“POLITENESS DOES NOT DETRACT FROM BRAVERY”, A RESEARCH OF THE EXPRESSION OF COURTESY IN SALAMANCA AND QUITO

Abstract

This is a summary of the doctoral thesis on Spanish Studies, at the University of Salamanca, entitled “Politeness does not detract from bravery”, a research on the expression of courtesy in Salamanca and Quito. The aforementioned thesis seeks to identify and analyze the use of positive and negative courtesy when making requests in each city. Differences, based on gender, level of education, age and origin, are also analyzed within each group. To collect information, surveys were conducted with 393 students in two universities of the forenamed cities: 187 students of USAL (University of Salamanca) and 206 students of PUCE (Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador). Surveys include everyday situations that occur at different levels of trust: high trust (family environment or close friends), low trust (friends of friends or relatives) and no trust (in a warehouse, an office or a taxi). Each respondent had to choose between a direct strategy and an indirect strategy in a given situation. The study is expected to show substantial differences, not only because of the dialectal variety: Andean Spanish and European Spanish, but also because of social distance, level of education, gender and origin, foreign students have been included.