Subjectivity in Spanish Discourse: Explicit and Implicit Causal Relations in Different Text Types

Abstract

Corpus-based studies in various languages have demonstrated that some connectives are used preferentially to express subjective versus objective meanings, for example, omdat vs. want in Dutch. However, Spanish connectives have been understudied from this perspective. Moreover, most of the studies of subjectivity have focused on explicit relations and little is known about the subjectivity of implicit coherence relations. In addition, the role that text type plays in the meaning and use of causal relations and their connectives is still under discussion. This study aims to analyze the local contexts of Spanish causal explicit and implicit relations in different text types by carrying out manual analyses of subjectivity. 360 relations marked by three prototypical causal connectives and 120 implicit relations were extracted from academic and journalistic texts. The analytical model applied is based on an integrative approach to subjectivity. Statistical analyses indicate a particular behavior of Spanish connectives and implicit relations and a three-way interaction between subjectivity, text type, and linguistic marking in journalistic texts. Therefore, this study reveals new insights into subjectivity in Spanish discourse.

Conectividad causal en el discurso: Hacia una caracterización global de las construcciones causales en español

“…Desde nuestro punto de vista, estas clasificaciones son equiparables y resultan complementarias. De hecho, varios estudios han aplicado la distinción causales de contenido/de acto de habla/epistémicas al análisis de las causales en español (González & Ribas, 2008;González Manzanero, 2013;Blackwell, 2016;Santana, Nieuwenhuijsen, Spooren & Sanders, 2017;Santana, Spooren, Nieuwenhuijsen & Sanders, 2018;Ibáñez et al, 2020). Las múltiples propuestas taxonómicas de las causales en la tradición hispánica manejan en ocasiones denominaciones no unívocas para sus subtipos, sin indagar en los solapamientos y correspondencias conceptuales y terminológicos.…”

“…Por un lado, en las causales del enunciado o semánticas (6), la relación de causa-consecuencia o de causa-efecto se da entre los contenidos proposicionales de la cláusula matriz y de la cláusula causal (o de los dos segmentos textuales), esto es, en el nivel locutivo. Estas expresan tanto la causa real de un hecho (no volitivas) como el motivo o razón por la que un agente animado lo realiza (volitivas) (Galán, 1999;Pérez Saldanya, 2015;Santana et al, 2018). Por otro lado, en las causales de la enunciación o pragmáticas (7), la relación se establece en el plano de la enunciación o nivel ilocutivo y, en particular, entre el contenido del segmento causal y el acto de enunciación del otro segmento, esto es, opera en un dominio pragmático.…”

A cognitive account of subjectivity put to the test: using an insertion task to investigate Mandarin result connectives

“…More specifically, recent studies have argued that an account which focuses on connectives only is likely to underestimate linguistic indicators of subjectivity, because these may be present at other linguistic levels in discourse than at the level of the connective. For instance, differences between Spanish causal connectives do not seem to correspond systematically to differences in subjectivity (Santana et al 2017(Santana et al , 2018(Santana et al , 2021. However, subjective markers like modal verbs present in one of the discourse segments seemed to a play a role, too.…”

Impoliteness in Indonesian Language Hate Speech on Social Media Contained in the Instagram Account

“…The language used by humans can be used for educational, cultural, religious, and other purposes. Language users can choose between one or another connective to express causality, for instance, between because, since, and for in English (Santana, Spooren, Nieuwenhuijsen, & Sanders, 2018). One of the roles of language that is being highlighted is the role of language in the field of law.…”

“…Hate speech is assumed to reflect abusive and harassing expressions of violence or discrimination, directed against people on the basis of their race, ethnic origin, religion, gender, disability, sexual orien-tation, etc. and it is mostly meant to silence opponents, or at least prove their opinions invalid (Santana et al, 2018).…”