Description Project BRUNO CABALLERO

DESCRIPTION PROJECT

Student’s name: Bruno Caballero Contreras

Subject: Introduction to Sociolinguistics Lecturer: María Gabriela Valenzuela

2016

Analysis of data

In order to comprehend the variability of words within Spanish language is relevant to mention a brief theoretical definition of sociolinguistics. This text will state sociolinguistics as “the relationship between linguistics features and sociocultural aspects, and how these elements are interconnected each other”. Hickey, (2012). The different changes that one simple word can suffer according to sociocultural features depend usually on the context (formal/informal), interlocutor‟s aspects (age, gender, level of education), Longworth, (2008). And the intentionality of speakers, Speaks. (2007). On the other hand, and taking into consideration linguistics aspects, it is necessary to point out the elements that form the linguistic part; this text will state these elements as grammar and phonetics. Sociocultural aspects of Spanish language variability Sociocultural elements inside Spanish language inflections are conditioned by cultural condition of a society, Hallebeek, (1992). The sociocultural elements considered within this report are the context, Leckie-Tarry, (1995), interlocutor‟s aspects, Kirby, (2007) and the intentionality of speakers, Haugh & Jaszczolt, (2012). These factors will be mentioned and defined below. Sociocultural Context The context of communicational act refers to the situation where communication takes place, Leckie-Tarry, (1995); this situation is not only a physical place in which people met in order to speak, but also the level of formality involved. When defining formal register is important to state that it is focused on the transmission of contents and it is usually used in media, newspapers, job interviews, etc. Informal register is centered on personal interaction, Hallebeek, (1992), it is almost always used by people that despite of having the opportunity to access to education, they prefer to use the easiest

part of communicating, such as lax ways of pronunciation or contractions. This register involves conversations with friends, chatting, conversations with the family, love letters, etc.

Interlocutor’s aspects Among the features that are identified in interlocutors, there can be observed age, gender and level of education. According to age; interlocutors as any person become old, Kirby, (2007). It means that people acquire language patterns in order to what surround them, that is why it is more common that children use words related to technological devices or those used in social networks. Another aspect to be considered when speaking about interlocutors is the gender. The words used by females are different from males because of the different experiences. For example, it is more common that a woman knows or uses a vocabulary related to make up or fashion. On the other hand, men usually tend to manage language related to sports or vehicles. Kirby, (2007) Intentionality of speakers A feature that has influence on the way of communicating is the intention of interlocutors. Phyisicall dimension contexts within a society are usually understood only by the members of the society, Leckie-Tarry, (1995). Sarcasm or ironies are usually hidden beneath a message that expresses totally the opposite. The intentionality when communicating means the real purpose that interlocutors try to express through the message, Haugh & Jaszczolt, (2012). Linguistic aspects of Spanish language variability This text will define linguistic aspects as the relationship of sounds or letters with meanings that are present inside human languages, Leckie-Tarry, (1995). Linguistics aspects can be considered as the main way of understanding communication among interlocutors, these aspects can vary according to the characteristics of interlocutors mentioned above. The linguistic elements that tend to change are usually grammar and phonetics, understanding grammar as a set of rules that involve the structure of words and how they can assemble sentences, Hallebeek, (1992).

Grammatical rules are adaptable, and if the context requires an informal method of communication, the words or sentences can change in order to adequate to the register applied by interlocutors. A different aspect of linguistic variation of Spanish is the phonetics. The variations of pronunciation tend to be natural among people, Levis, & LeVelle, (2012). When a person is learning a language, a huge part of this process is through listening, it requires that a person listens to a word and tries to repeat it as similar as possible in order to communicate. The pronunciation can be also affected by the place where people live. According to society, the pronunciation of words are usually determine by the level of education which implies that if a person pronounces a word in an inappropriate way (grammatically speaking), it could be the possibility that a lack of education is affecting this, or the necessity of being accepted by specific environments , Levis & LeVelle, (2012).

Data Collection Token

Token in context Tu no entendi nada

education

Gender

Origen

situation

1st year high school

Female

Lota

Entiendes

Tu eres quien no entiende..

4th year high school

Female

Lota

Entendi

¿Tu entendí lo que hay que hacer?

1st year high school.

Male

Concepción

Entendi

¿Me entendí?

8th year elementary school.

Female

Lagunillas

Entiendes

¿Se entiende la diferencia entre….y ….? ¿Tu entendí que dice en esta oración?

5th year University

Female

Concepción

5th year University

Female

Concepción

Informal context, Relative conversation Informal context, Relative conversation Informal context, Classmates conversation Informal context, Friends conversation. Formal context, In – class explanation. Informal Context, classmates

Entendi

Entendi

Entendi

Nana, ¿tu entendí lo que tengo que hacer aquí? ¿Me entendí lo que te dije o no?

