Pragmatic Variation in Service Encounter Interactions across the Spanish-Speaking World

Pragmatic Variation in Service Encounter Interactions across the Spanish-Speaking World expands the study of service encounter interactions into new face-to-face and digital contexts and new (sub)varieties of Spanish. The chapters examine pragmatic variation in a range of contexts, representing ten countries and twelve (sub)varieties of Spanish. Part I explores macrosocial factors such as region, gender, age, and social class, while Part II focuses on microsocial and situational factors. Part III concludes the volume with theoretical and methodological contributions to the field. This volume will be of particular interest to advanced students and researchers of Spanish and Linguistics.

J. César Félix-Brasdefer is Professor of Linguistics and Spanish at Indiana University, USA. María Elena Placencia is Reader in Spanish Linguistics at Birkbeck, University of London, UK.

Introduction Part I: Pragmatic variation according to macrosocial factors Regional affiliation 1. Regional pragmatic variation in small shops in Mexico City, Buenos Aires, and Seville, Spain 2. Corner-store interactions in Cartagena and Bucaramanga: A variational pragmatics study 3. 'No, gracias amigo': Refusals of bargaining offers in e-service encounters in Mercado Libre Ecuador and Mercado Libre Venezuela Gender 4. Gender variation in address form selection in corner-store interactions in a Nicaraguan community 5. Gender variation in the perception of appropriate behavior in hotel service encounters in Spain 6. The role of gender in Mexican e-service encounters 7. Forms of address and gender in Costa Rican service encounters Age 8. Pragmatic variation by age in women's use of post-refusal small talk during service encounters in Rosario, Uruguay 9. Verbal humor and age in cafes and bars in Seville, Spain Socioeconomic status 10. Socioeconomic variation and conflict in Spanish retailer-consumer interactions on Facebook Part II: Pragmatic variation according to microsocial and situational factors 11. Interpersonal work in service encounters in Mercado Libre Argentina: A comparison between buyer and vendor patterns across two market domains 12. The effects of social distance in service encounters in Puerto Rican panaderías Part III: Theoretical and methodological issues 13. Re-thinking pragmatic variation: The case of service encounters from a modified variational pragmatics perspective 14. Pragmatic variation in service encounter complaints: Some methodological issues