Studies in Literature and Language
The Spanish Synthetic Future as a Means of Expression of Inference
Abstract
The present paper analyses the inferential use of the Spanish synthetic future form, i.e. examples in which the future is used as an inferential marker. The examples are retrieved from the search engine GlossaNet, more precisely, from the Spanish daily newspapers El País and El Mundo. This study does not aim to be a quantitative one. It is a qualitative study where the data are used to verify/refute the theoretical basis. It is, for example, not my intention to show in how many cases of a certain total amount of uses the Spanish synthetic future form is used to express inference. It is argued that the label “inferential future” (instead of “epistemic future”) should be preferred. Additionally, the synthetic future is shown to convey inferences of different strengths: será + sin duda (“it will/must be + without a doubt”), for instance, represents a stronger inference, while with será + probablemente (“it will/must be + probably”) a weaker inference is expressed.
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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3968/n
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