La impersonalidad de los verbos meteorológicos: una explicación pragmático-discursiva.

Abstract

The present paper aims at presenting a pragmatic account of Spanish constructions without a subject, such as those involving te verb llover (`ram'). In order todo so, the traditional division between impersonal and metaphorical uses of meteorological verbs will be first reviewed, after which an altemative analysis that regards the contrast between both uses as continuous rather than discrete is advanced. Later on, meteorological verbs are ingrained within the framework of Ihe Unaccusativity and Transitivity * Agradezco al profesor Francisco Aliaga García su valiosa ayuda y su apoyo constante a lo lar go de esta investigación. 85 Araceli Calzado Roldón La impeisona/idad de los verbos meteroló giros Hypotl¡eses. Sentences encompassing meteorological verbs may be included within the phenomenon of implicit arguments, aud in this respect, it is the bleak individuation of the intemal argument that allows it to be implicil. To conclude, the gramniatical features of unaccusative meteorological verbs are claimed to coincide with actors indicative of low transitivity, Ihus constituting a ineans for codifying a given conmunicative fuoction within discourse.