Robert E. Vann

Spanish no, sí: Reactive moves to perceived face-threatening acts, Part II☆

This paper is the second installment of a two-part pragmatic analysis of a previously uninvestigated discourse particle in Spanish, no, si. In this paper, we examine the functions of this particle in conversational interaction and argue that it represents a pragmatic response to a perceived face-threatening act, whether intended as such or not. Our pragmatic analysis demonstrates that, as a conversational management strategy, no, si functions as an expression of an evaluative process in which the addressee interprets and reacts to the pragmatic value of the previous utterance. Following principles of politeness in Brown and Levinson (1987), no, si is a reaction to a perceived intent, and hedges the actual response it initiates, serving as an expression of footing to seek common ground or alignment with the participant. In the framework of conversation analysis (Schegloff, 1988), it is a marker of a dispreferred first and second part in an adjacency relationship.

Aspects of Spanish deictic expressions in Barcelona: A quantitative examination

This sociolinguistic investigation analyzes an innovative usage of Spanish motion verbs, demonstratives, and locatives in Barcelona that involves crosslinguistic pragmatic transfer. Speakers in the two social networks examined ( N = 58) use these Spanish deictics following pragmatic rules that generally correspond to the rules for their Catalan counterparts. Quantitative analysis demonstrates that this innovative usage of the Spanish deictics is not predictable from the lexical form of the deictic systems in both languages. Multiple regression analysis (SPSS) demonstrates that as relative exposure to Catalan increases so does the amount of innovative usage observed, although degree of integration into a Catalan social network and degree of Catalanist ideology do not affect such usage. Qualitatively, this innovative usage is a linguistic marker of a unique contact variety of Spanish spoken in Catalonia (i.e., Catalan Spanish). In this variety, such usage represents a potential resource for performing Catalan identity.

Language exposure in Catalonia: An example of indoctrinating linguistic ideology

AbstractInstitutionalized linguistic domination can affect both language practices and ideologies (Bourdieu 1977, 1991, 1997). Along these lines, this paper examines some of the results of official language policies in Catalonia during the Franco regime. Woolard (1985) claimed that the use of Spanish in public domains such as the school never succeeded in displacing Catalan as the language of legitimate authority in Barcelona. Nevertheless, the present research reveals that individuals in Barcelona who were exposed to Spanish more than Catalan in academic environments tend towards more proSpanish and less proCatalan ideologies. In a sociolinguistic investigation of speech data gathered from 58 individuals in Barcelona, quantitative analysis demonstrates that relative exposure to Catalan and Spanish is the major explanatory variable in accounting for informant to informant variation in measures of political ideology (p <.0000, R2 =.79, F = 69.17). Qualitative analysis suggests that official academic langua...

Spanish no, si: reactive moves to perceived face-threatening acts, part I: discourse relations and cognitive states

This paper is the first installment of a two-part pragmatic analysis of a previously uninvestigated discourse particle in Spanish, no, si. In this paper we examine the distribution of the particle in conversational interaction, discussing discourse structure and the discourse relations involved in the use of the particle. Our data show that no, si is used in response to particular kinds of antecedent questions/utterances and also in an internal usage. The no, si responses are also examined in terms of the cognitive states of the interactants according to the functions of correction, acceptance, or rejection.