Identifying Sentences — Two Visions

Laura Arribas González

(University of Vigo, Spain)

Abstract: Within the grammar there are a large number of constructions but only in adscriptives, identifying sentences and emphatic phrases the verb “ser” (to be) functions as an element of relationship between two expressions. In the first, it designates a property to the subject ⎯ Pedro es listo (Pedro is intelligent) ⎯ in the second, identifies an entity ⎯ Pedro es el médico (Pedro is the doctor) ⎯ and in the third ones, extols a section of a base structure ⎯ A Juan fue el que vimos (Juan was the one we saw). In this article we will focus exclusively on the identifying sequences which we will present ⎯based primarily on grammatical texts of the field of Spanish ⎯ a brief historical contextualization, a conceptual interpretation from the two main current focus ⎯ co-referential and descriptive-referencial⎯ and, finally, a critical assessment of them.

Key words: identifying sentences, co-referential, descriptive-referential