What about en plan? Linguistic attitudes on an emerging quotative in Peninsular Spanish

 

Following Cameron’s (1998) seminal work, recent research on Spanish quotatives has given special attention to both contact varieties (e.g. Kern, 2017) and cross-linguistic comparisons with English be like (e.g. Palacios Martínez, 2013, 2014). As Stenström (2007) and Jørgensen (2009) point out, the use of en plan as a quotative complementizer has been attested in the data of younger speakers in Madrid and has been said to be on the rise.  However, no study has analyzed the level of awareness of this pragmatic marker, let alone the emerging attitudes toward it as it diffuses across the map.  This study examines the ideologies associated with the use of en plan in Spain. We adopt Buchstaller’s (2014) matched-guised test and attitudinal survey, with which she analyzed the attitudes toward be like in English. Our data are based on a collection of surveys that were administered online via Qualtrics. This survey includes a matched-guise test, an attitudinal survey, and a personal information questionnaire. The matched-guise test consists of two written dialogues. Each dialogue has two versions: one in which the speaker uses the traditional quotative verb decir; and another using the innovative quotative en plan. The dialogues were evenly distributed among participants so that each participant saw two different dialogues, one with the traditional form and one with the innovative form. Participants evaluated both the social characteristics and personality traits of the speakers in each dialogue. Participants were also given an attitudinal survey asking them to explicitly evaluate the uses of en plan according to personality traits, social characteristics, and occupation. In the last portion of the survey, they self-evaluated the use of en plan in their speech. Results from both the matched-guise test and the attitudinal survey indicate that en plan is perceived to be used by younger speakers and by those with personality traits associated with solidarity (i.e., friendly, attractive). However, older speakers associate en plan with being less articulate and less professional. The attitudinal survey further reveals that participants who claim to use en plan have more positive attitudes toward it. Additionally, all groups judged en plan to be used in occupations stereotypically associated with younger generations (i.e., part time or temporary jobs). This study corroborates Buchstaller’s (2014) findings on English be like and further contributes to the idea that attitudes toward adolescent language are comparable cross-linguistically.