Managing subjectivity: Omission and expression of first-person singular object a mí in Spanish media discourse

Abstract

AbstractIn considering the cognitive notion of informativeness, variants of the Spanish first-person singular objecta mí‘to me’, ‘myself’ convey different meanings. These meanings are used to pursue communicative goals in discursive interactions. A qualitative examination of specific examples of first-person singular objecta mívariants (omitted, preverbal, and postverbal) as well as a quantitative analysis of these variants across different socio-professional affiliations of speakers was conducted to ascertain how these variants contribute to the construction of communicative styles based on the cognitive dimension of subjectivity. This article demonstrates that these forms and their meanings are unevenly distributed across the socio-professional affiliations of speakers; thus, it may be concluded that variation of first-person singular objecta míshape different communicative styles.