Idioms with Clitic Pronouns without a Nominal Referent: The Case of Costa Rican Spanish, a Syntactic and Lexicographic Survey

Abstract Costa Rica’s second-person singular (2PS) address system is known for both its changing nature and its incorporation of tuteo, ustedeo, and voseo forms. While the latter are generalized across communicative contexts, tuteo use has oscillated over time, being consistently associated with foreignness, effeminacy and homosexuality, with one study (Marín Esquivel, Rebeca. 2012. El pronombre ‘tú’ en los grupos homosexual y heterosexual heredianos. Revista Comunicación 21(2). 31–40) suggesting that homosexual men report using tuteo at levels significantly higher than heterosexuals. In this study, we revisit this finding using new data from a survey that elicited stated preferences for address forms and attitudes towards tuteo across different communicative contexts. Multinomial logistic regressions compared the address choices of homosexual men with those of heterosexual men and women, and attitudes were gauged by means of a thematic analysis. Results indicate that currently, with few exceptions, what best characterizes the distribution of address forms are similarities, regardless of sexuality or gender, with all participants reporting low rates of tuteo use across communicative settings. While these results suggest continued change in tuteo use, linguistic attitudes reveal a persistent perceived ideological connection between tuteo, foreignness, effeminacy and homosexuality.

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Lexicografía del español en Costa Rica, visión crítica

Revista de Filología y Lingüística de la Universidad de Costa Rica ◽

10.15517/rfl.v14i2.19009 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 14 (2) ◽

pp. 147

Author(s):

Víctor Sánchez Corrales

Keyword(s):

Costa Rica ◽

Critical Analysis ◽

Costa Rican ◽

Costa Rican Spanish

En este artículo el autor hace un análisis crítico de los estudios lexicográficos del español de Costa Rica de Carlos Gagini (1892) hasta la actualidad. In this article the author makes a critical analysis of the lexicographical studies of Costa Rican Spanish from Carlos Gagini (1892) to the present.

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Variable production and indexical social meaning: On the potential physiological origin of intervocalic /s/ voicing in Costa Rican Spanish

Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics ◽

10.1515/shll-2017-0001 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 10 (1) ◽

pp. 1-37 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Whitney Chappell ◽

Christina García

Keyword(s):

Costa Rican ◽

Social Meaning ◽

Costa Rican Spanish ◽

Variable Production

AbstractIn several dialects of Spanish, men tend to exhibit more intervocalic /s/ voicing than women, e. g.,

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The Phonemes of Costa Rican Spanish

Language ◽

10.2307/409754 ◽

1951 ◽

Vol 27 (3) ◽

pp. 248 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

O. L. Chavarria-Aguilar

Keyword(s):

Costa Rican ◽

Costa Rican Spanish

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Perception of social variables related to allophones of taps and trills

Cadernos de Linguística ◽

10.25189/2675-4916.2021.v2.n1.id593 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 2 (1) ◽

pp. e593

Author(s):

Mariela A. Porras-Chaverri ◽

Raquel Pocasangre-Fonseca

Keyword(s):

Educational Level ◽

Costa Rican ◽

Social Variables ◽

Value Judgments ◽

Negative Experiences ◽

Costa Rican Spanish ◽

Study Population ◽

The Individual ◽

Female Professionals ◽

The Voice

This work presents preliminary research into determining value judgments of socioeconomic class and educational level of speakers based on the allophones of the alveolar tap /ɾ/ and trill /r/ in found in Costa Rican Spanish speech. The population of speakers is male and female professionals living in the Greater Metropolitan Area (GAM) [23-46 years]. Data was collected through written questionnaires and recordings. Speakers were asked about their linguistic attitude to their own variant. Speakers were also asked if they had had any negative experiences regarding their individual speech. Each speaker was also asked to evaluate the variant in a series of guises read by another speaker in the study population. All speakers performed the tap as vibrant in most positions; vibrant and retroflex realizations of the tap were observed before nasal. Vibrant, fricative, and retroflex variants were observed as allophones of the trill. Most speakers maintained a single variant for the alveolar tap and trill, although the variants used differed among the individual speakers. All speakers showed allophonic realizations to the alveolar tap and alveolar trills consistent with those found in Costa Rican middle or upper class. It was not possible to determine if the perception of a lower educational level could be related to a perception of the voice as that of a younger person. The main limitation of this study is that the sample of speakers is small, and that the speakers belong to similar socioeconomic backgrounds.

