencialidad, ed. by
B. Cornillie. 129–167. EUNSA: Universidad de Navarra.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Frawley, William
1992 Linguistic Semantics. Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Fuentes, Catalina
2012 “
Introduction. ‘Discurso parlamentario y género. Perspectivas de investigación’”.
Revista iberoamericana de discurso y sociedad 61: 1–4.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Garrido-Medina, Joaquín
2007 “
Construcción de discurso en noticias de prensa”.
Revista española de lingüística 371: 139–168.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
González-Condom, Montserrat
(ed) 2015 Evidential and espistemic strategies in discourse. A cross-linguistic perspective. Discourse Studies 17(2) (Special Issue).
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
González-Condom, Montserrat, Paolo Roseano, Joan Borràs-Comes & Pilar Prieto
2017 “
Epistemic and evidential textures in discourse: effects of register and debatability”.
Lingua 186–7: 68–87.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
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](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Hassler, Gerda
2010 “
Epistemic modality and evidentiality and their determination on a deictic basis. The case of Romance languages”. In
Linguistic Realization of Evidentiality in European Languages, ed. by
G. Diewald and
E. Smirnova, 223–247. Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Hyland, Ken
2000 Disciplinary discourses: Social interactions in academic writing. London: Longman.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Hyland, Ken
2005 Metadiscourse: Exploring Interaction in Writing. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
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, ed. by
Adrián Cabedo Nebot,
Manuel José Aguilar Ruiz &
Elena López-Navarro Vidal, 403–410. Valencia: Universidad de Valencia.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Kotwica, Dorota
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 logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Kotwica, Dorota
this volume). “
Does the source matter? Specificity in reportative evidentiality in Spanish scientific discourse (1799–1920)”.
Locher, Miriam, and Richard Watts
2005 “
Politeness Theory and Relational Work”.
Journal of Politeness Research 1(1): 9–33
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Locher, Miriam, and Richard Watts
2008 “
Relational work and impoliteness: Negotiating norms of linguistic behaviour”. In
Impoliteness in language. Studies on its interplay with power in theory and practice, ed. by
D. Bousfield and
M. Locher, 77–99. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Marcos, Mercedes
2005 A propósito del marcador por lo visto
. In
Palabras, norma, discurso, ed. by
Luis Santos Río,
Julio Borrego Nieto,
Juan Felipe García Santos,
José J. Gómez Asencio, and
Emilio Prieto de los Mozos, 777–785. Salamanca: Ediciones Universidad de Salamanca.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Marcos, Mercedes
2006 “
Evidencialidad y género discursivo”. In
Análisis del discurso: lengua, cultura, valores, ed. by
Manuel Casado Velarde,
Ramon Gonzalez Ruiz &
M.ª Victoria Romero Gualda, 579–592. Madrid: Arco Libros.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Marín-Arrese, Juana
2004 “
Evidential and epistemic qualifications in the discourse of fact and opinion”. In
Perspectives on Evidentiality and Modality, ed. by
J. Marín-Arrese, 153–184. Madrid: Editorial Complutense.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Rodríguez, Rosa
2011 “
La información de sucesos: temática en prensa escrita”.
Correspondencias & Análisis 11: 309–325
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Squartini, Mario
(ed) 2008 “
Lexical vs. grammatical evidentiality in French and Italian”.
Linguistics 46(5): 917–947.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Swales, John
1990 Genre Analysis. English in Academic and Research Settings. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Swales, John
2004 Research Genres: Explorations and Applications. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Vatrican, Axelle
2010 “
La modalité et le conditionnel de rumeur en espagnol et en français”.
Modèles linguistiques, XXXI(62): 83–94.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Whitt, Richard
2011 “
(Inter)Subjectivity and evidential perception verbs in English and German”.
Journal of Pragmatics 431: 347–360.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Cited by (2)
Cited by 2 other publications
Uribe Martínez, Liz Maleni
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](//benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 15 july 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.