A modalidade deôntica em sentenças judiciais: Inter-relações semântico-pragmáticas da deonticidade na linguagem jurídica

Abstract

The present study aims to describe and analyze deontic modality in judicial rulings written in Spanish. To this end, it draws on the framework of Functional Discourse Grammar (FDG) by Hengeveld and Mackenzie (2008). In this regard, 20 judicial rulings were selected from the official website of the Consejería de Justicia of Spain. After collecting all instances of deontic modality, it was found that both the inclusion and exclusion of the speaker in the scope of the modal value influence the establishment of the modal value of obligation in 59.6% of the cases. It was also observed that the objective modal domain of deontic modalizations is influenced by the exclusion of the speaker in 75.9% of the cases. Regarding the pragmatic functions of Topic and Focus, it was found that both the topicalizing and focalizing functions favor the modal value of obligation, with the modal orientation toward the Event being predominant (68.8%) in both topical and focal deontic modalizations. As for the modal domain, it was found that the objectification of deontic modal content favors both the topicalizing and focalizing functions of deonticity in 90.1% of the analyzed cases.