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- Title
Certezas atenuadas.
- Authors
MALDONADO, RICARDO
- Abstract
This paper offers the notion of semantic attenuation (Langacker 1985, 1990) as a bleaching process that involve subjectivity and thus can operate as the basis for the formation of cierto 'certain' as an attenuative marker where assertiveness is downplayed. The notion of intersubjectivity proposed by Delbecque for cierto (2009) is revised based on the range of meanings attested in discourse in Mexican Spanish. Intersubjective-objective uses are to be distinguished from intersubjective-interlocutive ones as the second type depends crucially on the interaction between speech participants. The study shows that the attenuative uses of cierto do not come from the adjectival intersubjective uses but from the fuzzy specific-indefinite determination of cierto and other fixed constructions (en cierta manera 'in some way', hasta cierto punto 'up to some degree/point') which diminish the degree of assertiveness of a sentence. The first samples of attenuation come from modifying scalar properties with negative associations and, from those uses, other assertive reducing effects take place. Finally, the paper shows that the digressive marker por cierto which operates at the level of discourse continuity lacks the semantic properties to fully operate as an attenuative marker.
- Subjects
SEMANTICS; INTERSUBJECTIVITY; NAHUATL language; SPANISH language; LINGUISTICS
- Publication
RILCE. Revista de Filología Hispánica, 2018, Vol 34, Issue 3, p1129
- ISSN
0213-2370
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.15581/008.34.3.1129-53