Abstract

BERTOLOTTI, Virginia  and  ALVAREZ LOPEZ, Laura. The double life of su merced in America from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century. Nueva rev. filol. hisp. [online]. 2020, vol.68, n.1, pp.105-136.  Epub Apr 02, 2020. ISSN 2448-6558.  https://doi.org/10.24201/nrfh.v68i1.3584.

This research explores the history of the originally Iberian hon- orific title su merced, currently used by millions of Spanish speakers in the Americas. The paper summarises the results of an analysis of 983 occurrences extracted from a corpus of documents written in the Americas between the 16th and the 19th centuries. The study connects discursive traditions with linguistic change and describes the syntax of su merced. It shows that su merced had two parallel developments in two clearly differentiated communicative practices: in the institutional and the interpersonal spheres. In the institutional sphere su merced has disappeared, while in the interpersonal sphere, it is linked to current usage.

Keywords : su merced; discursive traditions; linguistic change; delocutives; alocutives.