University of New Mexico UNM Digital Repository Linguistics ETDs Electronic Theses and Dissertations Spring 4-14-2018 FRESA STYLE IN MEXICO: SOCIOLINGUISTIC STEREOTYPES AND THE VARIABILITY OF SOCIAL MEANINGS Rebeca Martinez Gomez University of New Mexico - Main Campus Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/ling_etds Part of the Anthropological Linguistics and Sociolinguistics Commons, Critical and Cultural Studies Commons, Latina/o Studies Commons, Linguistic Anthropology Commons, Modern Languages Commons, Phonetics and Phonology Commons, Psycholinguistics and Neurolinguistics Commons, Race and Ethnicity Commons, Social Psychology Commons, and the Spanish Linguistics Commons Recommended Citation Martinez Gomez, Rebeca. "FRESA STYLE IN MEXICO: SOCIOLINGUISTIC STEREOTYPES AND THE VARIABILITY OF SOCIAL MEANINGS." (2018). https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/ling_etds/56 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Electronic Theses and Dissertations at UNM Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Linguistics ETDs by an authorized administrator of UNM Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. i Rebeca Martínez Gómez Candidate Linguistics Department This dissertation is approved, and it is acceptable in quality and form for publication: Approved by the Dissertation Committee: Christian Koops, Chairperson Jill P. Morford Paul Edmunds Richard File-Muriel ii FRESA STYLE IN MEXICO: SOCIOLINGUISTIC STEREOTYPES AND THE VARIABILITY OF SOCIAL MEANINGS by REBECA MARTÍNEZ GÓMEZ 2008 Bachelor of Arts, University of Guadalajara, Hispanic Literature 2010 Master of Arts, University of New Mexico, Spanish and Portuguese DISSERTATION Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Linguistics The University of New Mexico Albuquerque, New Mexico May, 2018 iii Porque de él, y por él, y para él, son todas las cosas. A él sea la gloria por los siglos. Amén. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS First, I want to praise God for allowing me to finish this dissertation while walking on water. The lasts two years have been the hardest, yet the most fascinating ones of my life. He is the one who makes impossible things possible. He is my source of inspiration and strength. I thank Him for providing me with so many loving people that surrounded me through out this process. Le doy gracias a Él por la vida de mi esposo, Dr. Hugo García Macías, y de nuestro hijo, Isaac, quienes fueron mi apoyo y mi felicidad durante estos años de trabajo. Mi trabajo de campo no hubiera sido lo mismo sin su compañía. Gracias a toda mi familia en México que me apoyó incondicionalmente: mi suegra Carmen, mis cuñados Jessica y Erubey, mi prima Angélica y “los gemelos”, mis tíos Adriana, Mary, Carlos y Maricela. A mi madre Isabel, algún día le diré que no le hice caso (¡me dijo que no escogiera un tema difícil para le tesis!) pero que de todas formas acabé. También gracias a todos los que me apoyaron en Guadalajara en la recolección de datos: a todos mis participantes, al prof. Daniel Barragán Trejo, al prof. Alfredo Orozco y al comunicador Juan Fabián. Mis amig@s: Carmen Julia Holguín Chaparro, Josefina Bittar (¡y sus helados de chocolate en momentos de desesperación!), Majed Abduallah, Yuliana Kenfield, Joan Wilson, Dr. Melvatha Chee, Dr. Aubrey Healey, Dr. Jackelyn Van Buren, and Dr. Maryam Alhinai, I could not have finished without your cheering. And to my prayer warriors: Margaret Martinez, Carmelita Martinez and Cynthia Nuttall, thank you for lifting me up! v I would like to thank the following institutions that partially supported my doctoral studies: National Council for Science and Technology (CONACYT), the Latin American and Iberian Institute, and the Office of Graduate Studies at UNM. Also, gratitude is extended to the Department of Spanish and Portuguese of UNM for providing me with financial support through a teaching assistantship during most of the completion of my doctoral studies. I also want to acknowledge the Graduate Resource Center at UNM and the great people that with love and compassion serve students. Particularly, I want to thank PhD candidate José Bucheli, who poured out an immense amount of time and grace to help me with statistics. One thing that amazes me in academia is when a professor who is not obligated to serve you does it, and does it with a joyful heart: Prof. Stephen Alley, you are the one who did this in my path. Your class on social psychology and your insightful conversations with me were the inspiration for Chapter 5 of this dissertation. I will always be grateful to you for sharing your knowledge and humanity with me. Finally, this work would not have been