Variation in discourse markers in the speech of Bucaramanga, Colombia

Abstract

A linguistic approach to the study of discourse markers in the speech of the city of Bucaramanga (Colombia) shows a direct correlation between the use of such linguistic units and the age of the speaker. A 2002 study concluded that the younger population preferred markers such as pues (roughly meaning well or so) and o sea (that is), while entonces (then) identified the older group. The middle-aged speakers showed similar rates of preference in the use of both markers. A second study conducted in the year 2011 demonstrated that this speech community was reanalyzing the system of discourse markers. The younger population seemed to favor the use of entonces and pues, and to display a tendency towards the abandonment of expressions such as o sea and the interrogative tag ¿bueno? (place marker to confirm understanding) that identified this group at the beginning of the decade. The variation of discourse markers shows the dynamism of language and the importance of sociolinguistic factors as the trigger of this variability.

Keywords

• sociolinguistics
• discourse markers
• language variation
• social class
• Colombian Spanish
• discourse analysis