Uses of “pero bueno”, “pero vamos” and “pero claro” in coloquial peninsular Spanish

Abstract

This paper aims to present the roles of the joinor pero in combination with bueno, vamos and claro in a spoken Spanish corpus from a functionalist perspective. The theoretical and methodological framework used is the Functional Discourse Grammar (Hengeveld; Mackenzie, 2008). From this perspective, it was verified that pero, when accompanying elements like bueno, vamos, and claro, can confer contrastive meaning and encode the rhetorical function Concession, when it acts as a Discourse Act operator, or it can act exclusively in monitoring the interaction. These two uses are encoded differently at the Phonological Level, which was verified using the Praat program. When acting as an Act operator, pero presents the descending-ascending complex entonational pattern; on the other hand, when acting in monitoring interaction, pero, in combination with those on the screen, presents the descending entonational pattern. The research universe is based on the PRESEEA corpus (Proyecto para el Estudio Sociolingüístico del Español de España y de América), a database available online.