Pragmatic grammar of es que: The intensification marker

Abstract

In contexts such as parliamentary speech, where intensification is the predominant pragmatic strategy, es que is often employed as a focuser and also as an intensification operator. This last function appears as a derivation the first one and shows the interconnection between macro-levels (focus, modality and argumentation) and the discursive type, as well as the need for a multidimensional approach in the pragmatic study (Fuentes 2015). To confirm this hypothesis, I contrast the use of es que in other textual models whose communication objectives and register are clearly distinct. The intensifier operator appears in texts with greater communicative proximity, where the involvement of the speaker is larger, and particularly in controversial texts. As distance and formality increase, the use of es que disappears.