Implicit Connections in Gerund Clauses in Spanish: A Systemic-Functional Approach
Keywords:
Connexion, causality, gerunds, Spanish, Systemic Functional LinguisticsAbstract
The discourse semantics concept of connection refers to the logical relations between events in the discourse. Within Systemic Functional Linguistics, the connection has been studied primarily in English and Chinese, while limited work has been done in Spanish. This language presents a lexicogrammatical resource that is used to make connections implicitly, namely non-finite gerund clauses (CNFG). This resource is of interest because of the variety and ambiguity of the connective meanings that it implies, which can be especially relevant when constructing knowledge in a discipline such as History. This article offers a set of tests to systematically distinguish three types of connections–cause, manner, and consequence–implied in structurally similar CNFGs. The application of these tests is illustrated with examples from an official History textbook for secondary education in Chile. The contribution of the proposed methodology involves the consideration of both discourse-semantics and lexicogrammatical patterns, which helps to understand relations at field level.
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