Resulta que... De cláusula subordinante a elemento procedimental del discurso.

This paper aims to analyse the Spanish construction resulta que + [clause] from a discourse syntax approach, a macro-syntax. The current use of the structure shows that its conceptual meaning fades and acquires a procedural one related to discourse's informative dimension; mainly, the characterisation of the information introduced as "surprising" or "not expected": resulta que mis amigos nunca quisieron que me fuera ["as it turns out, my friends never wanted me to leave"]. Resulta que + [clause] is not as fixated as other discourse elements, such as discourse operators or markers. However, it belongs to the same category of other syntactic constructions which trigger a wide range of discursive values and are not usually tackled by traditional syntactic studies. This research analyses its internal structure and its discourse functioning in order to embed it in a framework which takes into account the potential of this kind of structure in grammar. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]