Dale nomás... Misterios y revelaciones de un clásico rioplatense

Abstract

This paper proposes to analyse the different uses and meanings of dale, one of the most characteristic interjections of River Plate Spanish. For this purpose, we study in detail the processes of grammaticalization originated from an imperative verbal form. We recognize different uses (corresponding to general Spanish or either restricted to America or River Plate / Southern Cone), in which dale can function as an interjection or a particle with meanings related to Aspect (when it indicates iteration) and Mood, deontic or epistemic (i.e., values of encourage, urge, affirmation, emphatic request, (realistic or counterfactual) proposal, reprobation, incredulity).