accomplished without the inspiration and guidance of my advisor, Dr. Christian Koops. He was the reason I decided to pursue sociolinguistics, and this topic in particular. Thank you so much for investing your time and expertise, and for believing in this project. Thanks to the rest of my committee, Dr. Jill Morford, Dr. Paul Edmunds, and Dr. Richard File-Muriel, for their support –technical and emotional– and for encouraging me to stay in this until the end. vi FRESA STYLE IN MEXICO: SOCIOLINGUISTIC STEREOTYPES AND THE VARIABILITY OF SOCIAL MEANINGS by Rebeca Martínez Gómez 2008 Bachelor of Arts, University of Guadalajara, Hispanic Literature 2010 Master of Arts, University of New Mexico, Spanish and Portuguese 2018 Doctor of Philosophy, University of New Mexico, Linguistics ABSTRACT This dissertation examines the flexibility in the social meanings of sociolinguistic stereotypes and how linguistic and non-linguistic information affect these meanings. The investigation consists of four empirical studies surrounding the case of fresas in Mexico – members of the upper class that are perceived as using a unique linguistic style. Study 1 investigates the linguistic and non-linguistic characteristics associated with the fresa stereotype. Through a qualitative analysis of 64 webpages and 3 performances of the style, it is shown that fresas are perceived as the counterpart of another construct, nacos, and that their linguistic style is linked to English due to various lexical, segmental and prosodic elements. Study 2 focuses on the production of rising contours at the end of declarative sentences as a feature of the fresa style. Study 3 explores the possibility of these rises index a fresa persona. Using data from a Mexican conversational corpus, an acoustic analysis reveals that there are two types of rising contours produced in declarative sentences, one of which has a steeper f0 slope and is perceived as fresa style. The results of study 3 suggest that, while the steep rise may not directly index the social category of fresa, it can still be heard as a feature of this linguistic style. Finally, Study 4 investigates how visual appearance affects the social meanings fresa and naco. 97 Mexican subjects socially categorized individuals on a fresa-naco scale based on a photo and a short audio clip. The 12 photos and 12 audio vii clips used as stimuli were paired in all possible combinations, in a way that they were perceived to either match or not match, based on stereotypicality. A linear model regression shows that there is indeed an effect due to congruence between audio and visual appearance. Visual information has an effect on social meanings. In sum, this dissertation contributes to the body of research in sociolinguistics that focuses on the variability of social meanings of linguistic variation. Particularly, it underscores its intersectionality with other social constructs such as class and race. viii TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter 1: Introduction ......................................................................................................... 1 Chapter 2: The Stereotype of Fresas in Mexico .............................................................. 5 2.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 5 2.2 The Fresa Stereotype: A Media Analysis ............................................................................. 6 2.3 Methodology ................................................................................................................................ 7 2.4 Results and Discussion ............................................................................................................. 8 2.5 Conclusions ................................................................................................................................ 32 Chapter 3: A Linguistic Variant of Fresa Style. Production of Rising Intonation in Declarative Sentences .................................................................................................... 34 3.1 Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 34 3.2 Methodology ............................................................................................................................. 35 3.3 Results ......................................................................................................................................... 41 3.4 Discussion .................................................................................................................................. 45 3.5 Conclusions ...............................................................................................................................