Cover not available

In:Recent Developments in Hispanic Linguistics: Studies in structure, variation, and bilingualism
Edited by Michael Gradoville and Sean McKinnon
[Issues in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics 41] 2024
► pp. 44–68

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload Book PDF
EPUB logo with download linkDownload Book EPUB
authorization required

Chapter 2
Politics, variation, and politeness on Andalusian Twitter (X)

The second-person plural in Peninsular Spanish identity construction

ORCiD logo with link | Louisiana State University Shreveport
Published online: 4 October 2024
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/ihll.41.02pol
Abstract
This study focuses on sociolinguistic variation and politeness on the social media platform Twitter (X) to track the decline in the second person plural ustedes form among politicians in southern and northern-central Spain. An analysis of politeness in computer-mediated communication (CMC) identified pragmatic differences across politicians and showed how second-person plural variation plays a role in politeness and regional identity work. The study found that the use of impoliteness on social media is on the rise, while use of ustedes is low and used in specific contexts. From a variationist perspective, impoliteness correlates with ustedes use against political opponents, and shows that politicians employ this form as a means of creating social distance between themselves and rivals.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Previous literature
    • 2.1Politeness and computer-mediated contexts
    • 2.2Style-shifting and political speech
    • 2.3The second-person plural and Andalusian Spanish
    • 2.4Research questions
  • 3.Methodology
    • 3.1Politicians on Twitter (X)
    • 3.2Second-person plural selection and politeness coding
    • 3.3Variable selection and data analysis
  • 4.Results
  • 5.Discussion
    • 5.1Second person plural form selection
    • 5.2Factors conditioning second-person plural selection and politeness realization
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
References (46)
References
Aijón-Oliva, M. A. (2019). La elección de segunda persona y la construcción de identidades contextuales en el discurso radiofónico de una comunidad peninsular. Sociocultural Pragmatics 7, 125–154. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Brown, P., & Levinson, S. C. (1987). Politeness: Some universals in language usage. Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cano Aguilar, R. (2006). Regionalismo, nacionalismo, lengua: El caso de Andalucía. In A. Narbona-Jiménez (Ed.), III Jornadas sobre el habla andaluza: Diversidad y homogeneidad del andaluz (pp. 153–177). Ayuntamiento.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chen, G. M. & Abedin, Z. (2014). Exploring differences in how men and women respond to threats to positive face on social media. Computers in Human Behavior, 38, 118–126. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Coupland, N. (2001). Language, situation, and the relational self: Theorizing dialect-style in sociolinguistics. In P. Eckert & J. R. Rickford (Eds.), Style and sociolinguistic variation (pp. 185–210). Blackwell.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Daleszynska, A. (2016). Analysing linguistic variation with Rbrul–a step-by-step guide. Danielezrajohnson.com.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Eckert, P. (2008). Variation and the indexical field. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 12, 453–476. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Euronews. (2023, June 27). Feminism and LGTBI flag as trash: Spanish far-right Vox removes offensive banner. Euronews. [URL]
García Godoy, M. T. (2011). Su merced en la variedad andaluza dieciochesca: ¿Un caracterizador dialectal? In P. Carrasco Cantos (Ed.) Lengua, historia y sociedad en Andalucía: Teoría y textos (pp. 227–254). Vervuert. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Goffman, E. (1955). On face-work: an analysis of ritual elements in social interaction. Psychiatry: Journal for the Study of Interpersonal Processes, 18, 213–231. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hall-Lew, L., Friskney, R., & Scobbie, J. M. (2017). Accommodation or political identity: Scottish members of the UK Parliament. Language Variation and Change, 29, 341–363. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hernández-Campoy, J. M., & Cutillas-Espinosa, J. A. (2010). Speaker design practices in political discourse: A case study. Language & Communication, 30, 297–309. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hernández-Campoy, J. M. & Cutillas-Espinosa, J. A. (2013). The effects of public and individual language attitudes on intra-speaker variation: A case study of style-shifting. Multilingua, 31, 79–101. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Herring, S. C. (1994). Politeness in computer culture: Why women thank and men flame. In M. Bucholtz, A. C. Liang, L. A. Sutton, & C. Hines (Eds.), Cultural performances: Proceedings of the Third Berkeley Women and Language Conference (pp. 278–294). University of California Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(1996). Posting in a different voice: Gender and ethics in computer-mediated communication. In C. Ess (Ed.), Philosophical Perspectives on Computer-Mediated Communication (pp. 115–145). SUNY Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Herring, S. C., & Androutsopoulos, J. (2015). Computer-mediated discourse 2.0. In D. Tannen, H. E. Hamilton, & D. Schiffrin (Eds.), The handbook of discourse analysis, Second Edition (pp. 127–151). John Wiley & Sons. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jaime-Jiménez, E. (2018). Variable use of plural address forms in Andalusian Spanish [Doctoral dissertation, The Ohio State University].
