Los valores compromisivo y asertivo de prometer y jurar en dos variantes del español

Abstract

This article analyzes the verbs prometer (to promise) and jurar (to swear) as verbs referring to two types of illocutionary acts: commissive and assertive, in two varieties of Spanish, Peninsular (Spain) and Mexican Spanish. The article shows that the assertive use of prometer is perceived as strange or incorrect by some Mexican speakers whereas it is commonly accepted by speakers from Spain. According to the corpus data analyzed, prometer is used in both varieties with a very low frequency although it is not a recent use in Spanish. The analysis shows that the distinction between performative and non performative utterances is relevant for the description of prometer and jurar: although prometer is mainly used as commissive, its assertive use is greater in performative than in non performative utterances. Jurar is mostly used as assertive but, in non performative utterances, it is more frequently used as a commissive verb. The article contributes to ¿¿profundizar en???–- the relationship between the theory of speech acts and the linguistic description based in real data.