Forms of address in formal situations in Angolan Portuguese : magistrsko delo

Cornejo, Catarina (author), Zorman, Marina (mentor), Mendes, Amália (co-mentor)

The topic of forms of address has been quite productive both in theoretical and applied linguistics, with researchers’ aims ranging from broad crosslinguistic descriptions to in-depth depictions of address strategies in specific languages. While European and Brazilian Portuguese have been covered under the latter lens and extensively compared with one another, few studies have focused on the forms of address used in African varieties of Portuguese. In an attempt to fill that gap, the present work dives on forms of address exchanged in formal verbal interactions in Angolan Portuguese, from a discourse analysis perspective. With that in mind, forms of address — nominal, pronominal and verbal (omitted subject) — were identified and extracted from a corpus of 17 oral interviews. Each interview paired an interviewer and interviewee, amounting to a total of 19 informants (two interviewers and 17 interviewees). The extraction and overall analysis were based on both audio recordings and orthographic transcripts. The research carried out points to three important aspects. First, even though there may be an ongoing tendency towards democratization in Angolan forms of address (Silva-Brummel, 1984), they appear to still allow speakers to nuance the expression of deference in formal settings, namely through the use of conservative titles, in coexistence with novel forms unknown to the European norm. Second, Angolan speakers seem to be able to alternate between third person singular and second person singular inflection (especially in verb forms) with the same addressee, rather than abide to one inflection. Third, significant contrasts emerge when interlocutors insert fictional dialogues through direct speech, or momentarily interrupt the interview to address someone else. In such stretches of talk, the interviewees’ address behavior considerably changes and gives the analyst a glimpse into intimate dyads.

• Language: English
• Keywords: forms of address, address behavior, discourse analysis, deixis, politeness, Angolan Portuguese, African varieties of Portuguese
• Work type: Master's thesis/paper
• Typology: 2.09 - Master's Thesis
• Organization: FF - Faculty of Arts
• Place of publishing: Ljubljana
• Publisher: [C. Cornejo]
• Year: 2021
• Number of pages: 139 str.
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-136446
• UDC: 811.134.3
• COBISS.SI-ID: 106990595
• Publication date in RUL: 04.05.2022

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Title: Oblike naslavljanja v formalnih situacijah v angolski portugalščini

Abstract

Oblike naslavljanja so bile pogost predmet obravnave tako v teoretičnem kot v uporabnem jezikoslovju, kjer se cilji raziskovalcev raztezajo od splošnih medjezikovnih opisov do poglobljenih prikazov strategij naslavljanja v posameznih jezikih. Evropska in brazilska portugalščina sta že bili predmet poglobljenega proučevanja in izčrpnih primerjav, toda le nekaj študij se je osredotočilo na oblike naslavljanja, ki so v rabi v afriških različicah portugalščine. Da bi zapolnili to vrzel, to delo raziskuje oblike naslavljanja, ki se pojavljajo v formalnem ustnem komuniciranju v angolski portugalščini, z vidika analize diskurza. V ta namen so bile iz korpusa 17 ustnih intervjujev zbrane oblike naslavljanja – samostalniške, zaimkovne in glagolske (kjer je osebek izpuščen). V vsakem intervjuju sta se pogovarjala en izpraševalec in en intervjuvanec, kar je skupaj naneslo 19 informatorjev (dva izpraševalca in 17 izprašancev). Pridobivanje podatkov in splošna analiza sta temeljili tako na zvočnih posnetkih kot tudi ortografskih transkripcijah. Raziskava se osredotoča na tri pomembne vidike. Prvič, čeprav v angolskih oblikah naslavljanja lahko obstaja težnja po demokratizaciji (Silva-Brummel, 1984), se zdi, da še vedno dovoljujejo govorcem, da v formalnem okolju izražajo različne odtenke spoštovanja, in sicer z uporabo nazivov, ohranjenih iz evropske portugalščine, ki obstajajo sočasno z novejšimi oblikami, ki pa jih evropski standard ne zajema. Drugič, kaže, da lahko angolski govorci v pogovoru z istim naslovljencem izmenjujejo med obraziloma za tretjo osebo ednine in drugo osebo ednine (predvsem v glagolskih oblikah), in se ne držijo le enega obrazila. Tretjič, do znatnih nasprotij pride, ko sogovorniki navajajo izmišljene dialoge v premem govoru ali za trenutek prekinejo intervju, da naslovijo koga tretjega. V takšnih delih pogovora se izprašanci pri naslavljanju vedejo precej drugače, kar omogoči analitiku vpogled v intimne diade.

• Keywords: oblike naslavljanja, vedenje pri naslavljanju, analiza diskurza, deiksa, vljudnost, angolska portugalščina, afriške različice portugalščine