Johnson, D. E. (2009). Getting off the GoldVarb standard: Introducing Rbrul for mixed-effects variable rule analysis. Language and Linguistics Compass, 3, 359–383. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kim, Y., & Herring, S. C. (2018). Is politeness catalytic and contagious? Effects on participation in online news discussions. Proceedings of the Fifty-First Hawai’i International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS-51). Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lange, P. G. (2014). Commenting on YouTube rants: Perceptions of inappropriateness or civic engagement? Journal of Pragmatics, 73, 53–65. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lara Bermejo, V. (2010). El uso de ustedes por vosotros en Andalucía occidental. Universidad Autónoma de Madrid.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2018). La cortesía en la Península Ibérica: Dialectología del Sprachbund suroccidental. Peter Lang. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lehti, L., & Laippala, V. (2014). Style in French politicians’ blogs: Degree of formality. Language@Internet 11.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Litt, E., Spottswood, E., Birnholtz, J., Hancock, J. T., Smith, M. E. & Reynolds, L. (2014). Awkward encounters of an other kind: Collective self-presentation and face threat on Facebook. Proceedings of the 17th ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work & Social Computing (pp. 449–460). Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mondéjar, J. (1994). El verbo andaluz: Formas y estructuras. Málaga: Ágora.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Morand, D. A., & Ocker, R. J. (2003). Politeness theory and computer-mediated communication: A sociolinguistic approach to analyzing relational messages. Proceedings of the 36th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS-36). Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Morgan, T. A., & Schwenter, S. A. (2016). Vosotros, ustedes, and the myth of the symmetrical Castilian pronoun system. In A. Cuza, L. Czerwionka & D. Olson (Eds.), Inquiries in Hispanic Linguistics: From theory to empirical evidence (pp. 263–280). John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2021). Vosotros vs. ustedes: Asymmetries in 2PL pronouns across Spanish dialects. In M. Díaz-Campos (Ed.), The Routledge handbook of variationist approaches to Spanish (pp. 277–297). Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Murphy, M., & Levy, M. (2006). Politeness in intercultural email communication: Australian and Korean perspectives. Journal of Intercultural Communication, 12, 1–10. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Oeldorf-Hirsch, A., Birnholtz, J. & Hancock, J. T. (2017). Your post Is embarrassing me: Face threats, identity, and the audience on Facebook. Computers in Human Behavior, 73, 92–99. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Penny, R. (2004). Variación y cambio en español. Gredos.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pollock, M. (2023a). Performing Andalusian in political speech: Political party and sociophonetic patterns across production and perception [Doctoral dissertation, Indiana University Bloomington]. [URL]
(2023b). Toeing the party line: Indexing party identity through dialectal phonetic features in Spanish political discourse. Languages 8, 196. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pollock, M. & Wheeler, J. A. (2022). Syllable-final /s/ and intervocalic /d/ elision in Andalusia: The formation of Susana Díaz’s regional identity in political discourse. Language and Communication, 87, 191–204. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Raymond, C. W. (2016a). Linguistic reference in the negotiation of identity and action: Revisiting the T/V distinction. Language, 92, 636–670. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2016b). Reconceptualizing identity and context in the deployment of forms of address. In M. I. Moyna, & S. Rivera-Mills (Eds.), Forms of address in the Spanish of the Americas (pp. 267–288). John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sanchez y Escribano, F. & Spaulding, R. K. (1942). El uso de ustedes como sujeto de la segunda persona del plural. Hispanic Review, 10, 165–167. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sclafani, J. (2017). Talking Donald Trump. Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Silverstein, M. (2003). Indexical order and the dialectics of sociolinguistic life. Language & Communication, 23, 193–229. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Spencer-Oatey, H. (2002). Managing rapport in talk: Using rapport sensitive incidents to explore the motivational concerns underlying the management of relations. Journal of Pragmatics, 34, 529–545. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Svensson, J. (2012). Negotiating the political self on social media platforms: An in-depth study of image-management in an election-campaign in a multi-party democracy. JeDEM 4, 183–197. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Terkourafi, M. (2012). Politeness and pragmatics. In K. Allan & K. M. Jaszzolt (Eds.) The Cambridge handbook of pragmatics (pp. 617–637). Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Vicinitas. (2022). Vicinitas.io: Twitter Scraper [Software API].Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Villena-Ponsoda, J. A., & Ávila-Muñoz, A. M. (2014). Dialect stability and divergence in southern Spain: Stability and divergence in language contact. In K. Braunmüller, S. Höder, & K. Kühl (Eds.), Stability and divergence in language contact: Factors and mechanisms (pp. 207–238). John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Vivas Márquez, J. & Ridao Rodrigo, S. (2015). Estrategias de (des)cortesía en redes sociales: Análisis comparativo de Facebook y Twitter. Sintagma: Revista de lingüística, 27, 73–87.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (1)

Cited by one other publication

Saleh, Tala, Abdel Rahman Mitib Altakhaineh & Mohammad Alaghawat
2025. Examining the use of Andalusian Spanish on X.com platform: a content analysis of posts to assess regional identity and linguistic features. Cogent Arts & Humanities 12:1 DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 17 november 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue