Variación entre los adverbios demostrativos aquí~acá en el habla de Mérida

Abstract

The present study examines the variation of the demonstrative adverbs aquí~acá in Spanish spoken in Mérida (Venezuela). In order to study the variation between these two adverbs which show proximity to the speaker a sample from the Corpus sociolingüístico de Mérida 1995 (Domínguez y Mora, 1995) has been selected. The sample is made up of 24 speakers who were stratified according to age, sex and socioeconomic status. The study variables were adapted from the group of factors proposed by Sedano (2000). Four linguistic variables were considered (adverb position, adverb pertinence to a fixed expression, presence or absence of a complementary expression and directionality) and three extralinguistic variables (age, sex and socioeconomic status) Findings show that the linguistic variables adverb position and directionality favor the variation. Regarding the extralinguistic variables considered in this study, only the socioeconomic status favors the variation.