Forms of address in EcuadorA contrastive approach

Abstract

The present study is devoted to the addressforms used in Ecuadorian Spanish(ES_EC), which turn out to be rather heterogeneousin a contrastive way. Specifically,we will focus on the pronouns of address(tú/vos) and other pronominal forms (usted,su mercé). Our approach to the studyof the address forms in Ecuador is basedon the tagging system developed withinthe framework of the Functional-CategorialGrammar (Frías, 2018). This method allowsa simple but precise classification ofthe address forms, based on a double pragmatic-grammatical and psychosocial system.Our aim is to provide a description ofthe different systems and subsystems to befound in the country. Our data were mostlycollected from the Atlas Lingüístico del Ecuador(ALEcu) and from focus groups andparticipant observation. There are roughlythree linguistic areas (not counting Galapagos):the Andean Range (ES_EC_SIE),the Coast (ES_EC_COS), and the Amazonianarea (ES_EC_AMZ). We havefound that parts of the ES_EC_COS andES_EC_AMZ present a standard paradigmof 2PS. ES_ES_SIE and Esmeraldas presenta three-degree paradigm including vos(V-form). In Azuay, Chimborazo y Lojathere is also a low-level usage of sumercéthat needs further research.