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

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