North America

Study

Pragmatic Target

Region

Method of Data Collection

Main Results

Glide 2016 

Advice in online forum (Reddit)

Online forum across varieties of Mexico

Computer-mediated discourse

Examined travel advice in Spanish and English given on a bilingual subreddit, r/Mexico. Both Spanish and English preferred high rates of direct advice speech acts counter to previous literature on English (e.g., Try tortas ahogadas), which suggests that this bilingual online community may have negotiated hybrid pragmalinguistic system for advice that tolerates directness in English.

Flores-Salagado 2016

Advice

Puebla

Production questionnaire (DCT)

Native Mexican speakers, English speakers, and EFL students completed a DCT assessing appropriate advice in interactions of varying degrees of formality. Mexican native speakers primarily hedged advice when their interlocutor had higher status (46%), whereas with interlocutors of lower or equal status, participants preferred direct, hedged, or indirect methods. Interestingly, in equal status pairs, participants also preferred to opt out of giving advice frequently (13%).

Hye Yoon 2011   

Advice in reality TV

Reality TV from Mexico City

Institutional discourse

Examined pseudo-realistic advice interaction on Mexican reality television. Mexican hosts use direct, emotional, and face-threatening strategies under these conceptualizations of politeness.

Nelson & Hall 1999

Compliments

Puebla

Field-notes

Adjective-based compliments (e.g., ¡Qué bonito vestido!), rather than noun-based compliments (e.g., Eres un ángel), were the most frequent, representing approximately 75% of the observed compliments. Men complimented women far more often than other men (86% vs. 16%), whereas women complimented both genders at equal rates. In terms of social distance, participants gave more compliments to acquaintances rather than intimates and strangers

Wagner (1999)

Apologies

Cuernavaca, Mexico; Grenada, Spain

Written perception questionnaire

Mexican participants reported that the social status and social distance of the participants affects how the apology should be realized. For example, deference to a professor is highly important for the Mexicans, whereas this preference was not as strong for the Andalusian participants. Interestingly, Mexican women felt a strong obligation to apologize for both highly offensive and weakly offensive interactions. Additionally, he observed a high rate of repair strategies being accepted in apologies (e.g., te pago el daño).

Flores Salgado (2015)

Apologies

Monterrey, Mexico

Sociolinguistic interview (El habla de Monterrey-PRESEEA)

The strategies and rates of mitigation among male and female speakers vary. While both genders use justification strategies to attenuate their point of view, women used more mitigation strategies than men (e.g., dar asesoría técnica y el vender me / me satiface porque / me trae un placer económico). She suggests that mitigation may have a pragmatic value of affiliation with the speaker’s interlocutors. In other words, speakers use mitigation in order to be accepted by the community or group.

Filiminova (2016)

Apologies

Mexican Spanish and Ukranian Russian

Written production questionnaire

In a comparison of apologies between these positive politeness-oriented cultures, there is high pragmalingusitic similarity while Russian speakers utilize a higher degree of positive politeness. This study observed very little difference between genders.

Schrader-Kniffki (2004)

Promises

Oaxaca, Mexico

Ethnographic observation

The Zapotec speakers’ transfer of Zapotec pragmatic meaning leads to miscommunication, conflicts and misunderstandings in their second language, Spanish, because of the pragmatic differences between these languages.  In particular, Spanish speakers perceived Zapotec promises as untruthful because the actions are inconsistently completed. This difference is explicated by in-group and out-group pragmalinguistic strategies of the Zapotec speakers. For in-group members, it is acceptable to refuse a request directly if the hearer cannot complete the action. Conversely, accepting promises regardless of the hearer’s capability to do an action is the standard when a Zapotec speaker interacts with an out-group member. Indeed, the refusal of a request or promise is seen as too impolite that it is avoided.

Félix-Brasdefer (2005a)

Refusals

Tlaxcala, Mexico

Perception

This study operationalizes the perception of politeness of refusals in terms of the degree of formality, politeness systems and strategy use, and the notion of face. Semi-formulaic and formulaic expressions are perceived as polite in this community given that they represent indirect negotiations of face. Additionally, involvement face of the group is preferred over independence in refusing. This is evidenced by the use of solidarity markers (e.g., Este, híjole, no voy a poder hermano) and colloquial language in refusing interactions.

Félix-Brasdefer (2005b)

Refusals

Monterrey

Open-ended role play

This study observed the relation between conventionally indirect refusal strategies and politeness in interactions of varying degrees of formality. Overall, conventional indirectness was the preferred strategy (e.g., Quería ver si usted me podría aceptar el trabajo aunque sea dos días tarde). This strategy increased deferential politeness, which demonstrated respect and distance between interlocutors. Counter to Brown & Levinson’s (1987) expectation that face-threatening acts would require indirectness to increase politeness, the participants preferred on record strategies when using a solidarity politeness system (-Power, -Distance).

Félix-Brasdefer (2008)

Refusals

Tlaxcala, Mexico; Santiago, Dominican Republic

Role play

This article finds that the Mexicans used a higher number of indirect refusal strategies with a preference of independence face such as mitigation and indirect refusals (e.g., ¿Sabes qué? No los (apuntes) traigo ahorita). Nevertheless, the Mexicans used more direct refusal strategies in situations with low social distance. In contrast, the Dominicans used fewer and shorter direct and unmitigated turns that were oriented to involvement face independent of social distance (e.g., No no no no no, yo no puedo no, no).

