The Spanish pragmatic marker of vale

Abstract

This article examines the linguistic change undergone by the verb valer , which gave rise to the pragmatic marker vale (‘ok’). On the one hand, it seeks to identify the context(s) in which the construction was coopted and explore the relational links (Traugott & Trousdale, 2013). On the other, it aims to clarify the process of grammaticalization, with particular emphasis on frequency of use, functional expansion, positions and contexts. The theoretical framework draws on cooptation and subsequent grammaticalization (Kaltenböck et al., 2011; Heine, 2013), as well as the notion of networks from constructionalization (Traugott, 2018). Methodologically, the study combines real-time metalinguistic evidence with both qualitative and statistical analysis of corpus data. The results show that the pragmatic markers vale and ¿vale? derive from the same meaning, yet each was co-opted independently and reanalysed to fulfil a specific function. The evolution of vale reveals contextual expansion through the acquisition of new interactive and textual functions, in line with inheritance links among pragmatic markers of agreement.