«¿Y si empezamos por arriba a la derecha?»
The Functioning of Proposals in Task-Oriented Dialogues in Spanish and Italian
abstract
Within the field of Cross-Cultural Pragmatics, the analysis on the working of the linguistic act of proposing in Spanish and Italian hasn’t attracted enough attention if compared to other acts such as, among others, requests, invitations, refusals and compliments. In this study we approach this topic starting from the hypothesis that two languages that are perceived to be close from a cultural perspective should activate similar pragmatic strategies when proposing something. Through the analysis of 16 pragmatically oriented conversations we will see that, along the lines of previous studies, Italian and Spanish speakers activate slightly different strategies when formulating a proposal despite the starting point.
Keywords: Pragmática transcultural • Español • Proposals • Italian • Italiano • | Propuestas • Propuestas • Cross-cultural pragmatics • Spanish • Diálogos orientados pragmáticamente • Estilo conversacional • Task-oriented dialogues • Conversational style