Exploring the representation of orality: the use of vocatives in two Spanish-speaking films, Machuca and Volver

Abstract

This paper investigates how vocatives are exploited in the fictional language of two Spanish speaking films: ‘Machuca’, a Chilean film (2004) and ‘Volver’, a Spanish film (2006). The aim of this paper is to determine the manner in which the use of vocatives in these films mirrors the functions that they have in naturally occurring data and how they are exploited in order to enhance the representation of orality in the fictional dialogues. Vocatives are considered to be one of the distinctive features of natural speech (Biber, Johansson, Leech, Conrad and Finegan, 1999; Leech, 1999; McCarthy and O’Keeffe, 2003). The presence of vocatives in films and in similar fictional texts appears to be a contributory factor in the establishment of the social markers of the interactions in which the characters of the film engage, signalling levels of social distance, as well as levels of power and solidarity that the viewing audiences can recognise. Previous research has shown that the use of vocatives, although apparently non-essential for the achievement of particular communicative goals, serves an important social role in a communicative interaction, projecting the level of intimacy established between the participants (McCarthy and O’Keeffe, 2003). The importance of understanding pragmatic variation will be highlighted by comparing the use of vocatives in the two different cultural and linguistic settings represented in the films.