5th year, elementary school

Male

Lota

5th year, University

Female

Concepción

Entiendes

¿Se entiende lo que acabo de explicar?

Teacher

Female

Lagunillas

Entiendes

Entiendame porfavor, ya no me aguanto!

4th year, high school

Male

Talcahuano

Entiendes

Esta no entiende nada!

3rd year high school

Female

Talcahuano

Entiendes

¿Entiendes lo que hay que hacer?

5th year, University

Female

Concepción

Entendi

¿Me entendí?

5th year, primary school

Male

Lota

Entiendes

¡Esta cabra no entiende nada!

1st year, high school (incomplete)

Female

Concepción

Entendi

Te estoy hablando!

1st year, high school

Female

Concepción

Entendi

conversation Informal context, relatives conversation Informal context, Friends conversation Formal context, During a lesson Informal context, asking for permission to go to the toilet during a lesson. Informal context, classmates conversation, during a break at the school Informal context, Classmates conversation during a lesson. Informal context, Children playing football Informal context, mother – daughter discussion. Informal context,

Entiendes

Entendi o no?

(incomplete)

Mamá! Se dice entiendes

3rd year, high school

Female

Concepción

mother – daughter discussion Informal context, mother – daughter discussion

Results

As a result, we found that most of the people we listened saying „Entendi‟ and „Entiendes‟ are young, it means, we did not used to listen old people saying those words. Additionally, our samples shows the use of those words without a tendency to use one of them, in general. However, the two children, whose are 10 and 13 years old, spoke using the word „Entendi‟. Then, the young people that use the word „Entendi‟ are between 14 and 15 years old, but the ones who use the word „Entiendes‟ are still in the high school but they are between 16 and 18 years old. Also, we listened to our classmates at the university saying both words but we believe that they know when to use it because they said „Entendi‟ at an informal context and „Entiendes‟ at a formal situation. Finally, adults also use those words, we listened to a mother saying „Entiendes‟ at an informal context which is maybe a controversy because she did not finish her education and we listened to a teacher at a classroom saying the same word but at a formal context, during a lesson. Next, there is a chart that shows the results in a quantitatively way:

Variation

Number

of a word

of Tokens

ENTENDI

8

Age

Gender Education

Origen

Formal Informal Context Context

10-24

M: 3

5th year

Lota

F: 5

Elementary

Concepción

school – 5th

Lagunillas

0

8

2

6

year. University ENTIENDES

8

16-40

M: 1

3rd year high Concepción

F: 7

school -

Talcahuano

Professional Lagunillas Lota

Conclusions

When mentioning the different contexts of communicational acts there are not ways of classifying the registers among good or bad, if the context is formal it does not imply that it is better than an informal one, on the contrary, it is just a situation that requires the adaptation of interlocutors in order to be understood as well as possible. Furthermore, the presence of formal or informal contexts are conditioned by sociocultural issues, if there is the existence of an informal context, it could be a result of a lack of education opportunity, in the case of written language or the fact that the use of contractions is a way of reduce the time implied when people communicate one another. In the case of phonetics, it is relevant to remind that people usually learn a language when they hear it along the years and if a person receives certain pronunciation of a word, it will be trespassed generation after generation. Finally, pronunciation of words in determined ways can be the result of imitation of behaviors as a way of being accepted by the rest. As a conclusion, it is important to mention that the verbal form of “Entendi” is grammatically incorrect because the word comes from the verb “Entender” which is written in the interrogative form as “Entiendes”. Moreover, taking into consideration this information, it exists differences in terms of pronunciation between “Entendi” and “Entiendes”, also these words state variability in their written form.

References

G. Longworth, (2008). “Comprehending speech”. University of Warwick: Philosophy of Language. R. Mooney, H. Knox & J. Schacht, (2007). "The Three Main Sociological Perspectives". Laulima: University of Hawaii. J. Speaks. (2007). “Intentionality”. Notre Dame: Cambridge Encyclopedia of the Language Sciences. M. Haugh & M. Jaszczolt. (2012). “Speaker Intentions and Intentionality”. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. H. Leckie-Tarry, (1995). “Language & context”. A functional linguistic theory of register. London: Pinter Publishers. S. Kirby, (2007). "The Evolution of Language". Edinburgh: University of Edinburgh. P. Pietroski, (2003). “The Character of Natural Language Semantics”, Oxford: Oxford University Press. R. Hickey, (2012). "Language in Society". Cape Town, Rondebosch,: University of Cape Town. J. Hallebeek, (1992). “A Formal Approach to Spanish Grammar”. Language and Computers: Studies in Practical Linguistics. J.Levis, & K. LeVelle, (2012). "Social factors in pronunciation acquisition". Iowa: Iowa State University.