The Pragmatic Alternation Between Two Negative Imperatives in Argentinian Spanish

Throughout the Spanish-speaking world, we find competition between the use of the 2nd person singular pronouns tú and vos and their corresponding verb forms. In Argentinian Spanish (AS), speakers alternate between the tuteo negative imperative (TNI) and the voseo negative imperative (VNI), as shown in examples (1) and (2): (1) ¡No cantes! 'Don't sing! ' (TNI) (2) ¡No cantés! 'Don't sing' (VNI) Previous research has shown that the VNI and the TNI in AS differ in meaning. Fontanella de Weinberg (1979) notes that the VNI is more forceful, while the TNI is more polite. Johnson & Grinstead (2010) found the VNI to be more pragmatically restricted than the TNI, and propose that the VNI expresses urgency. The current study consists of an analysis of two online surveys of native speakers of AS in order to form a more accurate description of the meaning difference distinguishing these negative imperatives. This dissertation explores how this meaning difference comes about both pragmatically and socially. Survey 1 explores the effect of immediacy on the choice of imperative used. A context is immediate if the interlocutor is already performing the action that the speaker is requesting they not do. A context is neutral if the action is not yet in progress. Respondents were provided with contexts eliciting a negative imperative response, and were asked to choose which response they would choose in each context. Results indicate iii that immediacy, as well as anger condition the use of the VNI, while neutral contexts disfavor it. Dialectal and social differences emerge, such that inside Buenos Aires, males use the VNI more than females in all contexts but angry ones. Outside of Buenos Aires, the only contexts in which the VNI is significantly more likely to be used are the angry ones, and there is no effect of gender. These results point to a pragmatic difference in licensing across dialects of AS. In Survey 2 participants were given 7 brief contexts, each one followed 4 different utterance types that they needed to evaluate: one VNI, one TNI, one question, and one declarative. The participants were asked to rate how certain the speaker was that the addressee would have performed the action addressed in the utterance on the scale from 1 to 5. Results indicate that the VNI is rated as significantly more certain than the TNI (p<.001). A dialectal difference also emerges, which parallels that found in Survey 1. The VNI is rated as significantly more certain outside Buenos Aires than it is inside Buenos Aires (p<.001). My data indicate that the VNI conveys information about what the speaker believes to be true of the addressee's intentions. This information is conveyed via Conventional Implicature. Further related meaning, such as anger, among other meaning, is conveyed via Conversational Implicature. The social manifestations of this meaning difference are also explored. While commands are generally believed to be addressee-oriented, my data provide evidence that information about the speaker, namely their beliefs about the addressee’s intentions, may also be encoded in the command. My results also point towards a dialectal difference of pragmatic restrictions on the VNI. iv Dedication This dissertation is dedicated to my family.