No es por nada: Spanish argumentative preface and discourse operator

Abstract

No es por X pero Y is a Spanish structure that can appear combined with an adversative sentence and anticipates a possible misinterpretation by the listener. It acts as a semi-fixed construction. It respects the communicative intention of the speaker and mitigates the negative effects that what is said can have on his/her social image. At the same time, when no es por nada appears as an independent form in a peripheral position or as a reactive turn, it functions as an assertion enhancer with sentence mobility. This function as a discourse operator reveals a grammaticalization process of cooptation that is not yet completed as it still coexists with the free construction.