This article deals with Spanish modal adverbs and verbs of cognitive attitude (Capelli 2007) and their epistemic and/or evidential use. The article is based upon the hypothesis that the study of the use of these linguistic devices has to be highly context-sensitive, as it is not always (only) the sentence level that has to be looked at if one wants to find out whether a certain adverb or verb of cognitive attitude is used evidentially or epistemically. In this article, therefore, the context is used to determine which meaning aspects of an element are encoded and which are contributed by the context. The data were retrieved from the daily newspaper El País. Nevertheless, the present study is not a quantitative one, but rather a qualitative study. My corpus analysis indicates that it is not possible to differentiate between the linguistic categories of evidentiality and epistemic modality in every case, although it indeed is possible in the vast majority of cases. In verbs of cognitive attitude, evidentiality and epistemic modality seem to be two interwoven categories, while concerning modal adverbs it is usually possible to separate the categories and to distinguish between the different subtypes of evidentiality such as visual evidence, hearsay and inference.

The present study approaches the Spanish postposed constructions creo Ø and creo yo '[p], [I] think' from a cognitive-constructionist perspective. It is argued that both constructions are to be distinguished from one another because creo Ø has a subjective function, while in creo yo, it is the intersubjective dimension that is particularly prominent. The present investigation takes both a qualitative and a quantitative perspective. With regard to the latter, the problem of quantitative representativity is addressed. The discussion posed the question of how empirical research can feed back into theory, more precisely, into the framework of Cognitive Construction Grammar. The data to be analyzed here are retrieved from the corpora Corpus de Referencia del Español Actual and Corpus del Español.

No abstract

No abstract

Por lo general, digo se comporta como un marcador discursivo, por medio del cual se ordenan y estructuran procesos cognitivos del hablante para interpretar y comprender un texto o un enunciado, marcando textualmente la actitud del hablante o del autor de la información. El presente estudio tiene como objetivo analizar de manera cualitativa la posición sintáctica de digo en el sintagma oracional, así como sus diversos significados o funciones semánticopragmáticas que se derivan de ella en el enunciado. En este sentido, también tendremos en cuenta los elementos contextuales con que suele aparecer digo, para luego intentar establecer una relación entre su posición sintáctica y su significado procedimental en el enunciado. Los ejemplos del corpus serán tomados del Corpus de la Real Academia Española (CREA) y del Corpus del Español (CdE).