This contribution aims to duplicate research done by Kretzenbacher et al. (2014) and Norrby et al. (in press) on address and introductions at international English-speaking conferences to another language whose pluricentricity is well-recognized: Spanish. For American English, British English and Australian English, the team found different orientations of formality, depending on various factors such as seniority of position, but also age.

Address practices in Spanish are particularly well-researched (cf. Hummel et al. 2010, Moyna/Rivera-Mills 2016, to name but a few recent volumes), with important differences to addressing across the Spanish-speaking countries on the pronominal and nominal level. There is no study, however, on introducing oneself and others at international conferences that bring into contact speakers of different varieties of Spanish. This study used the same methodology as the Australian team and also a similar questionnaire. I will present results of an online questionnaire filled out by 130 respondents, 106 of whom are L1 speakers of Spanish. Focus will be laid on both the intralingual variation and on the responses of respondents with Spanish as a foreign language (mostly L1 speakers of German or English).

References

Hummel, Martin, Bettina Kluge & María Eugenia Vázquez Laslop. 2010. Formas y fórmulas de tratamiento en el mundo hispánico. Graz / Ciudad de México: Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz / El Colegio de México

Kretzenbacher, Heinz L., Michael Clyne, John Hajek, Catrin Norrby & Jane Warren. 2014. Meet and greet: Address and introductions in intercultural communication at international conferences. In John Hajek & Yvette Slaughter (eds.), Challenging the monolingual mindset, 78-94. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.

Moyna, María Irene & Susana Rivera-Mills. 2016. Forms of address in the Spanish of the Americas. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Norrby, Catrin, Doris Schüpbach, John Hajek & Heinz L. Kretzenbacher (in press): Introductions at international academic conferences: Address and naming in three national varieties of English. In: Kluge, Bettina, María Irene Moyna, with the assistance of Horst Simon and Jane Warren (eds.): It’s not all about you: current perspectives on address research. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.