The process of grammaticalization of en ese caso as a conditional marker

Abstract

This article analyzes the evolution of the adverbial phrase or semi-locution en ese caso from its conceptual deictic-anaphoric meaning to its discursive function as a conditional marker. We also provide data on the use of en este caso, comparing it with en ese caso to gain a better understanding of the grammaticalization process. To this end, a diachronic analysis is presented, starting with its earliest documented instances as locutions with conditional value, which is followed by a synchronic analysis with documents from the 2st century. The corpora used for data collection include those from RAE —CDH and CDH nuclear, CORDE, CREA, and CORPES XXI— as well as the oral corpora ESLORA and VALESCO 3.0. The corpus analysis demonstrates, on the one hand, that the frequency and temporal span of en este caso and en ese caso are distributed in a complementary manner.