Piropos as metaphors for gender roles in Spanish speaking cultures

Abstract

This paper analyzes the piropo in Spanish discourse as a speech event and as cognitive metaphor. This form of indirect speech act represents a Spanish discourse tradition that is still present in today’s discourse practices of Spanish-speaking cultures. These piropos are seen as reflections in language of the traditional roles of men and women in Spanish speaking cultures. The roles of men and women as depicted in the analysis of piropos shows a very defined place for each sex in these societies. Women are constructed as passive recipients and reactive, men as active producers and initiators.