Grammaticalization of prosodic configurations? The case of evidential interrogative in Spanish

Abstract

This study investigates how prosodic evidentials (i. e. evidential markers constituted solely by prosodic configurations, regardless of their lexical and grammatical content) can emerge and develop. This is exemplified by a type of interrogative intonation used to convey assertions presented as shared knowledge, a prosodic configuration that we call evidential interrogative. The conclusion drawn is that prosodic configurations marking evidential meaning develop analogously to lexical or morphological evidentials, thus undergoing a process comparable to grammaticalization (Traugott, 2003; Narrog and Heine, 2021). This entails a reconsideration of grammaticalization as a broader form of linguistic change, encompassing not only lexical items and constructions but also, for instance, prosodic configurations.