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Article published In:
Journal of Historical Pragmatics
Vol. 24:2 (2023) ► pp.217–244

Story, style, and structure

The second person in early Uruguayan children’s literature

ORCID logo | Texas A&M University
ORCID logo | University of Texas at Austin
This study analyses variation and change in Uruguayan Spanish address between formal (usted) and informal variants (tú, vos). It focusses on address representations in children’s literature written between 1918 and 1973 – foundational texts that helped consolidate national identity. Our study answers the following questions: (a) What were the most frequent pronominal and verbal address forms employed in early Uruguayan children’s literature? (b) What were their pragmatic and stylistic contexts of use? And (c) To what extent did those forms and uses differ from their contemporary counterparts? The second-person pronouns and verbs from eleven children’s books were analysed quantitatively to establish frequencies. We found that early children’s literature presented usted and tú as the urban norm. Vernacular vos was practically absent until the 1940s, and afterwards it was found only in specific constrained contexts. This differs markedly from contemporary literature for children, which favours voseo and reflects orality quite accurately.
Keywords: address, children’s literature, language representation, Uruguayan Spanish, voseo
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Background
    • 2.1Uruguay: Borderlands, state, and nation
    • 2.2Children’s literature and nation-building
    • 2.3Forms of Address in usp
  • 3.Methodology
    • 3.1Sources
    • 3.2Data collection
    • 3.3Analysis
  • 4.Results
    • 4.1Formal versus informal address
    • 4.2 Tuteo versus voseo address
    • 4.3Chronology for address representation
    • 4.4Partial qualitative findings
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Primary Sources
  • References
Published online: 5 September 2023
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/jhp.20001.moy
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