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Abstract:

This dissertation presents an interactional analysis of free-standing que-clauses in Spanish, so as to account for the multifunctionality of que in such constructions, also referred to as 'insubordinate'. This synchronic study discusses the interconnectedness of the diverse discourse functions associated with que, what the different types of free-standing que-clauses have in common, and to what extent que plays a role in their pragmatic meaning. The dissertation provides a more detailed picture of how discourse functions enhance the functional load of que and addresses the question of how many construction types there are for complement insubordination in different Peninsular and Latin American varieties of Spanish, focusing on their situated meanings in talk-in-interaction. The study also accounts for the various levels of (in)dependence (e.g. syntactic, pragmatic, dyadic) available for que-constructions in Spanish and addresses their syntactic status within a gradient from syntactic dependence over dyadic dependence to insubordination, both from an interactional and cross-variety perspective. It provides evidence of a credible link between the pragmatics of ellipsis and the semantics of insubordination, while also discussing alternative and complementary diachronic accounts for different construction types. Finally, the study discusses que-clauses that are preceded by certain linguistic elements, some of which might be considered remnants of matrix clauses, and accounts for the syntactic relation of the que-clause to the initial element, not only in the case of semi-insubordinate constructions, but also in other patterns, namely and the so-called causal que. The ultimate aim of this dissertation is two-fold. First, from an empirical perspective, the study aims at refining existing Hispanic-linguistic accounts of free-standing que-clauses by (i) fine-tuning previous typologies of encoded meanings of que in the language and developing a typology of que-construction types, (ii) adding a cross-dialectal dimension to the analysis of que-constructions and (iii) offering an interactional analysis that takes into consideration the conversational discourse structure. Second, from a theoretical perspective, the study aims to (i) offer new insights into the general-linguistic concept of insubordination, by refining its limits, and (ii) to contribute to the scholarly debate on the relation of either mutual exclusiveness or complementarity between diachronic hypotheses of change such as ellipsis of main clause, extension of dependency, dependency shift, hypoanalysis and cooptation.