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Social Meanings of Language Variation in Spanish

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A special issue of Languages (ISSN 2226-471X).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (10 December 2022) | Viewed by 34678

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Whitney Chappell

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Guest Editor

Department of Modern Languages and Literatures, University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX 78249, USA
Interests: sociolinguistics; phonetics; variation and change

Dr. Sonia Barnes

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures, Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI 53233, USA
Interests: sociolinguistics; language contact; phonetics

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue will bring together research that explores the indexing of social meaning in Spanish and Spanish contact varieties. While in the last several decades there has been a growing body of research that explores how social information is encoded in language, much of this work has focused on varieties of English. We aim to bring to the forefront studies that examine socioindexical processes at all levels of linguistic structure in different varieties of Spanish, and to highlight the contributions of this research to our understanding of how linguistic forms are connected to social categories, beliefs, and practices.

Rather than simply identifying associations between predetermined social groups and linguistic variants, our aim is to explore the way in which variants are agentively deployed in the performance of speaker style and the construction of group membership (see, for example, Eckert 2000, Coupland 2001). That is, this Special Issue embraces the third-wave approach to variation (Eckert 2012), recognizing that speakers capitalize on indexical social meanings to build their social selves, which iteratively upholds or extends the indexical social meanings themselves. Proposed studies could explore, for example, how both linguistic and nonlinguistic factors, such as vowel production and makeup (e.g., Mendoza-Denton 2008), work in concert to create both individual identity and group membership, or how an individual deploys a linguistic variable in different contexts to construct a particular persona, such as a “partier” (e.g., Podesva 2011). Multiple perspectives, including ethnographic, qualitative, and quantitative works, are welcome, as long as they focus on Spanish or Spanish contact varieties and adhere to the third-wave framework that unites this Special Issue.

We request that, prior to submitting a manuscript, interested authors initially submit a proposed title and an abstract of 400–600 words summarizing their intended contribution. Please send this to the Guest Editors ([email protected] and [email protected]) and CC the Languages Editorial Office ([email protected]). Abstracts will be reviewed by the Guest Editors for the purposes of ensuring proper fit within the scope of the Special Issue. Full manuscripts will undergo double-blind peer-review.

Coupland, N. (2001). Language, situation and the relational self: Theorising dialect style in sociolinguistics. In P. Eckert & J. R. Rickford (Eds.), Style and sociolinguistic variation (pp. 185-200). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Eckert, P. (2000). Linguistic variation as social practice. Oxford: Blackwell.

Eckert, P. (2012). Three waves of variation study: The emergence of meaning in the study of sociolinguistic variation. Annual Review of Anthropology, 41: 87-100.

Mendoza-Denton, N. (2008). Homegirls: Language and cultural practice among Latina youth gangs. Malden, MA: Blackwell.

Podesva, R. J. (2011). The California Vowel Shift and gay identity. American Speech, 86(1): 32-51.

Dr. Whitney Chappell
Dr. Sonia Barnes
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Languages is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

social meaning
indexicality
Spanish
Hispanic linguistics
sociolinguistics
variation

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Published Papers (12 papers)

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Editorial

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6 pages, 307 KiB

Open AccessEditorial

Introduction to the Special Issue Social Meanings of Language Variation in Spanish

by Sonia Barnes and Whitney Chappell

Languages 2023, 8(4), 283; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages8040283 - 6 Dec 2023

Viewed by 1591

Abstract

Centering stances, positionalities, and style, the third wave of sociolinguistic study positions individuals at the heart of its analysis [...] Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Social Meanings of Language Variation in Spanish)

Research

Jump to: Editorial

24 pages, 3741 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Indeterminacy of Social Meaning Linked to ‘Mexico’ and ‘Texas’ Spanish: Examining Monoglossic Language Ideologies among Heritage and L2 Spanish Listeners

by Brendan Regan and Jazmyn L. Martinez

Languages 2023, 8(4), 266; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages8040266 - 14 Nov 2023

