Malas palabras en los lugares correctos: la toma de postura en español mexicano y la funciones comunicativas de wey

Abstract

In everyday conversation speakers adopt a position (or stance) regarding how they express individuality, relationships with others and their relationship with language itself. As Du Bois (2007) argues ‘One of the most important things we do with words is take a stance’ (p. 139). This is more often than not achieved through the use of proper words in proper places, to quote Jonathan Swift, but in Mexican Spanish this can be done through the potentially ‘bad’ or improper word wey which enables speakers to demonstrate either solidarity, affiliation and closeness or discordance, detachment and distance as they seek to establish, maintain, neglect or terminate interpersonal relationships. Besides communicating the content of their message, speakers can also use the word wey to convey their awareness of theworld along with their independence, histories, attitudes and experiences. Finally, the use of the word wey allows speakers take up a position towards language itself, using it for creative, ludic and rhetorical reasons.

First of all, we define the concept of wey and subsequently describe its use in terms of Halliday’s ideational, interpersonal and textual language functions. We subsequently identify how the use of wey can reflect an interlocutor’s positionality (or stance) within a specific context. We then answer our research question regarding how the use of word wey can signal individuality, interpersonal relationships and the relationship with language itself. After presenting the research data, we then consider how the use of the word wey can be seen to empower interlocutors to come across in their own way and express their independence, unique histories and personal attitudes.