Entre lo formal y lo informal: los límites de la (des)cortesía verbal en el español peninsular
Between the formal and the informal: The limits of verbal (im)politeness in peninsular Spanish

Summary/Abstract: The present article analyzes certain uses of informal language in peninsular Spanish that ELE learners and speakers of other languages could interpret as impolite. The study covers three levels: the morphosyntactic (forms of treatment), the interactional and the lexical (malapropisms). Remarks on the potential contributions to the field that can be derived from analyzing the contrast between the Polish and Spanish languages are also provided. The verbal politeness approach is applied, based on the distinction between the values of affiliation and autonomy, which seems to offer the necessary interpretive filter to understand why such uses are not only acceptable, but even desirable. Likewise, based on the concept of affiliation, speakers of other languages can better understand the pragmatic-cultural contexts and the cases of combination of formal and informal language in peninsular Spanish.

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