| This dissertation addresses the discourse behavior of some of the most common cognitive verbs in Spanish. These verbs include 'recordar', 'acordarse', 'olvidar(se)', 'creer', 'pensar', 'saber', and 'entender'. These verbs are of interest to linguists for their atypical structural patterns and their tendency to grammaticize as epistemic markers.; Cognitive verbs are often treated as a natural semantic class, with the implication that their behavior conforms to similar restrictions on occurrence. This dissertation will explicate the patterns peculiar to each of the aforementioned verbs and provide evidence that each verb strikes a unique conversational profile. Moreover, each verb's unique profile is part of a system of complementary patterning among verbs within the same sub-class. Issues of grammatical person, tense/aspect/mood, argument structure, polarity, and sense differentiation, and correlations among these characteristics, provide evidence for these claims. In addition, the study focuses on cohorts of features as contributing to verb-sense variation. Patterns of grammaticization in progress are discerned, and the relationship between frequency and grammaticization is explored. |
