On the language of El Pelayo (1769-1773) and El delincuente honrado (1773) by Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos: mechanisms of linguistic cohesion at the beginning of the turn

Abstract

In this paper the linguistic cohesion mechanisms at the biginning of the turn are analyzed from a variational-functional perspective in the two most famous plays by the Asturian polygrapher Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos ―the neoclassical tragedy El Pelayo (1769-1773) and the lacrimosa comedy El delincuente honrado (1773). The aim of this paper is to contribute to the description of the Spanish language in the 18th century European Spain and to initiate a path of research focused on the linguistic characterization of Jovellanos’ work. The results show, on the one hand, that, although the two works are installed at the domain of communicative distance, the comedy presents much higher rates of textualization of orality than the neoclassical tragedy. And, on the other hand, they prove the suitability of the concept of ‘elaborated orality’ proposed by Del Rey Quesada (2019) for the description of literary works in a dialogic arrangement.