On Rioplatense Spanish che: a grammatical approach

Abstract

The debate on the origin of Riverplate Spanish che, a well known dialectal marker, has attributed this form diversely to a Mapudungun noun or affix, a Guaraní determiner or a Spanish interjection. In any case, although discussion on the ethimology of che has partly drawn attention from the study of its grammar, a grammaticalization process must have taken place to generate the vocative form characteristic of spoken Riverplate Spanish. This paper focuses on a grammatical proposal for three variants of che: the vocative head (Che, ¿me prestás tus apuntes? ‘Mate/dude, can I borrow your notes?’), where che is inserted post-syntactically as a phonological exponent of Voc°; the vocative particle appearing along a vocative head (Che, Agus/vos, te estoy hablando ‘Hey, Agus/you, I’m talking to you’), where che is in the Specifier position of the Vocative Phrase; and, as a result from a new grammaticalization process, the interjection indicating surprise and/or annoyance (= Riverplate Spanish ufa ‘oh, no’, ‘damn (it)’) (¡Che, otra vez cerrado! ‘Damn it, it’s closed again!’), head of the Interjective Phrase, a different structure in the left periphery. Our analysis also compares the vocative and interjective variants of che with those of flaco, loco, boludo (‘dude’) and other grammaticalized nouns from Riverplate Spanish.