De elemento léxico a marcador modal de mayor veracidad: Un cambio de verdad

In the following study, we use a corpus-based approach to undertake a qualitative and quantitative analysis of the discursive uses of verdad and its reduced variants verdá and vedá. The latter differ slightly in function and semantic content from its full variant, which functions either as the subject or as the object of the noun phrase. We show that speakers from Lópezville, Texas use verdad as a marker that increases discursive coherence, and that in this border variety verdad has developed innovative uses to codify modal meaning. As a cohesive element that brackets utterances, verdad is mainly used to assure an interlocutor’s attention; and in its role as a modal element, verdad can further show the attitude of the speaker toward the propositional load. In short, verdad can be used to reiterate that which is affirmed in discourse, where it takes on an assertive function by adding greater certainty to the propositional load. The quantitative analysis showed that verdad increases in frequency of use in hypothetical discourse and with information of a subjective nature. Finally, we traced the way in which verdad evolves from a lexical to a fundamentally discursive-modal element.

Uncaging Musil's Amsel

Few modernist short narratives achieve the richness of Robert Musil's novella “Die Amsel” (1928). The work's autobiographical elements fragment into different narrative voices whose origins remain undetermined, thus giving the writing subject latitude to participate in the ironic spectacle that he is creating. After years of silence about three decisive experiences in his life, A2, a wise fool, tells his childhood stories to his childhood friend A1 in such a way that the truth of the stories cannot be fixed and their meaning is suspended in the ongoing process of the telling. Like Ulrich, Musil's “man without qualities,” A2 has a basic need for openness and spontaneity, and his stories, with their sardonic and selfparodic accents, are playful exercises in fluid, hypothetical discourse. The blackbird that reappears in A2's third tale is the product of A2's verbal jesting at the expense of the all too serious and literal-minded A1.