Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
Date of Degree
2-2024
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Program
Latin American, Iberian and Latino Cultures
Advisor
José del Valle
Committee Members
Beatriz Lado
Cecelia Cutler
Subject Categories
Anthropological Linguistics and Sociolinguistics | Language and Literacy Education | Latin American Languages and Societies | Linguistic Anthropology | Other Arts and Humanities | Other Linguistics | Spanish Linguistics
Keywords
Language normativity, glottopolitics, representation, language ideologies, pragmatics, etiquette manuals
Abstract
This study explores the main ideological representations of language, language use, conversation and communication found in a set of five etiquette manuals that were published and used in Mexico during the 19th century. Following a glottopolitical perspective for the study of normativity, language policies, and sociolinguistic practices, the main hypothesis developed establishes that the ideas about language contained in these texts are strongly connected with the social, political, and economic period in which they are elaborated and enunciated, that is, the moment in which the nation is still defining itself, struggling to consolidate its viability and its value facing the international order after winning Independence from Spain. More than a simple correlation, these ideas are a clear expression of the socio-political order. This dissertation also offers a review of the positivist approach to social ideas about language, as developed within the linguistic disciplines, namely pragmatics, sociopragmatics, historical pragmatics, and historical (im)politeness, since they have studied similar phenomena by using descriptive labels such as (im)politeness, face threatening acts, intensifiers and mitigation markers and strategies, for the most part without fully reflecting on the broader social and political processes behind the instances of language named by this and other labels. It is in sight of this problem that this study proposes an alternative reading of the corpus, while retrieving and analyzing from the etiquette manuals the content produced by a small group of privileged authors trying to imitate the European values associated to civilization and progress. This work, thus, extracts those ideas that circulated, and somehow still circulate, in the Mexican public sphere, to organize them and interpret them critically.
Recommended Citation
Quesada Nieto, Luis B., "Representaciones ideológicas de la lengua, la conversación y la comunicación en manuales de urbanidad del siglo XIX en México: guías para la civilización, el orden y el progreso nacional" (2024). CUNY Academic Works.
https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/5612
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Included in
Anthropological Linguistics and Sociolinguistics Commons, Language and Literacy Education Commons, Latin American Languages and Societies Commons, Linguistic Anthropology Commons, Other Arts and Humanities Commons, Other Linguistics Commons, Spanish Linguistics Commons