Viewed by 2200

Abstract

This study examines how implied speaker nationality, which serves as a proxy for bilingual/monolingual status, influences social perception and linguistic evaluation. A modified matched-guise experiment was created with the speech of eight bilingual U.S. Spanish speakers from Texas talking about family traditions; the speech stimuli remained the same, but the social information provided about the speakers–whether they were said to be from Mexico (implied monolingual) or from Texas (implied bilingual)–varied. Based on 140 listeners’ responses (77 L2 Spanish listeners, 63 heritage Spanish listeners), quantitative analyses found that overall listeners evaluated ‘Mexico’ voices as more able to teach Spanish than ‘Texas’ voices. However, only heritage listeners perceived ‘Mexico’ voices as being of higher socioeconomic status and of more positive social affect than ‘Texas’ voices. Qualitative comments similarly found that heritage listeners evaluated ‘Mexico’ voices more favorably in speech quality and confidence than ‘Texas’ voices. The implications are twofold: (i) the social information of implied monolingualism/bilingualism influences listeners’ social perceptions of a speaker, reflecting monoglossic language ideologies; and (ii) there exists indeterminacy between language and social meaning that varies based on differences in lived experiences between L2 and heritage Spanish listeners. Extending on previous findings of indeterminacy between linguistic variants and meaning, the current study shows this also applies to (implied) language varieties, demonstrating the role of language ideologies in mediating social perception. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Social Meanings of Language Variation in Spanish)

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26 pages, 14737 KiB

Open AccessArticle

What Does It Meme? English–Spanish Codeswitching and Enregisterment in Virtual Social Space

by Kendra V. Dickinson

Languages 2023, 8(4), 231; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages8040231 - 10 Oct 2023

Viewed by 4295

Abstract

This project investigates English–Spanish codeswitching in internet memes posted to the Facebook page, We are mitú (mitú), and analyzes how lexical insertions and quotatives contribute to the enregisterment of linguistic patterns and the construction of collective identity among U.S. Latinx millennials in virtual social spaces. Data include instances of lexical insertion (n = 280) and quotative mixed codes (n = 114) drawn from a collected corpus of 765 image–text memes. The most frequent lexical insertions included food items (e.g., elote and pozole), kinship terms (e.g., abuelita and tía), and culturally specific artifacts or practices (e.g., quinceañera and lotería), which reflect biculturalism and rely on a shared set of references for the construction of a group identity. Additionally, the quotatives in the data construct Spanish-speaking characterological figures that enregister a particular brand of U.S. Latinx millennial identity that includes being bilingual, having Spanish-speaking parents, and having strong ties to Latinx culture. Overall, this work highlights not only internet memes as a vehicle for enregisterment, but also, and more importantly, how the language resources employed within them work to enregister linguistic and cultural norms of U.S. Latinx millennials, and thereby, play a role in identity construction in virtual social spaces. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Social Meanings of Language Variation in Spanish)

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18 pages, 1100 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Mediated Bricolage and the Sociolinguistic Co-Construction of No Sabo Kids

by Salvatore Callesano

Languages 2023, 8(3), 206; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages8030206 - 31 Aug 2023

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 4389

Abstract

Sociolinguistic styles and the resultant ascribed identities are understood as the product of simultaneous variables, leading to the notion of bricolage, or the co-occurrence of variables and their collective indexical meanings. Relatively little attention has been paid to these processes as they manifest on social media platforms. The goal of the current paper is to understand which linguistic and thematic features co-occur in the online production of the no sabo kid style and identity, which manifests as a form of linguistic discrimination towards U.S. Latinx youth. “Hashtag communities” were used to locate posts about no sabo kids on TikTok (N = 95), and videos were automatically and manually coded for salient linguistic and discursive resources in the online no sabo kid community. The results show the co-occurrence of code-switching and phonological and lexical variation, alongside discursive themes, namely ‘proficiency’, ‘ethnicity’, and ‘performative lexical gaps’. I argue that the no sabo kid hashtag community is a mediated manifestation of ideologies surrounding U.S. Latinx bilinguals, where a supposed lack of proficiency in Spanish and grammatical blending of Spanish and English index inauthentic ethnicity. Mediated instantiations of sociolinguistic styles shed light on how linguistic features become enregistered through multimodality and semiotic bricolage. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Social Meanings of Language Variation in Spanish)

