Adverbial elatives in Caribbean Spanish

Abstract

This paper is a study of the adverbial modifier bien and its use as an elative or operator of extreme degree in a Caribbean Spanish variety, Puerto Rican Spanish. It is argued that there are several properties setting the elative interpretation of bien apart from other well-known uses in other varieties and from the intensifier muy. The modifier bien is also argued to be exclamative and modal in nature, related to the high degree of commitment of the speaker with the truth of a proposition.