Politeness in Ecuadorian Spanish

This paper examines politeness phenomena in Ecuadorian Spanish as reflected in the language of telephone conversations, and, as such, attempts to add another cultural perspective to the discussion of politeness issues and of Brown and Levinson's (1978, 1987) much criticized theory, in particular. It highlights some of the difficulties involved in the application of Brown and Levinson's theory to actual conversational data in Ecuadorian Spanish, such as the frequent occurrence of embeddedness, which brings into question their notions of positive and negative politeness strategies as clear-cut categories, and the lack of one-to-one correspondence between certain forms and their politeness value, which poses problems for generalizations. It also explores the motivations behind participants' use of certain strategies and brings into question Brown and Brown and Levinson's notion of face. In addition, it considers some features of politeness at the macro-speech level (cf. van Dijk, 1977, 1980), which Brown and Levinson do not seem to take into account. Finally, it suggests that it might be fruitful to seek explanations for some aspects of linguistic politeness in fields that deal with social behavior and patterns of social interaction (e.g. social psychology and social anthropology). It nevertheless also suggests that to arrive at a more adequate characterization and understanding of politeness phenomena in Ecuadorian Spanish, it might be useful to examine some aspects of its history and the development of what today constitute its key social institutions

Requests in corner shop transactions in Ecuadorian Andean and coastal Spanish

Book synopsis: This collection of papers is designed to establish variational pragmatics. This new field is situated at the interface of pragmatics and dialectology and aims at systematically investigating the effect of macro-social pragmatic variation on language in action. As such, it challenges the widespread assumption in the area of pragmatics that language communities are homogeneous and also addresses the current research gap in sociolinguistics for variation on the pragmatic level. The introductory chapter establishes the rationale for studying variational pragmatics as a separate field of inquiry, systematically sketches the broader theoretical framework and presents a framework for further analysis. The papers which follow are located within this framework. They present empirical variational pragmatic research focusing on regional varieties of pluricentric languages. Speech acts and other discourse phenomena are addressed and analysed in a number of regional varieties of Dutch, English, French, German and Spanish. The seminal nature of this volume, its empirical orientation and the extensive bibliography make this book of interest to both researchers and students in pragmatics and sociolinguistics

Insistence among family and friends in Quiteño Spanish: from connectedness to empowerment?

Drawing on sociopragmatics and some ethnographic work in communication studies, in this paper I examine the occurrence of insistence in interactions among family and friends in middle-class Quiteño society (Ecuador) in relation to suggestions, offers and invitations. I interpret insistence in these contexts as a marker of affiliation through which an interpersonal ideology of connectedness (cf. Fitch, 1998) is recreated. However, I find that there is some generational variation in the use of this practice. I suggest that this may be an indication of a possible shift in interpersonal ideology –from connectedness towards empowerment– gradually taking place in middle-class Quiteño society

Explicitness and ellipsis as features of conversational style in British English and Ecuadorian Spanish

In this article I examine differences in conversational style between British English and Ecuadorian Spanish which can be the source of communication conflict among speakers of these two languages in telephone conversations, and, presumably in other types of interaction. I look at the language of mediated and non-mediated telephone conversations and examine one feature that interacts with indirectness, i.e., the degree of explicitness participants employ to realize similar acts or moves in the two languages. In non-mediated telephone interactions both British English and Ecuadorian Spanish speakers appear to display a preference for the use of explicitness in formulating various telephone management moves. On the other hand, in mediated interactions, while the British appear to favour explicitness, Ecuadorians in the present study, make use of elliptical forms. The latter, however, tend to be accompanied by deference markers. Differences in the use of explicit and elliptical utterances are interpreted as reflecting that, in certain types of interactions, Ecuadorians favour a style that can be characterized as fast and deferential, but possibly rather abrupt to the English, whereas the latter appear to favour a less hurried style which emphasizes the expression of consideration rather than deference

