Negotiating agreement and disagreement in Spanish-English bilingual conversations with no

Abstract

The present paper examines the role of the Spanish discourse particle no for negotiating agreement and disagreement in Spanish-English bilingual conversations from Gibraltar. A sequential analysis of twelve conversational exchanges shows how language choice is an important linguistic resource for negotiating agreement and disagreement in interactions. As a discourse marker no can function as (a) a yes-no request where a speaker seeks information from the hearer or (b) as a device a speaker uses to check information or obtain acquiescence. At a metalingual level of analysis, the use of Spanish as well as the no particle constitute a move for communicating in the metalingual realm of bilingual interactions about the speaker and the hearer. These moves index the actions, meanings , and situations associated with the use of Spanish in Gibraltar. The connection between the discourse functions of no, language choice (i.e., convergence), and the meanings communicated at a metalingual level of the conversation shed light on the complex strategies available to speakers for expressing agreement and disagreement in bilingual talk.