Pragmatic and sociolinguistic analysis of discourse markers of reformulation in a sample of spoken Chilean Spanish in Santiago

Authors

  • Cristian Rojas Inostroza Becario de la Comisión Nacional de Investigación Científica y Tecnológica (CONICYT) del Ministerio de Educación
  • Alejandra Rubio Núñez Universidad de Chile
  • Abelardo San Martín Núñez Universidad de Chile
  • Silvana Guerrero González Universidad de Chile

Abstract

The aim of this study is to analyze, from the pragmatic and sociolinguistic points of view, the markers of reformulation in a sample of spoken Chilean Spanish in Santiago, Chile. For this purpose, the particles that fulfill the above function were identified in a sample of 72 interviews of Chilean Spanish speakers in Santiago. We first analyze the behavior of such markers in the sample and then provide the sociolinguistic distribution of use of these markers in a socially stratified sample. For the study of these particles in the present study, we have applied the Martin Zorraquino & Portolés (1999) and Portolés (2001) concept and classification of discourse markers. We have also followed the suggestions by Cortes (1988) and Carbonero & Santana (2010) for the quantitative analysis of their social variation. Our analysis considers the reformulation function as a sociolinguistic variable with different values or variants (markers). Consequently, socio-demographic factors were correlated with subjects’ use of such markers. Thus, based on the functionalpragmatic commutability of the discourse markers identified, we proceeded to their quantitative analysis according to the following variables: age, sex-gender and socio-economic group of the interviewees.

Keywords:

discourse analysis, discourse markers, reformulation, discursive variation, sociolinguistics, Chilean Spanish