En todo caso, en cualquier caso, de todos modos, de todas maneras, de todas formas. Un estudio de las características y funciones de estos conectores

Abstract
Ph. D. Dissertation at Göteborg University
Title: en todo caso, en cualquier caso, de todos modos, de todas maneras, de todas
formas. Un estudio de las características y funciones de estas locuciones en el español
contemporáneo.
English title: en todo caso, en cualquier caso, de todos modos, de todas maneras, de
todas formas. A study of the characteristics and functions of these expressions in
contemporary Spanish.
Author: Alicia Milland.
Language: Spanish
Department: Department of Romance Languages, Spanish Section, Göteborg University,
Box 200, SE-405 30. Göteborg.
The aims of this dissertation is to explore the function of the five Spanish expressions: en
todo caso, en cualquier caso, de todos modos, de todas maneras, de todas formas in the
different corpora included in CREA, the Contemporary Spanish database of the Spanish
Academy, from a pragmatic interactional theoretical point of view. The CREA database
contains over 125 million words from different genres, from both spoken and written
texts and from both Spain and Latin America.
In this study these expressions are considered as connectors. Their function being that
of connection, the question posed was to know which elements or segments of discourse
they connect. The analysis showed that the connection does not only occur between
segments of discourse but also with other components of interaction, i.e. the utterance
and something the teller has in mind. It even demonstrates that the connection takes place
between the different levels of discourse and that connectors are not part of the contents
of discourse, but they are in the periphery, here named frame discourse. The levels which
were explored were the communicative level in the spoken language and the external and
internal levels of discourse organization in written texts. At the communicative level,
these expressions are used specially in turn-taking structures: to start moves and new
exchanges, or to return to a previous exchange. In public complex interactions, as radio
or television programs, they are also used to turn from local interaction to global
interaction or vice versa. These expressions can also be used as hedges or softeners when
new matters are introduced, or when Face Threatening Acts are produced. In written texts,
the expressions were used to organize the discourse (i.e. initiate a new theme or topic,
switch topics or introduce the closing sequence), to mark a change between different
sequences (narration, description, dialog, etc.) and different voices (in order to contribute
to the text’s polyphony). In these aspects the five expressions were to be considered as
synonymous in equivalent contexts. For the expressions en todo caso, en cualquier caso,
however, there is also another function, that is, to introduce a limit, a condition or an
exigency.