Graduating points of view in Spanish written language

Abstract

This paper focuses on some language resources for graduating points of view in written Spanish language in the field of history. The analysis is framed in systemic functional linguistic theory, a multifunctional theory of language (Halliday with Matthiessen 2014), and focuses on the appraisal system, which organises interpersonal meanings at the stratum of discourse semantics in language (Martin and White 2005; Martin 2019; White 2021). In particular, it considers the coupling and necessary complementarity of graduation and engagement subsystems, as part of the appraisal system, for building intersubjectivity in texts. To achieve this purpose, the analysis explores the role of the Spanish lexicogrammatical system of modality (modalisation and modulation) in the construction of dialogicity in historical documents.