Discourse markers and constructional schemes. The discursive patterns of Sp. bueno [‘well’] in Pío Baroja’s La lucha por la vida

Abstract

This paper highlights the limitations involved in the analysis of discourse markers considered as isolated pieces and claims to consider them as constituent members of discursive patterns or complex constructional schemes. Using a corpus of literary dialogues from Pío Baroja’s trilogy La lucha por la vida (1904-1905), the article examines four constructional schemes in which the Sp. dm bueno (‘well’) participates. The aim is to complement, with the systematic description of the discursive patterns identified, the characterizations of this dm offered in the bibliography, as well as to check to what extent the consideration of the constructional schemes that favour the appea- rance of certain discursive values can shed light on the possible itinerary of grammaticalization or discursivization suffered by bueno, and in which the uses linked to attenuation seem to have acted as a bridge between the functioning of the dm in the interactional sphere and its exploita- tion in the metadiscursive sphere.