On the interplay between historical pragmatics and sociolinguistics. The case of the Spanish pragmatic marker nada and its recent grammaticalization process

Abstract

This article examines the hypothesis according to which the increasing use of nada as a

pragmatic marker is the recent outcome of a grammaticalization process, mainly observed

in youth language. In addition to providing an overview of its polyfunctionality, it examines

in detail the functional and structural changes that the poorly studied marker has undergone

in contemporary Spanish. The stage of grammaticalization reached by nada is carefully

examined through a diachronic corpus analysis, quantitatively and qualitatively tracking its

behavior during four contemporary time periods (1970s, 1980s, 1990s, >2000), and documented

in various databases of spoken language. The study further argues in favor of combining

different methodologies in the analysis of (recent) language change, and the development of

pragmatic markers in particular, namely a real-time analysis, an apparent-time analysis and

a crossover between both