Functional profiling of approxim ant resources in spanish: theoretical foundations and methodological proposal

The aim of the study is to propose a functional profiling of the lexico-grammatical resources that perform approximative meanings as a specific value of the POLARITY system in Spanish and to model an analysis matrix to describe them trinocularly, attending to the semantic and lexico-grammatical strata. For this purpose, a review of the literature on approximatives as adverbial realization and pragmatic function is carried out, which provides a diverse inventory of grammatical resources that perform this function. Next, a general systemic reinterpretation of these elements is proposed under the label of approximative resources as realizations of the POLARITY system of Spanish that specify intermediate values on the scale of positive and negative polarity. An analysis matrix for these resources is presented and illustrated, taking into account the semantic systems that produce them, the type of clausal grammaticalization where they take place and the lower grammatical units that constitute them.