Periodic Reporting for period 1 - SOUTHWEST (The politeness system and the emergence of a Sprachbund)
Reporting period: 2020-09-01 to 2022-08-31
The project to be carried out aims to fill the gap existing around the 18th and 19th-century Ibero-Romance, specifically of the southwestern part of the Iberian Peninsula. The Spanish and Portuguese spoken in this area have developed a Sprachbund that reflects in the pronouns of address system. The great complexity that currently exists is said to have commenced in the 1700’s and the syntactic particularities it exhibits swing between the reality of the rest of the Iberian Peninsula and that of the American varieties. However, it is still unknown whether the situation of the Sprachbund is influenced by the American dialects or vice versa. Moreover, the literature has disregarded the likely influence of other Ibero-Romance languages in the latest development of Portuguese and Spanish.
The three different dialects based on pronouns of address that are attested nowadays can be split as follows: the southwestern Sprachbund, the rest of the Iberian Peninsula and the American varieties. The Spanish Succession War that overthrew the Habsburgs and gave the power to the Bourbons marks the beginning of France as the country of prestige within the Iberian Peninsula and the gradual willing for independence of the American colonies until their emancipation. As a result, the 18th and 19th centuries are crucial for the understanding of all the paths that these three areas followed. But it is even more important to study the evolution of the Sprachbund for several reasons: firstly, the whole area was during centuries the zone of exchange between America and the Iberian Peninsula; secondly, it represented the prestige until the arrival of the Bourbons; thirdly, it possesses a system that resembles that of America, but at the same time it resorts to features of the rest of Spain and Portugal.
Thus, this project attempts to analyse data that can account for the changes in the pronominal system of the Sprachbund during these two centuries, in order to determine the geographical dynamics that made three different areas; the sociolinguistic patterns that favoured these divergences; the pragmatic variables that played a role in this split and, finally, the social, political and cultural factors that prompted the linguistic independence of America and Europe to this respect, as well as the formation of a Sprachbund that still possesses American features though it is ruled by European standards.
The importance of this project lies in the fact that pragmatics and politeness reflect society's beliefs. There is a gap that needs to be filled in order to understand the evolution of the Luso-Hispanic society and how the political events have also shaped these changes. The system of forms of address is the best example of what a country considers acceptable for its citizen to be treated and the literature has focused either on the Middle and Modern Ages or the present being. However, the centuries under study represent a profound shift in all western countries, since hierarchy and distance start to being perceived as less democratic and less liberal than the use of solidary terms.
As a result, the overall objectives are the following:
1) To shed light on the 18th and 19th century ES and PT, and fill the gap to this respect. Thanks to this, new knowledge
on the evolution of the IP society can be reached and scholars of many disciplines can link the current state of
affairs with the findings already known about IP prior to 1700’s.
2) To pinpoint whether the levelling is a result of the narrow relation between south-western IP and the colonies in
America and what was the right direction in the adoption of this phenomenon: from America to IP or vice versa.
3) To find what prompted this levelling, to what social, political or historical reasons it responds and the way the
linguistic pattern has evolved from the beginning until the situation already described in the literature for the
middle 20th century.
4) To establish the relation between the ES phenomenon and the PT counterpart and why it was in southern Portugal
and not in the north that this levelling took place. As a result, a secondment in the University of Lisbon is foreseen.
The three different dialects based on pronouns of address that are attested nowadays can be split as follows: the southwestern Sprachbund, the rest of the Iberian Peninsula and the American varieties. The Spanish Succession War that overthrew the Habsburgs and gave the power to the Bourbons marks the beginning of France as the country of prestige within the Iberian Peninsula and the gradual willing for independence of the American colonies until their emancipation. As a result, the 18th and 19th centuries are crucial for the understanding of all the paths that these three areas followed. But it is even more important to study the evolution of the Sprachbund for several reasons: firstly, the whole area was during centuries the zone of exchange between America and the Iberian Peninsula; secondly, it represented the prestige until the arrival of the Bourbons; thirdly, it possesses a system that resembles that of America, but at the same time it resorts to features of the rest of Spain and Portugal.
Thus, this project attempts to analyse data that can account for the changes in the pronominal system of the Sprachbund during these two centuries, in order to determine the geographical dynamics that made three different areas; the sociolinguistic patterns that favoured these divergences; the pragmatic variables that played a role in this split and, finally, the social, political and cultural factors that prompted the linguistic independence of America and Europe to this respect, as well as the formation of a Sprachbund that still possesses American features though it is ruled by European standards.
The importance of this project lies in the fact that pragmatics and politeness reflect society's beliefs. There is a gap that needs to be filled in order to understand the evolution of the Luso-Hispanic society and how the political events have also shaped these changes. The system of forms of address is the best example of what a country considers acceptable for its citizen to be treated and the literature has focused either on the Middle and Modern Ages or the present being. However, the centuries under study represent a profound shift in all western countries, since hierarchy and distance start to being perceived as less democratic and less liberal than the use of solidary terms.
