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So yo creo que es un proceso evolutivo’: Language ideologies among Puerto Ricans in southeastern Pennsylvania

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Published/Copyright: March 23, 2017

Abstract

This article examines the perspectives of Puerto Ricans living in the United States in response to a publicity campaign that focuses on the correction of linguistic features that appear in some Puerto Ricans’ spoken Spanish. The campaign addresses phonetic, morphological, lexical, and syntactic features, including a specific set of words or phrases that are named as lexical and semantic borrowings from English. Participants were invited to respond to the content and ideologies present in the campaign by means of semi-structured interviews. Through a framework of Critical Discourse Analysis and language (de)legitimation, the article analyzes the ways in which interviewees (de)legitimize loanwords in Puerto Rican Spanish. A Critical Discourse Analytical framework allows for the mapping of spoken and written texts (e. g. the campaign texts) onto discourses about those texts (e. g. Puerto Ricans’ perspectives). On a broader level, the article contributes to current research on dialectal diversity by analyzing speakers’ ideologies in response to prescriptivist discourses that are present within and/or outside of their own speech networks and communities.

Funding statement: Saint Joseph’s University (Grant /Award Number: ‘Michael J. Morris Grant for Scholarly Research’)

Acknowledgements

My thanks go to Rebecca McIntyre for her transcription work and significant assistance on this project, participants at the International Society for Language Studies conference for their discussion and collaborative analysis of data, and to the two anonymous reviewers for their helpful feedback on an earlier draft of this article.

Transcription conventions

.

Sentence-final falling intonation

,

Slight pause

?

Sentence-final rising intonation/interrogative

a: A:::

Lengthened vowel

ALL CAPS

Increased volume

Interrupted or cut-off speech

[…]

Deleted segment

()

Contains information to help the reader interpret the transcript

(2.5)

Extended pause in the discourse, with length in tenths of a second

Transcription conventions adapted from Atkinson and Heritage (1999).

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Appendix A: Demographic information

PseudonymAgeGenderPlace of BirthYears in PRYears in U.S.Educational levelSpanish language self-evaluation
Xiomara19FBaltimore1541st year universityA
Karla21FPonce1833rd year universityA
Fabiola23FPonce185BAA
Nayelis24FJersey City024BAB~C
Diego31MAibonito1615BAA~B
Bianca44FSan Juan1826MA (double)A
Manuel58MAibonito2038PhDA
Héctor60MCoamo528JDA
Alejandro66MSan Juan4620MA (double)A
Carmen66FSan Lorenzo1551High schoolA
Paulina69FLares21489th gradeA
María73FSan Sebastián3538High schoolA
Ismael73MFajardo2548High schoolA
Luis76MHumacao27497th gradeA
Ana76FArecibo15614th gradeA
  1. Notes: A: native speaker with no difficulties expressing him/herself in Spanish; B: comfortable conversing on a wide range of topics in Spanish, but does not consider him/herself a native speaker; C: can carry out basic conversations in Spanish on everyday topics

Published Online: 2017-3-23
Published in Print: 2017-11-27

© 2017 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

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