El imperativo "di" en las rutinas discursivas: modalidad, discurso y gramática

Abstract

Based mainly on data supplied by the Corpus de Referencia del Espanol Actual (CREA) , we have identified and described the synchronic discursive uses of the Spanish appellative form di . The analysis of these communicative uses shows that this form is developing different formulistic values that, however, are related to the formal and semantic properties of di . The varying degrees of fixedness and idiomaticity of these formulistic values point toward the existence of a continuum in the grammaticalization process, as well as the gradual adjustment in the “modal shift”, moving from the original appellative modality to the modality expressed in discourse. As result of this, appellative modality has been replaced by other modal values of expressive and assertive nature. Such semantic evolution is reflected in the transformation of various discourse markers of modal and interactive meaning.