As a result, the overall objectives are the following:
1) To shed light on the 18th and 19th century ES and PT, and fill the gap to this respect. Thanks to this, new knowledge
on the evolution of the IP society can be reached and scholars of many disciplines can link the current state of
affairs with the findings already known about IP prior to 1700’s.
2) To pinpoint whether the levelling is a result of the narrow relation between south-western IP and the colonies in
America and what was the right direction in the adoption of this phenomenon: from America to IP or vice versa.
3) To find what prompted this levelling, to what social, political or historical reasons it responds and the way the
linguistic pattern has evolved from the beginning until the situation already described in the literature for the
middle 20th century.
4) To establish the relation between the ES phenomenon and the PT counterpart and why it was in southern Portugal
and not in the north that this levelling took place. As a result, a secondment in the University of Lisbon is foreseen.
The 14 months that have passed from the beginning of the contract have been quite satisfactory. During the first months, my attendance to archives throughout western Andalusia made it possible to compile data. Moreover, the other corpora at disposal on Internet supported with material the tokens I had already collected. The gathering of occurrences regarding Spanish was completed about month 6 and, during the following weeks, the results were classified, transcribed and annotated. Then, the analysis started and I wrote a number of manuscripts I will refer later.
In September 2021, I undertook a secondment at Universidade de Lisboa, as foreseen, in order to compile Portuguese data that can account for the same phenomenon as in Spanish. This stay is expected to finish by December this year, after which, the classification, transcription, annotation and analysis of the tokens will be carried out.
However, although the Portuguese part is not completed yet, the occurrences I have found on Spanish allow for addressing the objectives 1 up to 3.
In light of the above, the compilation of Portuguese data is the goal I am reaching during these months, for it is impossible to comprehend the whole picture of the Hispanic and Lusophone history of pornouns of address without taking into account tokens of Portuguese.
In September 2021, I undertook a secondment at Universidade de Lisboa, as foreseen, in order to compile Portuguese data that can account for the same phenomenon as in Spanish. This stay is expected to finish by December this year, after which, the classification, transcription, annotation and analysis of the tokens will be carried out.
However, although the Portuguese part is not completed yet, the occurrences I have found on Spanish allow for addressing the objectives 1 up to 3.
In light of the above, the compilation of Portuguese data is the goal I am reaching during these months, for it is impossible to comprehend the whole picture of the Hispanic and Lusophone history of pornouns of address without taking into account tokens of Portuguese.
The research I have carried out until now has allowed me to uncover the greatest enigma of Spanish linguistics: the history of its pronouns of address and the great dialect variation existing even today. The literature has traditionally focused their investigations on a specific geographical area, time lapse or social class, but my results show in detail the whole diachrony in all the Hispanic world, by analysing the geolinguistic, sociolinguistic, pragmatic, historical and grammatical features. In fact, the main achievement is the empirical demosntration of the grammatical behaviour of this phenomenon. The outcomes of this project so far have enabled to determine the reason why Spanish exhibits tuteo, voseo, ustedeo, sumercedeo as well as the combination of different plural pronouns. I have also discovered the reasons for the levelling in western Andalusia. This is a huge breakthrough in Hispanic linguistics, since there is enormous literature about all these phenomena, without none having succeeded in offering a convincing theory.
What I have just written has materialised in a number of scientific papers that are either in press (2) or under revision (3). I am also finishing a book.
Other dissemination methods have been the attendace and participation via communication in 2 different congresses. Likewise, I have sent ulterior proposals for two other congresses.
As the organisation of congresses and the acceptance of colleagues to attend them has been an odessy because of the pandemic, my network with scholars has materialised in the edition of a special issue for the journal RILI. This edition is currently under review. Nevertheless, I am committed to organising the next edition of the international congress of forms and pronouns of address in the Hispanic and Lusophone world, already held in Graz, São Paulo and Madrid. In order to strengthen ties with colleagues and to widen the community, I will extend the congress to African colleagues.
What I have just written has materialised in a number of scientific papers that are either in press (2) or under revision (3). I am also finishing a book.
Other dissemination methods have been the attendace and participation via communication in 2 different congresses. Likewise, I have sent ulterior proposals for two other congresses.
As the organisation of congresses and the acceptance of colleagues to attend them has been an odessy because of the pandemic, my network with scholars has materialised in the edition of a special issue for the journal RILI. This edition is currently under review. Nevertheless, I am committed to organising the next edition of the international congress of forms and pronouns of address in the Hispanic and Lusophone world, already held in Graz, São Paulo and Madrid. In order to strengthen ties with colleagues and to widen the community, I will extend the congress to African colleagues.