Introduction: Evidentiality, Epistemicity and Mitigation in Spanish

Abstract

This volume brings together six articles which explore the connections and relations between the domains of evidentiality, epistemicity and mitigation in Spanish. Works included in this special issue explore the pragmatic effects of deploying evidentials in discourse, such as mitigation of the speaker commitment and evaluation. All studies offer empirical and corpus-driven analysis (including oral and written, informal and formal genres). Some contribute to describing the argumentative functioning of evidential mechanisms in specific genres (Villalba and Kotwica); epistemic and evidential strategies of mitigation (Estellés); and cognitive and affective facets of mitigation (Figueras). Others add to the understanding of the pragmatics of several Spanish language units with evidential and/or epistemic meanings that can be deployed,among others, for mitigating (Albelda; Rodríguez Rosique) or managing knowledge in conversation (Uclés). As a result, this volume contributes to widening the scope of the existing studies on evidentiality, taking into account the complex nature of interconnections between this category and other domains related to the speaker’s discursive stance.