Mirativity in Spanish

Abstract

Abstract This paper analyzes how the semantic category of mirativity is expressed by means of particles in standard Spanish. Specifically, I study the verb-based particle mira ‘look’, and argue for considering it as a mirative particle, which marks the sentence it modifies like new and unexpected information. I describe its properties in both declarative and exclamative sentences and propose a syntactic and semantic analysis. Crucially, the study of this particle permits us to look deeper into the relationship between the semantic category of mirativity and the grammatical and illocutionary category of exclamative. Assuming that mirativity and exclamativity are categories of a different nature that should be differentiated, it is shown that they are expected to coincide in some privileged constructions, where the semantic and formal contributions of the mirative mira and the exclamative construction can be isolated.