This study examines variations in the performance of speech acts and additional discourse features in situational speech patterns of Peninsular Spanish. Based on studies by Blum-Kulka, et al. (1989), nine situations were created, varying from less severe to more severe, to elicit natural responses for apologies and requests. Forty participants from Castile and Andalusia were interviewed, and the data were coded to examine the differences in speech act realizations and the use of specific discourse features. The participants responses were classified by regional, gender, and age differences for the data set. Sociolinguistic differences in the use of additional discourse features were also compared, examining the use of alerters, personal address items, intensifiers, polite markers, hedges, accepting responsibility, offering repair, and the expression of need. In part three of this study, native speaker judgments and metalinguistic discussions were conducted to test the speech act data of participants from Castile and Andalusia and to verify the acceptability of the responses.
Results show that in the performance of speech acts, little variation is seen for region, gender, and age. The speech acts for apologies and requests are formulaic in nature, and only change with situational variation. Likewise, even though some differences exist, there is no statistical significance in the use of additional discourse features according to region, gender, and age. The use of these discourse features provides information for Spanish language variation and in the areas of linguistic politeness and language and gender. Results from the metalinguistic discussions provide qualitative data, supporting the findings of speech act realizations. Further investigation is suggested modifying targeted speech acts and situational contexts.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LSU/oai:etd.lsu.edu:etd-06032004-191432 |
| Date | 04 June 2004 |
| Creators | Stapleton, Laura Elizabeth |
| Contributors | Arnulfo RamÃrez, Hugh Buckingham, Michael Hegarty, Janna Oetting, Miles Richardson |
| Publisher | LSU |
| Source Sets | Louisiana State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.lsu.edu/docs/available/etd-06032004-191432/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached herein a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to LSU or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below and in appropriate University policies, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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