Nuevamente sobre el funcionamiento pragmático atenuante de la forma performativa del verbo creer

Abstract

It is known there are some forms, the first-person singular of the present indicative of opinion or doxastic verbs ([I] consider, [I] believe, [I] think or [I] suppose...), which present a great complexity of understanding given its polysemy and polyfunctionality. This paper focuses exclusively on the explanation of its pragmatic functioning and, more specifically, on the development of its most frequent function —the attenuation—, based on the uses of the prototypical nuclear form of its set: (I) believe. In order to do that, some of the main features that help to distinguish the pragmatic readings of that verbal form are reviewed and the generic behavior displayed by its uses in discourse is investigated. For that purpose, it is carried out a qualitative analysis of oral corpus (one conversational and one parliamentary), from which functional guidelines are extracted, which help to take a further step in defining its pragmatics specifically and in clarifying the general problematic of the doxastic verbs description.