Discourse-pragmatic variation of the second person singular in Chilean Spanish: A multifunctional analysis proposal

Abstract

The second person singular Chilean paradigm presents three forms of address: tuteo, voseoand ustedeo,  all  part  of  a  distinctive  complex  system  within  the  Spanish  American  world  The second person singular Chilean paradigm presents three forms of address: tuteo, voseoand ustedeo,  all  part  of  a  distinctive  complex  system  within  the  Spanish  American  world  (Benavides, 2003). Apart from morphosyntax, from the field of linguistic variation it is impor-tant to highlight the use of the pronominal system in order to transmit specific communica-tive functions. In this sense, the main goal of the present study is to analyze the distinctive discourse-pragmatic dimensions in the usage of second person singular in Chilean Spanish. Therefore, a typology with four different functions is proposed: a) Direct address (traditional deictic usage), b) Reproduced address, c) Non-deictic usage, d) Discourse markers. For a more integral  analysis  these  variables  have  been  related  to  pronominal  address,  according  to  a morphosyntactic factor. The oral corpus we have used is composed of sociolinguistic inter-views. Our results indicate that the categories here proposed represent adequately the multi-functional character of the second person system, which is employed by speakers as a stylistic strategy to provide utterances with specific communicative values that transcend perso-nal understanding and project a collective knowledge about the social norms of language.