Multiple choices, different meanings: Deontic modal constructions in Peninsular mass-media oral and written discourse

Verbal constructions associated with deontic modality are a challenging matter for the research and teaching of Spanish grammar. In this paper an analysis is conducted of five of these constructions (deber -o, deber-de, haber-de, haber -que, and tener-que) in a written-press and radio corpus from the city of Salamanca (Spain). Their quantitative distribution is calculated according to several potentially relevant factors: grammatical person and animacy of the subject, verbal semantics and aspect, as well as communication mode. This lays the bases for a subsequent qualitative analysis whereby uses are characterized according to two different discursive and cognitive continua, namely modality and viewpoint. The inherent meaning of each modal construction turns out to be undetachable from its contextual distribution and pragmatic possibilities.