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23 pages, 2172 KiB

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Indexing Deficiency: Connecting Language Learning and Teaching to Evaluations of US Spanish

by Gabriella Licata

Languages 2023, 8(3), 204; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages8030204 - 31 Aug 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2420

Abstract

The examination of language attitudes towards US Spanish variables unearths indexical meanings rooted in deficit perspectives, particularly in educational contexts. Standard language ideologies undergird pedagogical practice and learning experiences in second language (L2) and heritage language (HL) Spanish classes. The present study utilizes dual research paradigms of social cognition (matched guise technique (MGT); implicit association test (IAT)) to determine if varying experiences with (Spanish) standard language ideologies in academic settings condition bias towards standardized Spanish (SS) and US Spanish (USS) repertoires. L2 and HL students as well as teachers of Spanish (n = 81) have more positive associations of SS in both the MGT and IAT, demonstrating that standard language ideologies influence perceptions of language acquisition and academic language learning. No correlations between the bias measures were reported yet attitudes did not differ, suggesting that attitudes are stable and reflected in both early learnings of social information and lived experiences throughout formative education. These results contribute to a growing body of research that examines how monoglossic ideologies reinforce and reproduce the stigma associated with features of US Spanish(es). Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Social Meanings of Language Variation in Spanish)

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26 pages, 1636 KiB

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Contextual Variables as Predictors of Verb Form: An Analysis of Gender and Stance in Peninsular Spanish Requests

by Lori Czerwionka, Bruno Staszkiewicz and Farzin Shamloo

Languages 2023, 8(3), 202; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages8030202 - 29 Aug 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1723

Abstract

The current experiment employs a variational pragmatics perspective to explore how the contextual variables of power, distance, and imposition jointly affect social groups’ and individuals’ choice of verb forms in requests in Madrid, Spain. Using a mixed-method approach to explore the requests of 111 Spanish speakers from Madrid, quantitative analyses determined the level of significance and hierarchical order of the predictor variables of power, distance, and imposition on verb form and also the distribution of verb forms by gender, with male and female participants exhibiting significant differences. Additionally, certain participants demonstrated decreased sensitivity to contextual factors, adopting more categorically indirect or direct request strategies. The examination of both gendered request patterns and the stances that single participants adopt through their verb-form selections contributes to our understanding of the social moves that are made by all speakers, not just those who fall within the gendered norms. The results highlight the different frames and social meanings attached to these forms at the micro- and macro-social levels, providing new insight into the complex relationship among linguistic variables, contextual factors, and social groups and individuals. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Social Meanings of Language Variation in Spanish)

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22 pages, 461 KiB

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(Mis)pronunciations of Hispanic Given Names in the U.S.: Positionalities and Discursive Strategies at Play

by Paola Enríquez Duque

Languages 2023, 8(3), 199; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages8030199 - 28 Aug 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1678

Abstract

This qualitative study examines the indexical nature of given names and their role in self-positioning within diverse social contexts. The study centers on the pronunciation of Hispanic given names in the United States. The analysis is grounded in interviews with six young adults who recognize that their names have Spanish and English variants, and it demonstrates that bearers’ phonological awareness plays a critical role in distinguishing name variants and mispronunciations, as evidenced through metalinguistic comments. These distinctions are additionally shaped by personal criteria. By examining the participants’ narratives and one participant’s discursive strategies in particular, I show that the pronunciation of given names constitutes a significant linguistic resource intentionally mobilized and managed to negotiate social positionings. Moreover, this research highlights that conferring Hispanic given names in the U.S. constitutes a sociocultural strategy that extends beyond an indexical ethnocultural naming practice across generations. This practice is found to be a means of fostering and maintaining intergenerational relationships. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Social Meanings of Language Variation in Spanish)

