THE APPRECIATIVE MODALITY IN POPE FRANCIS’ SPEECHES IN SPANISH LANGUAGE

Abstract

This work aims to describe to analyze the appreciative modality in Pope Francis’ speeches in Spanish language in the year 2021. It is proposed to verify how this modality subtype can be employed as a discursive and argumentative strategics. Theoretically supported by studies related to discursive modalization, based on Nascimento and Silva (2012), Adelino and Nascimento (2019) and Deus and Nascimento (2020); and in the appreciative modality studies in Neves (2012), Adelino and Nascimento (2017), Mendes and Sousa (2018) and Becker (2020). It can be seen that the appreciative modality can be instituted through modal auxiliaries, adverbs, modalizing constructions and adjective as a predicative function, and may have a scope of predicates, when you want to manifest politeness and courtesy, and predications and propositions, when if it intends to express some kind of affective and emotional value judgment. Regarding the effects of meaning, the appreciative modality may be related to euphoric patematization (joy, contentment, happiness, etc.) and dysphoric patematization (sadness, discouragement, unhappiness, etc.), regardless of the type of discourse theme, and may be religious (faith and Catholic morality) or non-religious (economy, politics, society, the environment, etc.).