Abstract

MARANHAO DE CASTEDO, Tatiana; MARQUES DE LUCENA, Rubens  and  GOMES DA SILVA, Carolina. Vos: Young, Poor and Vulgar in Eastern Bolivia? A Corpus Study on Voseo in WhatsApp Exchanges. Íkala [online]. 2022, vol.27, n.2, pp.393-410.  Epub June 03, 2022. ISSN 0123-3432.  https://doi.org/10.17533/udea.ikala.v27n2a06.

This paper aims to analyse the use of vos in Eastern Bolivia, more specifically in the city of Santa Cruz de la Sierra. Based on a corpus made up of WhatsApp exchanges between parents and their children, we aimed to verify if the use of personal pronouns was compatible with the situational context; that is, if the second-person singular pronoun used in formal addresses (usted) was maintained in those interpersonal relationships. The analysis was based on variationist sociolinguistics, intonation phonology and politeness theories. The results show that the personal pronoun vos is common in Eastern Bolivia and is used to express not only relatedness but also affection and trust. Likewise, the intonation of utterances also allows us to sustain that addressing parents using vos does not imply disrespect but rather a cordial way of address.

Keywords : forms of address; intonation phonology; variationist sociolinguistics; politeness theory; voseo in Bolivia.

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