Perceptions of Second Person Singular Pronoun Use in San Salvador, El Salvador
-
Jim Michnowicz
Abstract
El Salvador Spanish evidences a tripartite system of pronoun address, with one formal pronoun, usted, and two informal pronouns, tú and vos. The present study addresses attitudes toward pronoun use in San Salvador through the use of a linguistic questionnaire. The choice of pronoun is not dependent solely on the interlocutor whom the speaker is addressing, but also social factors, such as a speaker’s age, gender, and education. Statistical analysis demonstrates that tú is reserved for a few specific situations, and may represent an intermediate level of formality between usted and vos. Tú is reported more frequently by older and moderately educated speakers. Vos, however, is being advanced by younger, welleducated speakers in both frequency and into pragmatic areas that previously belonged to usted. In this way voseo in San Salvador may reflect increased informality and a higher use of regional forms reported in many Spanish varieties.
© 2015 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Front Matter
- Contents
- Research Articles
- Gender Assignment and Agreement in L2 Spanish: The Effects of Morphological Marking, Animacy, and Gender
- A Case of Grammaticalization in the Use of the Perfect for the Preterite in Bilbao Spanish
- Testing the Cognitive Load Hypothesis: Repair Rates and Usage in a Bilingual Community
- Perceptions of Second Person Singular Pronoun Use in San Salvador, El Salvador
- Intervocalic Tap and Trill Production in the Acquisition of Spanish as a Second Language
- Book Reviews
- Martínez-Cachero Laseca: La enseñanza del español en el sistema educativo brasileño / O ensino do espanhol no sistema educativo brasileiro.
- State Of The Discipline. Topic: Pidgin And Creole Studies
- Pidgin and Creole Studies: Their Interface with Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics
- Viewpoints. Topic: The Place of Naturallyoccurring and Elicited Data in Linguistic Studies
- The Necessity of Both Naturally-Occurring and Elicited Data in Spanish Intonational Phonology
- Beyond “Naturalistic”: On the Role of Task Characteristics and the Importance of Multiple Elicitation Methods
- Naturalistic and Elicited Data in Grammatical Studies of Codeswitching
- The Place of Conversational Data in Spanish Syntax: Topic, Focus, and Word Order
Articles in the same Issue
- Front Matter
- Contents
- Research Articles
- Gender Assignment and Agreement in L2 Spanish: The Effects of Morphological Marking, Animacy, and Gender
- A Case of Grammaticalization in the Use of the Perfect for the Preterite in Bilbao Spanish
- Testing the Cognitive Load Hypothesis: Repair Rates and Usage in a Bilingual Community
- Perceptions of Second Person Singular Pronoun Use in San Salvador, El Salvador
- Intervocalic Tap and Trill Production in the Acquisition of Spanish as a Second Language
- Book Reviews
- Martínez-Cachero Laseca: La enseñanza del español en el sistema educativo brasileño / O ensino do espanhol no sistema educativo brasileiro.
- State Of The Discipline. Topic: Pidgin And Creole Studies
- Pidgin and Creole Studies: Their Interface with Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics
- Viewpoints. Topic: The Place of Naturallyoccurring and Elicited Data in Linguistic Studies
- The Necessity of Both Naturally-Occurring and Elicited Data in Spanish Intonational Phonology
- Beyond “Naturalistic”: On the Role of Task Characteristics and the Importance of Multiple Elicitation Methods
- Naturalistic and Elicited Data in Grammatical Studies of Codeswitching
- The Place of Conversational Data in Spanish Syntax: Topic, Focus, and Word Order