Opening up closings - the Ecuadorian way

In the conversation analytic tradition, this paper examines the procedures Ecuadorian Spanish (ES) speakers employ to close telephone conversations. Conversation analysts (cf. Schegloff, 1979) examined telephone talk in American English and that found that conversations are opened and brought to a close by the joint work of participants. Concerning closings, they observed, for example, that participants employ certain procedures to signal their desire to bring the conversation to an end and others to actually close the interaction. They also suggested that the conversational procedures they describe are of a universal character (cf. Schegloff and Sacks, 1974 [1973]). The examination of telephone closings in the present study reveals that similar procedures are employed in Ecuadorian Spanish. Nevertheless, it also highlights some of the features that appear to be characteristic of Ecuadorian Spanish only, that is, that seem to be culture-bound, and thus contests Schegloff and Sacks's unversality claims. The need for a culturally contexted conversation analysis, along the lines proposed by Moerman (1988) is supported here

‘Not as Bad as…’ The Concept of Disadvantage in the Justification of Positive Action under UK Anti-Discrimination Law

An essential goal of anti-discrimination law is to break the connection between disadvantage and group membership. There should not be a predictable link between being a member of a group with a protected characteristic and being disadvantaged in society. Positive action is the ultimate tool to achieve this aim, however, its application in the UK has been scarce. In this paper, I argue that the relevant concept of disadvantage in discrimination claims is different from the one used to justify positive action. This distinction impacts on the proportionality test and allows clarification of the potentialities and limitations of positive action to redress inequality. This attempt stands from a theoretical point of view but also highlights the reasoning behind recent cases under UK and EU anti-discrimination law

Condom use in 15-19 year old adolescent girls before and after initiating hormonal contraception

This study provides data suggesting that adolescent girls who receive education and hormonal contraceptive methods at a school-based clinic in the Fontana Unified School District, are more likely to have a signficant improvement in condom use, which improves safe sex practices and reduces the risks of sexually transmitted diseases

Estudi de la mobilitat del transport escolar a dues zones de Barcelona

En aquest projecte s’han realitzat dos estudi de mobilitat en quant al transport escolar a dues zones de Barcelona a partir de les dades recopilades per part de l’Ajuntament de Barcelona i l’empresa DOYMO S.A. L’àmbit geogràfic d’estudi són dues zones. La primera al districte de Sarrià – Sant Gervasi, concretament al barri de Can Caralleu, on es troben les escoles Tàber i Costa i Llobera. La segona zona es troba al districte de Les Corts, concretament a la zona escolar limitada pels següents carrers: Carrer d’Àrdena, carrer Doctor Joaquín Albarrán, carrer dels Cavallers i accés a l’Hospital Sant Joan de Deu. En aquesta segona zona es troben localitzades les escoles Thau, Solc i St. Peter’s School. L’objectiu d’aquest treball és portar a terme dues experiències pilot amb l’objecte de que les experiències que s’apliquin puguin servir de referència per l’aplicació d’estratègies de circulació que solucionin o redueixin la problemàtica del transport escolar a Barcelona. S’han elaborat una sèrie d’enquestes per conèixer els serveis que actualment ofereixen les escoles i els hàbits que presenten els alumnes i pares de les escoles estudiades, així com les causes d’aquests hàbits. S’ha procedit a l’explotació de les mateixes i s’ha realitzat un anàlisi del comportament dels alumnes pel que respecta a l’anada com a la tornada de l’escola. Seguidament s’han realitzat els estudis de mobilitat a les dues zones analitzades tenint en compte la circulació, l’aparcament, el transport públic i el transport escolar de cadascuna d’elles. En aquests dos estudis s’han realitzat una sèrie de propostes per tal de millorar la mobilitat a totes dues zones que inclouen canvis al viari actual i mesures que millorarien tant la seguretat dels alumnes durant l’entrada i sortida de les escoles com la circulació a la zona per part de veïns o altres usuaris. Posteriorment, tenint en compte les millores proposades, s’han inclòs amb uns barems de preus de les mateixes subministrats per l’Ajuntament de Barcelona