Construcciones adverbiales formadas sobre <i>seguro</i> en español: diacronía y variación

Abstract The aim of this research is to explain the diachronic evolution of the form seguro and the adverbial constructions de seguro and a buen seguro as epistemic operators that perform different discursive functions. The starting hypothesis is that the semantic change experienced by these units is explained by a subjectification process motivated by their appearance in specific contexts which facilitate the conventionalization of values of the epistemic modality and originate the grammaticalization of these constructions. The diachronic and variational analysis allows us to determine the mechanisms behind the evolutionary process, the historical stages in which it has developed, the functions performed in the sentence and extrasentence framework, the diatopic extension, the link to specific discursive traditions and specific registers, and the frequency of use in the different evolutionary periods.