Félix Brasdefer (2005c)

Requests

Mexico City

Role plays, discourse completion tasks, and natural discourse

Of the three methods, role plays created a higher quantity of discourse strategies than the other two methods such as external modification and conventional indirectness. Both role plays and natural discourse allow the researcher to observe conversational and interactional aspects such as face, indirect strategies, and paralinguistic signals.

Curcó (1998)

Requests

Mexico; Spain

Perception questionnaires

Mexicans prefer to save the positive face of their interlocutor more than the Spaniards. In particular, the Mexican participants preferred positive politeness markers, diminutives, and interrogatives in the represented requests (e.g., ¿Nos da dos cafés?), whereas Spaniards preferred imperatives. These findings lend support to the dependency of politeness on cultural settings and our expectations of others.

Félix-Brasdefer (2007)

Requests

Mexico City

Natural speech, role plays

Natural speech is the best method for observing natural speech and socialization. However, open role play methods allow the data to be comparable and trustworthy. Ultimately, the appropriateness of methodology depends on the objective and needs of a study (e.g., balanced and comparable data vs. natural data).

Félix-Brasdefer (2012)

Requests

Santo Domingo, Dominidan Republic; Oaxaca, Mexico

Role plays

Three prosodic cues were used to mitigate symmetrical interactions: ascending and descending final boundary tone, internal pause, and syllabic lengthening. With the Mexican speakers, an ascending final boundary tone is preferred in both direct and indirect requests (e.g., No sé si me podrías echar la mano?). In contrast, the Dominican utilized descending boundary tones to convey politeness (e.g., Tú me lo puedes prestar). For the Mexican speakers, internal pauses and syllabic lengthening conveyed deference in asymmetrical situations and to express comradery in symmetrical interactions.

Curcó (2004)

Discourse marker, siempre

Mexico City

Discourse analysis

The discourse marker, siempre, indicates to the hearer the relevance and the nature of a changing context. This meaning is exemplified in both truth conditional and non-truth conditional contexts (e.g., Siempre te estás quejando and Siempre no me voy).

Félix-Brasdefer (2005)

Discourse marker, o sea

Tlaxcala, Puebla, Monterrey, and Mexico City

Natural discourse

This study analyzes the use of o sea at the pragmatic and textual levels of discourse to contribute to previous accounts from other perspectives (e.g., semantic relation between two propositions and expletive use). The use of o sea can mitigate disagreement in the introduction of new information and condenses the speaker’s proposition. In essence, this discourse marker is used for reformulation and reorientations strategies when managing and organizing discourse.

Félix-Brasdefer (2015)

Service encounters: requests for service, forms of address, small talk)

Yucatán, Mexico City, Guanajuato

Natural discourse

Intra-lingual study on the pragmatics of service encounters in varieties of Spanish.

Study

Pragmatic Target

Region

Method of Data Collection

Main Results

Gutiérrez-Rivas (2011)

Requests, politeness

Miami

Sociolinguistic variation by generation, role plays

Among the three generations of Cuban immigrants, later generations have adopted negative politeness strategies in Spanish from contact with English, whereas the first generation maintains positive politeness strategies. Indeed, the requests made by third generation Spanish speakers appeared to be calques from English (e.g., Carmen, tú tienes que trabajar un poquito más). Additionally, later generations utilized the conditional and subjunctive with less frequency than older generations.

Arellano (2000)

Requests

Heritage speakers of Spanish

Discourse Completion Tasks

The previously common request strategy of an imperative paired with por favor was the least frequent strategy used by heritage speakers. Instead, they opted for more indirect strategies than direct strategies, similar to English. Additionally, Mexican American farmworkers modify their requests according to the authority of their interlocutors and its level of imposition.

Elias (2016)

Insistence

Heritage speakers of Spanish

Role plays

This study examines the pragmatic competence of Spanish heritage language speakers when giving a refusal as well as their perception of insistence. While research shows insistence is common and expected in many varieties of Spanish, it is not considered polite in English varieties. These heritage speakers prefer indirect deliveries of refusals similar to monolingual Spanish speakers (e.g., giving a reason or explanation). Participants were aware of cultural differences between Anglo and Hispanic culture and most anticipated insistence in response to their refusal.

Pinto & Raschio (2007)

Requests

Heritage speakers of Spanish

Discourse Completion Tasks

In a contrastive study between Spanish heritage speakers, L1 English speakers, and L1 Spanish speakers, this study found that heritage speakers pattern most similarly to L1 English speakers when making a request in terms of directness. In other aspects, such as downgraders, these speakers did not approximate either monolingual group. Instead, they used this strategy at a rate in between the monolingual groups.

Pinto & Raschio (2008)

Complaints

Heritage speakers of Spanish

Discourse Completion Tasks

This study compared complaints among heritage speakers, English speakers, and Spanish speakers. English speakers utilized more mitigators than the other groups, which mollified the impact of the complaint. Heritage speakers, on the other hand, constituted an intermediary group between the monolingual group in terms of mitigation.