"Que" inicial átono como marca de modalidad

Abstract

Unstressed que-inital constructions have been traditionally treated as instances of conjunction-headed structures, preceded or not by an implicit performative verb. In this paper it is argued that such an explanation runs into problems when gwe-constructions are faced with their interrogative counterparts, which also show unstressed-initial que. As an alternative, que is considered a modality marker, whose main function is to show, in these constructions, the speaker's stance with regard of the proposition. In this light,, a unified account of interrogative, affirmative and exclamative instances of unstressed que-initial sentences can be provided.