A variationist analysis of reported speech in Spanish speakers from Santiago, Chile

Abstract

Following the Labovian variationist approach, this study analyzes the use of reported speech in a sample of 192 oral narratives of personal experience in Spanish spoken in Santiago, Chile. The aim is to establish the frequency of use of this variable element, and test whether there exists variation among sociodemographic factors —sex, age, and socioeconomic group of the speakers— and the use of the above-mentioned resource. I also describe the function it performs in the narratives (Chafe, 1982; Reilly, Klima and Bellugi, 1990, and Prieto and San Martín, 2002).