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Variación fonética de /e/ y /r/ en el habla culta de San José

Revista de Filología y Lingüística de la Universidad de Costa Rica ◽

10.15517/rfl.v21i1.20266 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 21 (1) ◽

pp. 115

Author(s):

Annette Calvo Shadid

Keyword(s):

Quantitative Analysis ◽

Costa Rica ◽

Iberian Peninsula ◽

Critical Review ◽

First Generation ◽

State Of The Art ◽

Costa Rican ◽

The State ◽

San Jose ◽

Costa Rican Spanish

Este artículo constituye una revisión crítica exhaustiva del estado de la técnica en la realización de los fonemas / r / y / r / en el español de Costa Rica . El artículo también describe la variación de estos fonemas sobre la base del análisis cuantitativo de una muestra, el habla de la primera generación educada de San José. La muestra forma parte de los datos recogidos para el Proyecto Coordinado sobre Variedad de Educación en las ciudades principales de Ibero América y la Península Ibérica.This article constitutes an exhaustive critical review of the state of the art on the realization of the phonemes / r / y / r / in Costa Rican Spanish. The article also describes variation of these phonemes on the basis of the quantitative analysis of a sample of female, first-generation educated speech from San José. The sample is part of the data gathered for the Coordinated Project on Educated Variety in the Main Cities of Ibero America and the Iberian Peninsula.

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Variación lingüística en Mamita Yunai, de Carlos Luis Fallas (Linguistic Variation in Mamita Yunai, by Carlos Luis Fallas)

LETRAS ◽

10.15359/rl.2-58.6 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 2 (58) ◽

pp. 119

Author(s):

Ming Yang

Keyword(s):

Costa Rica ◽

Indigenous Peoples ◽

Chinese Immigrants ◽

Costa Rican ◽

Linguistic Variation ◽

African Origin ◽

Marginal Groups ◽

Costa Rican Spanish ◽

The Caribbean ◽

Colloquial Style

Mamita Yunai, de Carlos Luis Fallas, es una obra emblemática de la literatura de Costa Rica. A pesar de los propósitos políticos, muestra un panorama de la variación lingüística en la región. En la novela, se registra con fidelidad las conversaciones entre pobladores de diferentes etnias en la costa caribeña costarricense poniendo de relieve el estilo coloquial en el texto. Este estudio procura arrojar luz sobre esos datos lingüísticos con la investigación sobre el español de Costa Rica, el préstamo entre el inglés criollo y el castellano, el español hablado por grupos marginados, como los inmigrantes chinos, los indígenas y los pobladores de origen africano.Mamita Yunai, by Carlos Luis Fallas, is an emblematic novel in Costa Rican literature. In spite of its politicial focus, it presents a panorama of the linguistic variation in this region. The writer has recorded the conversations within different ethnic groups on the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica, emphasizing the colloquial style in the text. This study addresses these linguistic data by analyzing Costa Rican Spanish, words borrowed from English Creole, and the Spanish spoken by marginal groups such as Chinese immigrants, indigenous peoples, and those of African origin.

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Rhotic Variation in Costa Rican Spanish

Cadernos de Linguística ◽

10.25189/2675-4916.2021.v2.n1.id294 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 2 (1) ◽

pp. 01-29

Author(s):

Matt Dearstyne

Keyword(s):

Native Speakers ◽

Salient Feature ◽

Costa Rican ◽

Future Research ◽

Articulatory Phonology ◽

Speech Styles ◽

Costa Rican Spanish ◽

Acoustic Analyses ◽

And Gender ◽

Effect Of Age

The class of sounds classified under the umbrella term “rhotic” demonstrate considerable variability across, languages, dialects, and speech styles. This is no exception in Spanish, where rhotics have received considerable attention. Among dialects of Spanish, the pronunciation of rhotics in Costa Rican Spanish is a highly salient feature of this variety, where the standard trill /r/ and tap /ɾ/ are often assibilated or realized as fricatives. A number of studies have examined Costa Rican rhotics from both phonological and phonetic perspectives, yet the results of these studies have been inconclusive. Notably absent from these studies are acoustic analyses of rhotic production, instead relying on impressionistic transcriptions which risk glossing over phonetic detail. This pilot study revisits the question of rhotic variation in Costa Rican Spanish by analyzing five sociolinguistic interviews with native speakers of Costa Rican Spanish. Using acoustic analyses of rhotic tokens, I propose a rhotic inventory for this variety which includes approximant and fricative variants in addition to the standard tap and trill. Additionally, I propose a potential explanation for the distribution of rhotic variants through an Articulatory Phonology framework, suggesting that rhotic variation can be explained as a result of gestural weakening and co-articulation. The study presents preliminary conclusions regarding socioeconomic factors, suggesting areas for future research, including the effect of age and gender on rhotic variation. Overall this work contributes to the understanding of the Costa Rican variety of Spanish, considering both linguistic and extralinguistic factors as potential predictors of variation.

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