Concessive clauses introduced by "a pesar de" and "a pesar de que" in peninsular spoken Spanish in the light of Functional Discourse Grammar

• Grant number: 13/20839-5
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: February 01, 2014
• End date: November 30, 2015
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Linguistics - Linguistic Theory and Analysis
• Principal Investigator: Talita Storti Garcia
• Grantee: Bárbara Ribeiro Fante
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biociências, Letras e Ciências Exatas (IBILCE). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de São José do Rio Preto. São José do Rio Preto , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This research project aims to describe, under the theory of Functional Discourse Grammar, spoken Peninsular Spanish concessive clauses introduced by conjunctions "in spite of" ("a pesar de") and "despite the fact that" (a pesar de que). We are interested in investigating, from the theoretical postulates by Hengeveld and Mackenzie (2008), in which levels and layers these structures are constituted. As a result, we intend to analyze what are the morphosyntactic, semantic and pragmatic characteristics of these clauses under the hypothesis that there are differences between the semantic-pragmatic conjunctions that indicate the relationship concession and that such differences are related to the levels and layers theory proposed by Functional Discourse Grammar. We intend to identify, so in that domain are distinguished conjunctions "in spite of" and "despite the fact that": morphosyntactic, semantic or pragmatic. The importance of this research is to contribute to the descriptive studies of Spanish spoken and test the applicability of the model of Functional Discourse Grammar, contributing to its advancement.