Pragmatic Variation
Speakers from different regions of one country vary their speech act production (e.g., apologizing, refusing, requesting), perceive speech acts differently, convey and perceive im/politeness differently, and display different interactional patterns conversation (e.g., greetings, opening and closing sequences, turn-taking, laughter).
In light of previous research, Variational Pragmatics (Schneider & Barron 2008; Barron & Schneider 2009), intra-lingual pragmatic variation analyzes variation across varieties of a language, such as varieties of two regions in the United States (Indianapolis vs. New Yok City), two in Mexico (Mexico City vs. Yucatán), or two in Spain (Madrid vs. Sevilla).
Intra-lingual pragmatic variation is contrastive by nature. It examines variation at the subnational level and at various levels of pragmatic analysis (e.g., actional [speech acts], interactional [speech act sequences], organizational [turn-taking]). Cross-cultural and intra-lingual pragmatic variation has also been analyzed in the context of service encounters in commercial and non-commercial settings in the United States and in Mexico (Félix-Brasdefer 2015, The Language of Service Encounters). Pragmatic variation has also been investigated in second language contexts (Félix-Brasdefer & Koike 2012).
In the map click on each country to enter the world of pragmatic variation! This site is in progress. Information will be added for each country gradually)