19 pages, 3512 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Clothing, Gender, and Sociophonetic Perceptions of Mayan-Accented Spanish in Guatemala

by Brandon Baird

Languages 2023, 8(3), 189; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages8030189 - 10 Aug 2023

Viewed by 1944

Abstract

Perceptual sociophonetic work on Guatemalan Spanish has demonstrated that listeners are more likely to link male voices with traditional Maya clothing, the traje típico, when their speech includes features of Mayan-accented Spanish. However, as Maya women are more likely than men to wear the traje típico, this matched-guise study investigates native Guatemalans’ perceptions of Mayan-accented Spanish produced by female voices. The results demonstrate that guises with features of Mayan-accented Spanish were more likely to have traje típico as a response than guises without these features. When compared to the previous studies with male-voiced guises, the findings suggest an interaction between gender and Mayan-accented Spanish. Traje típico responses were more common for female-voiced guises than male-voiced guises and occurred at the highest rate among female-voiced guises with features of Mayan-accented Spanish. Thus, gendered and cultural practices are reflected in the indexical fields of Mayan-accented Spanish in Guatemala, regardless of the gender or ethnicity of the listener. That is, the visual body–language link is significantly more essentialized for the identity of a woman than for the identity of a man in Guatemala, suggesting that gendered stereotypes, language ideologies, and embodied practices mutually reinforce one another in the collective consciousness of the region. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Social Meanings of Language Variation in Spanish)

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23 pages, 4485 KiB

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Exploring the Role of Phonological Environment in Evaluating Social Meaning: The Case of /s/ Aspiration in Puerto Rican Spanish

by Christina García, Abby Walker and Mary Beaton

Languages 2023, 8(3), 186; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages8030186 - 4 Aug 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2193

Abstract

Research in sociophonetic perception has suggested that linguistic factors influence the social meaning of a particular variant, such that the strength of social meaning appears to be mediated by factors like grammatical category or phonological environment. Here, we further investigate the impact of linguistic factors on the perception of sociolinguistic variables by examining evaluations of /s/ aspiration in the speech of four male Puerto Rican Spanish speakers. We look at how evaluations of this variable pattern based on the phonological context (preconsonantal vs. prevocalic), the proportion of a given variant ([s] or [h]) in the stimuli, and the listener residence (Puerto Rico vs. mainland US). Our results replicate earlier work showing that /s/ realization contributes to status and masculinity ratings. However, we do not find evidence of an effect of incremental changes in the proportions of [s]:[h] variants in an utterance or an effect of listener residence. Critically, we do find that phonological context influences the evaluations of listeners: [s] is rated as less masculine than [h] in preconsonantal environments, but in prevocalic environments, there is no effect of variant. Given that [s] is rarely found in preconsonantal contexts in Puerto Rican Spanish, and even less so in male speech, this result is consistent with studies arguing that social meaning is stronger in marked contexts. Expected patterns for gender, phonological context, and dialect interact to make an [s] realization of preconsonantal /s/ particularly rare in male speech of this variety, which opens the door for more robust socioindexical meaning. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Social Meanings of Language Variation in Spanish)

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30 pages, 1910 KiB

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Spanish in the Southeast: What a Swarm of Variables Can Tell Us about a Newly Forming Bilingual Community

by Jim Michnowicz, Rebecca Ronquest, Sarah Chetty, Georgia Green and Stephanie Oliver

Languages 2023, 8(3), 168; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages8030168 - 14 Jul 2023

