What can variation tell us about insubordination? A corpus-based constructional analysis of the variation of insubordinate complement constructions in Spanish

Abstract:This study presents a corpus-based constructional analysis of the discursive and geographical variation of insubordinate complement constructions in Spanish. Insubordinate clauses share formal features with regular subordinate complement clauses, as they are introduced by the initial complementizer que ‘that’. Nevertheless, they are syntactically, pragmatically and intonationally independent. The lectal variation of these constructions remains largely unexplored. Regarding discursive variation, insubordinate clauses are perceived to be restricted to spoken language, typically colloquial conversation, and research on these structures in other discursive genres is still very limited. Therefore, it is not clear whether insubordination appears in all types of spoken genres and in written genres. As for geographical variation, studies point to differences across varieties of one and the same language. Whereas some meanings seem to be common to all varieties, others seem to be exclusively associated with one particular variety. Nevertheless, much descriptive work is still needed, and more attention needs to be paid to variation in the use of these constructions in non-standard varieties of languages, in order to cover the whole array of formal and functional possibilities. The objective of this dissertation is twofold. From a descriptive point of view, the dissertation attempts to map the situated meanings of independent complement constructions and describe their distribution across selected language varieties of Spanish. At a theoretical level, the dissertation aims to model the situated meanings attested in the corpora in the form of constructional networks which acknowledge both generalizations and low-level patterns, in the form of schemas and subschemas, as well as potential geographical specificities. Finally, the dissertation investigates what types of contextual information are required to fully explain the use of these constructions in interaction and how this information should be represented in the constructional network.

Publication year:2022

Keywords:Doctoral thesis

Accessibility:Open