según along time

Abstract This paper attempts to show that según has developed not only evidential reportative functions, but also a set of meanings that move towards the dominion of epistemicity. Diachronic analysis, shows that the original meaning of según (Lat. secundare ‘to second, to follow’) gradually moves towards evidential domains. A synchronic analysis of written and oral contemporary Spanish, shows an increase on reportative uses in both registers. Epistemic meanings are considerably more frequent in oral data, and some of these meanings (i.e. questioning the trustworthiness of a proposition) are only found in this register. It is proposed that as some properties of the core meaning are lost – particularly the link with the source of information – the degree of subjective evaluation of the event increases (Langacker 1990). It is also claimed that según functions as a space builder (Fauconnier 1985), becoming an evidential-epistemic marker such that the assertion is never located in the space of reference and only shows up in an alternative space where veracity is restricted to the conceptualizer’s domain. Thus, while third person uses are mostly epistemic, first and second person subjects impose an attenuative reading.