Forms of address in interaction:evidence from Chilean Spanish

Víctor Fernández-MallatGeorgetown University

! vf109@georgetown.edu " @vFdezMallat

06/06/19, INAR 05, University of Sheffield

• Why has Chilean Spanish garnered so much attention?– Tripartite system of address with ustedeante

(V), tuteante (T) and voseante FOAs (all akin to English you)

– From T/V dichotomy to T/“something new”/V trichotomy or new dichotomy within T-forms?

Background

• Whether using survey-based methods or ethnographic- and interview-based ones, previous studies show a pretty static set of address rules based on:– The status of interlocutors– The relationship between interlocutors– The setting

Previous literature

← voseante →

← tuteantetuteante/voseante →

ustedeante →

← tuteante/voseante

Everyday, ordinary talk settings

Based on Bishop & Michnowicz (2010), Hummel (2010), Valencia (2006)

Institutional talk settings

tuteante →← ustedeante

← tuteante →

Based on Bishop & Michnowicz (2010), Hummel (2010), Valencia (2006)

Institutional talk settings

← ustedeante ustedeante →

Based on Bishop & Michnowicz (2010), Hummel (2010), Valencia (2006)←

ustedeante uste

dean

te →

• In both everyday and institutional talk settings, speakers of Chilean Spanish deploy FOAs to indicate:– Relationships of power– Relationships of equality– Relationships of estrangement– Relationships of solidarity

Takeaway from previous studies

• Static conceptualization of FOAs in Chilean Spanish:– One-form-to-one-person-in-one-context

pattern– No alternation/shifting between forms

Takeaway from previous studies

• Helincks (2015) follows an interactional approach

• She uses a corpus of semi-staged interviews from a television talk show

• Participants:– Host Felipe Camiroaga– Comic Stefan Krame (the host’s sidekick)– Then presidential candidate Marco Enríquez-

Ominami (aka MEO).

Previous studies: the selection of unexpected FOAs

Previous studies: the selection of unexpected FOAs

Guest: MEOHost: Felipe Camiroaga

Comic (and host’s sidekick):Stefan Kramer

Hola yo… ¿cómo estái? →

Hi, I… how are you V?

• Helincks (2015) shows that:– People alternate between tuteante and

voseante forms in interactions with the same interlocutor…

–… “with no clear motivation” (p. 748) and unmarkedly (p. 749).

Previous studies: alternating between FOAs

• The norms and conventions for selecting FOAs in Chilean Spanish may be negotiable and dynamic rather than unnegotiable and static

• Thus, they provide a wider choice than what had previously been reported

• In line with Clyne, Norrby and Warren (2009), Dittrich, Johansen and Kulinskaya (2011), Okamoto (2011), and Vismans (2015) for other languages and their varieties.

Takeaway from Helincks (2015)

• How and why speakers of Chilean Spanish select unexpected FOAs in unstagedsettings?

• Do speakers of this variety of Spanish really switch between FOAs “with no clear motivation”?– Spoiler alert: they don’t (see Raymond 2016a for

examples from speakers of Colombian, Costa Rican, Guatemalan, Mexican, and Peruvian Spanish, and Blas Arroyo 2005 for examples from speakers of Peninsular Spanish).

This study’s research questions

• Interactional, constructivist approach outlined in Liebscher et al. (2010), Liebscher and Dailey-O’Cain (2013), and Raymond (2012, 2016a, 2016b)

• Data– Excerpts from a casual family gathering (everyday, ordinary talk

setting)– Excerpts from a call to 133 (the Chilean equivalent of the US’

911 or the UK’s 999) and from a television interview show called CNN Íntimo ‘Intimate CNN’.

• Methods– Conversational analysis as outlined in Carter and Simpson

(1989), Heritage (1984), Sacks, Schegloff and Jefferson (1974) and Schegloff (1991)

This study’s approach and methods

• Setting:– Casual family reunion

• Participants:– Gladys (grandmother, 58)– Andrés (grandson, 3)– Gabriela (granddaughter, 1)

• Place:– Living room

Excerpts 1 and 2: everyday talk

Excerpt 1

FYI

• youU = ustedeante FOA

• youT = tuteante FOA

• youV = voseante FOA

• Lines 1-2: ustedeante FOAs to project the identity of loving grandmother

• Lines 6-7: voseante FOAs to project a gently authoritative figure

• Lines 14 & 17: tuteante FOAs to project the identity of loving grandmother (again)

• Lines 3 & 6: tuteante FOAs to project a neutral, adult identity

• Line 9: ustedeante FOA to project an authoritative figure

• Line 11: tuteante FOA to project a neutral, adult identity (again)

• Lines 14-15: voseante FOAs to project an authoritative figure (again)

Excerpt 2

• Speakers of Chilean Spanish may start a sequence of talk with what is expected from general social conventions or not

• Speakers of this variety of Spanish may switch from one FOA to another to project and identity that is appropriate for the attainment of a time-specific interactional goal

• Chilean FOAs have conventional meanings and speaker roles associated to them, but they gain unique meanings and allow for the projection of multiple different identities within the particular situation in which they are used, at the moment of the interaction

Takeaways from excerpts 1 and 2

Excerpt 3

• Setting:– Call to 133

• Participants:– The call-taker is a policewoman– The caller is a teenager

• Place:– Call was placed in Melipilla (45

miles southwest of Santiago) at 4am

• Lines 2 & 4: ustedeante FOAs to project the identities of call-taker (the policewoman) and person requesting a public service (the teenager)

• Line 11: tuteante FOA to project the identity of a comforting adult

• Line 14: ustedeante FOA to project the identity of call-taker (again)

• Lines 16 & 21: tuteante FOAs to project the identity of a comforting adult (again)

Excerpt 4

• Setting:– Television interview

show called CNN Íntimo‘Intimate CNN’

• Participants:– Matilde Burgos

(journalist)– Karol Cariola (politician)

• Place:– The headquarters of the

Communist Party of Chile

• Line 11: ustedeante FOA to project the identity of professional journalist (unintendedly, because of weight of social conventions?)

• Line 21: tuteante FOA to project the identity of someone relatable

• In institutional contexts, the normative weight of social conventions seems to play an important part in address selection among speakers of Chilean Spanish (particularly at the onset of a sequence of talk)

• But speakers of this variety of Spanish may still switch from one FOA to another

• The way in which speakers of Chilean Spanish use FOAs is (more) in line with the traditional meanings of these forms and the conventional identities they allow to project

Takeaways from excerpts 3 and 4

• It is quite common for one person to use more than one FOA in a sequence of talk when referring to some specific interlocutor

• Shifts in FOAs happen with both the purpose of achieving specific pragmatic goals and the intent of projecting relevant aspects of one’s identity that are instrumental in achieving said goals

• Shifts in FOAs do not go unnoticed by one’s interlocutors

• FOAs have traditional and conventional meanings, but they gain unique meanings within the course of interaction

Closing remarks

• Avenues for future research?– Expand the study of FOAs in Chilean Spanish

theoretically and methodologically by moving beyond their unnegotiable and static conceptualization into a more flexible and dynamic approach that looks into their deployment and variable meanings in the situated context of face-to-face interaction

Closing remarks

Forms of address in interaction:evidence from Chilean Spanish

Víctor Fernández-MallatGeorgetown University

! vf109@georgetown.edu " @vFdezMallat

06/06/19, INAR 05, University of Sheffield