Deber (de) + infinitive: a case of free variation in Spanish? Conditional factors in a phenomenon of syntactical alternation

Abstract

The present study analyzes the results of variationist research on the alternation between deber and deber de + infinitive; it is based on samples of oral speech contained in the Macrocorpus sociolingüistico de Castellón y sus comarcas [Sociolinguistic macro-corpus of Castellón and surrounding districts]. The study confirms the findings of other research projects by revealing that an advanced stage has been reached in the replacement of the variant deber de by the periphrasis without a preposition (deber) in the Spanish-speaking world, although data from speech communities in the Castellón region show the persistence of the former usage in certain linguistic contexts. Such uses do not reflect the prescriptions of academic norms by revealing a functional opposition between the epistemic and deontic modalities, but they do show the importance of other factors relating to modalization. These include, on the one hand, emphasis and the degree of spontaneity of interactions; and on the other, attenuation and orational modality. These sets of factors condition the use of periphrasis with a preposition in opposing ways. Whereas the first set – especially emphasis – are associated with the presence of such a variant, the second act as a serious stimulus against it. Of the other factors selected by multivariate analysis it is possible to distinguish between a number of groups, in accordance with the differences observed. Among those which show the greatest number of such differences, some are revealed in an apparently anarchical fashion (the number of syllables in the verbal complex) or in the opposite manner to what might have been expected (the phono-syntactical context). Others show a high level of interaction or dependence with diverse factors, and cannot therefore be demonstrated to have explicative relevance in themselves (grammatical person, degree of animacy). Other factors display more consistent differences which cannot, however, be confirmed by the study because of their scarce representation in the sample (degree of adjacency between the auxiliary verb and the main verb, and the simple vs. compound nature of the main verb).