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2331

Abstract

The southeastern United States has experienced rapid growth in the Hispanic population in recent decades, giving rise to a newly forming bilingual community. The present study builds on previous work by the authors via expansion of a “variable swarm”: the analysis of multiple linguistic variables simultaneously for the same set of speakers, with the goal of understanding patterns of accommodation and change within the community. The initial study included four linguistic variables (prosodic rhythm, bilingual discourse markers, the realization of /bdg/ and vowel space), and the present study adds an additional four variables (bilingual filled pauses, subject pronoun realization, code switching, and the labiodental realization of orthographic <v>) for 23 speakers of Mexican and Central American origin across two sociolinguistic generations (G1 vs. G2). Results for individual speakers show a pattern of adoption of some features by speakers of both generations (such as English-influenced prosodic rhythm and phonological filled pauses), while other, possibly more salient forms directly integrated from English (English discourse markers and code switching) exhibit later, highly variable rates of adoption, suggesting that speakers may consciously manipulate these variables as part of a process of active identity construction. Likewise, G1 speakers show fewer correlations among linguistic variables than G2 speakers, and patterns reveal that some bilingual forms are incorporated in tandem due to shared phonological traits or discourse functions. The innovative swarm analysis further contributes to the advancement of techniques employed in sociolinguistic research by serving as a bridge between traditional first- and second-wave studies that focus on a single variable, and third-wave studies that focus more on variation at the individual level. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Social Meanings of Language Variation in Spanish)

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27 pages, 69124 KiB

Open AccessFeature PaperArticle

Correntino Spanish Memes and the Enregisterment of Argentine Guarani Loanwords

by Justin Pinta

Languages 2023, 8(3), 165; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages8030165 - 10 Jul 2023

Viewed by 3329

Abstract

The intense contact between Guarani and Spanish in the Argentine province of Corrientes has produced a wide array of mutual contact effects, the most visible being widespread borrowing in both directions. This article examines a previously unreported feature of Argentine Guarani loans in Correntino Spanish: the social value they have acquired. Building on the growing body of work in sociolinguistics on internet memes, which are sites of phenomena rich in sociolinguistic value, an analysis is provided of Argentine Guarani loans in Correntino Spanish using an original corpus of memes collected from Correntino Instagram pages. Such memes, whose intended audience is monolingual, are a valuable source of Correntino Spanish features, which are used for humorous, ironic, or nostalgic effect. Via analysis of the relationship between these loans and the kinds of memes they appear in, I show that these loans have undergone enregisterment, i.e., they have taken on additional social meaning that allows them to index a complex variety of ideological stances toward Correntino social phenomena and character types. The results of this process evidence the fact that language contact, as an engine of variation, creates fertile ground for the emergence of social meaning and that memes are a productive and promising window into the (re)creation and evolution of such meaning. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Social Meanings of Language Variation in Spanish)

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25 pages, 1468 KiB

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Creaky Voice in Chilean Spanish: A Tool for Organizing Discourse and Invoking Alignment

by Mariška Bolyanatz

Languages 2023, 8(3), 161; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages8030161 - 30 Jun 2023

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1987

Abstract

This study relies on an interactional, conversational–analytic approach to elucidate what meanings Chilean Spanish speakers convey via creaky voice quality in informal conversations. Highly creaky utterances produced by 18 speakers were derived from a larger corpus of sociolinguistic interview speech from Santiago, Chile, and examined via an interactional approach that accounted for how creaky voice figured in the process of meaning-making and meaning negotiations throughout the conversation. Results indicate that approximately 40% of highly creaky utterances were used to organize the speaker’s discourse, signaling the end of turns, hedges or uncertainty, and a change in communicative purpose, while the majority of the highly creaky utterances were used to invoke alignment with the listener via ensuring that their messages or stances were understood and potentially endorsed. This study offers evidence from a non-English language for creaky voice as a tool for both discursive organization and interactional alignment. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Social Meanings of Language Variation in Spanish)

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