The conceptualization of hearer reference in Spanish.

Field: Arts and Humanities (Social Sciences)

Whereas person reference research has often focussed on referentiality and identifiability, this study will focus on the impact of person reference on the different conceptualizations of the (relationship between) the interaction participants, and subsequent intersubjective effects (Benveniste 1966, Lyons 1982, Closs Traugott 2003). The analysis deals with 1st and 2nd person plural forms (expressed in Spanish in the verb morphology, as a subject pronoun or as an object pronoun) in interactional data (conversation and debate sections of the COREC-UAM-corpus, and parliamentary debates). These plural forms combine deictic grounding (linked to the speaker resp. hearer) with a group component (for the plural). The flexibility of this group component allows us to place the different readings of plural forms on a continuum ranging from the speaker pole to the hearer pole. I will show that the 1st person plural form is frequently used in utterances where the hearer is included or even the main intended referent, i.e. the reading is situated towards the centre or hearer-end of the continuum. Most of these utterances imply some deontic reading, in that they express the desirability of an action. I will look at (1) speaker-and-hearer-inclusive deontic-readings, (2) the ir a-periphrasis, which can receive both a future and an exhortative reading, (3) the exhortative and (4) the hearer-dominant reading of the 1st person plural (De Cock, forthc.). This hearer-orientation is not merely inferred by our world knowledge but is often triggered by linguistic cues pointing towards the hearer, e.g. a 2nd person reference form (seas in (2)), a vocative (seÃ±ores in (3)), an interrogative speech act (4). The use of a 1st person plural form has then a specific intersubjective effect since the 1st person plural conceptualizes the speaker and the hearer as part of one group and suggests that both are âmodal agentâ (viz. the person expected to carry out the action, Verstraete 2005: 1410). (1) Tenemos que actuar ahora. (âWe have to act nowâ.) (2) No seas asÃ­, hombre. Vamos a dejar que el pÃºblico haga alguna pregunta a alguno de vosotros. (âDonât be like that, man. Weâre going to let the public pose a question to someone of youâ.) (3) SeÃ±ores, no entremos en una discusiÃ³n metafÃ­sica. (âGentlemen, letâs not enter into a metaphysic discussion.â) (4) Â¿Nos hemos tomado la medicina? (nurse to patient) (âHave we taken our medicine?â) Besides these hearer-oriented readings of 1st person plural forms, I will look into the uses of the prototypical hearer-reference form, viz. the 2nd person. These occur rarely in requests for concrete action, but seem to specialize for some specific speech acts, e.g. asking for an opinion or information (5) or requests concerning the organisation of the interaction (6). (5) Â¿SabÃ©is lo que cuesta el Twinnings? (âDo you-2PL-INFORMAL know what Twinnings costs?â) (6) No entren Ustedes en discusiones, por favor. (âPlease do not enter-2PL-FORMAL in discussions.â) The combined analysis of 1st and 2nd person plural forms allows us to conclude that the choice for a 1st resp. 2nd person plural is not only motivated by the referentiality of the person reference form but crucially hinges on the intersubjective effect that its conceptualization entails.