Uses of approximators como (que) and com (que) in Spanish and Catalan amongst young bilinguals in improvised TV

Abstract

Numerous studies in different sociolinguistic contexts of Spanish have been interested in the approximant markers como and como que (Jørgensen 2012; Panussis & San Martín 2017; Mondaca Becerra 2019).  There is no study on their equivalent Catalan forms, com and com que. In here, I analyze the uses of como and como que in a yet unexamined variety of Spanish: young bilinguals in Catalan and Spanish in the specific context of improvised TV. In addition, the corresponding forms in Catalan com and com que are analyzed for the first time, albeit to a lesser extent. The corpus of analysis is the streaming series ‘Autodefensa’, whose dialogues are generally improvised, which directly affects the (non)use of these markers, indicators of a language of immediacy (Koch & Oesterreicher 2012[1985]). In this regard, performativity seems to be a relevant factor in the meaning(s) and use(s) of the markers. The results point to a preference in both languages for com(o) and its attenuating function. Furthermore, an initial analysis of two possibly emerging new forms in Spanish and Catalan is presented: como de and com de. Finally, some cooccurrences of the como makers and others associated with youth language, as rollo and o sea, are also discussed (Costa Otero 2021).