This research project includes theoretical, descriptive, and experimental studies on units that introduce modal values into discourse. While the primary focus is on Spanish, contrastive research has also been conducted in French, English, and German.

From a theoretical and descriptive perspective, modality markers are viewed as communicative tools that allow speakers to distance themselves from or align with the content of what is being said, as well as the manner in which it is expressed. These markers play a key role in managing interpersonal relationships, often regulating interactions between interlocutors and contributing to the interactional construction of discourse.

Modality markers also help build discursive representations by reflecting the speaker’s attitude towards the utterance or the level of commitment to the propositional content. Our research focuses particularly on the relationship between epistemic modality and evidentiality (González Ruiz, Izquierdo Alegría & Loureda, 2016).

From an experimental standpoint, various types of modality markers have been analyzed. The results show that modal adverbs do not function cognitively like discourse particles, as their processing cannot be predicted by discourse marking principles (Loureda, Cruz, Recio & Rudka, 2021). Experimental evidence suggests that while modal adverbs have a primarily conceptual meaning (unlike procedural discourse particles), secondary communicative instructions have evolved around this conceptual meaning.

Results

González Ruiz, R., Izquierdo Alegría., D & Loureda, Ó. (eds.) (2016). La evidencialidad en español: teoría y descripción. Madrid/Frankfurt: Iberoamericana/Vervuert.

González Ruiz, R., Izquierdo Alegría, D., Loureda, Ó. (2016). “Un acercamiento a los fundamentos de la evidencialidad y a su recepción y tratamiento en la lingüística hispánica“. In

González Ruiz, R., Izquierdo Alegría., D & Loureda, Ó. (eds.), La evidencialidad en español: teoría y descripción. Madrid/Frankfurt: Iberoamericana/Vervuert.

Current Researchers

• Prof. Dr. Óscar Loureda Lamas

• Prof. Dr. Ramón González Ruiz

• Dr. Dámaso Izquierdo Alegría

Funded projects

Discourse, cognition and linguistic markers: empirical studies on word processing using the eye-tracking method. Cooperation with the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso. Funded by the Chilean funding institution CONICYT (Comisión Nacional de Investigación Científica y Tecnológica, PII 20150058; 2016-2019).