In recent decades, youth language has become one of the preferred research areas in sociolinguistics, not only because of its non-normative nature but mostly because it is recognized as a catalyst for language change. Since adolescents aspire to create and safeguard an in-group identity, they constantly generate innovative linguistic forms. However, few studies have empirically monitored the speed at which linguistic innovations are introduced into youth language. This study explores the speed and nature of recent language change within Spanish youth language by conducting a corpus analysis in real time. Data of the contemporary CORMA corpus (Corpus Oral de Madrid, compiled between 2016 and 2019) are contrasted with the highly comparable data of the COLAm corpus (Corpus Oral de Lenguaje Adolescente de Madrid, compiled between 2003 and 2007). The study scrutinizes two typical phenomena of youth language, namely the use of intensifiers (e.g., super-, mazo) and vocatives (e.g., tío/tía, chaval/chavala). It is shown that changes occur at a more moderate speed than previously assumed and that the speed of change depends on the linguistic phenomenon under study. Additionally, the data suggest that more neutral forms remain quite stable over time, while the use of more expressive items shrinks or increases faster.
En el español hablado, son varias las expresiones vocativas que señalan una relación afectiva entre los interlocutores. Entre estos llamados vocativos cariñosos se destaca el uso de los adjetivos de belleza como señal de afecto y cariño hacia el interlocutor. El presente estudio se dedica a las principales características formales y funcionales del vocativo derivado del adjetivo de belleza guapo en el español peninsular contemporáneo. Para ello, se ha recurrido a datos provenientes de varios corpus orales de la variedad peninsular. Los resultados ponen en evidencia que guapo constituye un vocativo multifuncional, prestándose a usos fático-apelativos, corteses y expresivo-enfáticos. No obstante, los hablantes emplean este vocativo preferiblemente como estrategia de intensificación cortés, con el fin de realzar la imagen del interlocutor. En este estudio, se alega que las propiedades pragmáticas del vocativo bajo análisis se originan en el contenido conceptual de la base léxica, más precisamente en el sema halagador inherente al significado de los adjetivos de belleza. Los usos vocativos de guapo se presentan, pues, como el resultado de un proceso de pragmaticalización.
This paper investigates the formal and functional variation of the vocative in contemporary Spanish teenage talk. For this purpose, all vocative occurrences found in conversations between teenagers in the Corpus Oral de Madrid-2016 are analyzed. The vocative is known to be highly productive in Spanish teenage talk, on both formal and functional levels. First, we provide the inventory of vocative forms used by Madrilenian teenagers, examine their origin and describe their semantic-pragmatic features, with special attention for the nominal vocative expressions used as symbols of in-group identity. The second part disentangles the pragmatic-discursive functions assumed by these forms, by taking into account the vocative’s multifunctionality. Teenagers tend to use vocatives as a phatic mechanism which allows them to control the contact with their interlocutor(s).
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