In the gramaticalization limits. The evolution of encima (de que) as speech marker

Abstract

The present paper describes the process of semantic subjectivization that Spanish encima ‘on top’ undergoes in its development from a prepositional phrase (en cima) ‘on top’ to its extended uses as a discourse marker of addition, counterargumentation, and retort. Many changes implicated in the evolution of encima are typical of grammaticalization (semantic bleaching, development of procedural meanings, decategorization, and univerbation of the two original components of the PP). Nonetheless, the fact that the discoursive marker is able to come out of syntagmatic frame, reaching an orational and textual level, gaining in syntaxes mobility or even to occupy a speech turn by itself (¡Encima!) is a serious objection when the time comes to include it into the gramaticalization, typically characterized basically by eliminating the gramaticalized term’s phonology and by the obligatorification and rigidification of the piece being gramaticalized.