Register and Forms of Address in Costa Rica: Sociolinguistic Realities and Pedagogical Implications

Abstract

This article reports the findings of sociolinguistic research investigating the use of second-person singular pronouns in Costa Rica. The study was carried out onsite and involved 132 interviewees from all seven provinces of the country. These subjects reacted to scenarios in which they had to choose their preferred pronoun of use (usted, vos, or tu) when engaging with a variety of categories of interlocutors. Subjects then commented on the reasons for their preference/usage. The pronoun usted (Ud.) was overwhelmingly in evidence throughout the country, and the vos was also noticeably present in many cases. With both pronouns, context as well as other variables played a role in Spanish speakers’ pronoun selection. The pronoun tu was an extremely distant third and did not appear at all in the speech for many interlocutors. Given the prevalent paradigm of teaching tu in U.S. Spanish language classrooms and the near absence of vos, this study has important ramifications for Spanish instructors. Informing students of these patterns of pronoun use and including vos in the curriculum to some degree, particularly at higher levels, is recommended.