Discourse markers of rejection in three varieties of Spanish

Abstract

In the study of discourse markers in Spanish, a field with great vitality in the last few decades, it is common to overlook the expressions used to accept or reject a proposal, suggestion or petition, often included within the broader functions of agreement and disagreement. These answers, used in an informal oral interactive context, exhibit a rich dialectal variety. Due to the fleeting nature of their contexts of use, they are difficult to formally register for further study, especially when looking at them from a panhispanic perspective. For this reason, an anonymous survey was designed in order to ask native speakers about their familiarity with a series of discourse markers used to answer “no” to a proposal. The questionnaire was disseminated in the countries of Spain, Mexico and Colombia, specifically around the capital areas. Participants (N=223) evaluated from 1 (I do not know this expression) to 5 (I use this expression frequently) a series of possible responses, and they were offered the option to provide some other answers not included in the original list. Results show that, while some discourse markers are used to a certain degree in the three varieties, others are prototypical from one of these dialects. The opportunity to offer new expressions was very productive, especially in the case of participants from Colombia and Mexico. While this study focuses on three particular regions, it opens the door to a comparative analysis of discourse markers of negation throughout the Spanish speaking world.