Abstract

Spanish periphrases haber que + infinitive (‘one has to’) and tener que + infinitive (‘have to + infinitive’) convey a modal deontic meaning. Since haber is an impersonal verb in Spanish it is mandatorily conjugated in third person (hay que, habrá que, habría que…). Thus, haber que + infinitive is considered as an impersonal construction meaning ‘instruction’, ‘advice’ or ‘recommendation’. On the contrary, due to its possible conjugation with personal and verbal forms the periphrasis tener que + infinitive means an unavoidable or normative duty to be accomplished by someone. In this paper both periphrases are compared and analyzed as resources that help to create (de)subjectivizing communicative styles which are unequally distributed across different communicative situations and participants.

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