Metapragmatic Markers and Identity Construction in Spanglish Corporate Communication

Bibliographic Data

ID22150522
AuthorsM Yu Semenova (0000-0003-2654-2409, Vitebsk State Medical University, corresponding author)
Year2026
Issue6
Pages224-236
Publication date2026-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueФилология научные исследования (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2454-0749 • E-ISSN: 2454-0749
PublisherAurora Group, s.r.o (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.7256/2454-0749.2026.6.79827
OpenAlexW7167425627
LanguageEN
References cited20

The subject of the study is metapragmatic markers in Spanglish corporate communication – lexical and phrasal units that regulate speech interaction and index the speaker’s social positions without contributing independent propositional content. The object of the study is the oral business communication of Spanish-English bilinguals residing in five urban and transborder clusters in the United States: New York, Miami, Los Angeles, El Paso – Ciudad Juárez, and San Diego – Tijuana. The author examines the functional differentiation of markers depending on the communicative situation and the speakers’ regional affiliation. Special attention is paid to the role of these units in the simultaneous construction of several intersecting identities – ethnic, corporate, and the transborder identity of inhabitants of border regions. Strategies for switching between identities by combining markers are analyzed, as well as the influence of immigration generation and informants’ self-identification on the choice of specific metapragmatic means. The study reveals how the metapragmatic redundancy of Spanglish performs a constructive function in a multicultural business environment. The research methodology combines quantitative and qualitative analysis of data obtained from semi-structured interviews and recordings of spontaneous speech of 137 bilinguals; narrative and metalinguistic modules were employed, along with recordings of natural dialogues, which made it possible to compile a corpus of 11,847 metapragmatic units. The main conclusions of the study are as follows. First, metapragmatic markers in Spanglish corporate speech systematically index three key identities – ethnic solidarity, corporate affiliation, and transborder hybridity – with the choice of specific units significantly correlating with geography, generation, and the professional self-categorization of speakers. Second, a “Metapragmatic Identity Index” model has been developed, which describes the combination of markers and demonstrates how bilinguals construct several social positions within a single utterance. The author’s particular contribution is the empirical substantiation of the constructive role of the metapragmatic redundancy of Spanglish, which, contrary to the stereotype of “linguistic deficiency,” serves as a highly functional resource for multidimensional self-presentation in a multicultural business setting. The novelty of the study lies in the synthesis of theories of metapragmatics and identity construction on the material of Spanglish corporate discourse – previously unexplored from this angle – as well as in the comparative analysis of five language clusters, including rarely studied transborder communities, and in proposing an operational model applicable to other contact varieties

Constructive · Ethnic group · Hybridity · Intercultural communication · Narrative · Pragmatics · Social identity theory · Discourse Analysis and Cultural Communication · Language, Communication, and Linguistic Studies · Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies

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