This study explores formal address in Uruguayan Spanish (USp) quantitatively and qualitatively. It demonstrates that although participants claim to use usted in several social situations, they also express anxiety due to the perception that this form is reserved for extreme distance. This has led to a drop in usted use over time. However, USp speakers are not ready to do away with binary address; rather, to avoid conflation of the formal/informal contrast, they have developed alternative polite strategies.
Usted has received limited attention in descriptions of USp (Behares 1981, Bertolotti 2011, Elizaincín & Díaz 1981, Ricci & Malán de Ricci 1977), when compared to informal address. This study comes to fill the void through a quantitative questionnaire and a qualitative interview. The questionnaire (n=679) revealed that usted is still frequent in situations of social distance or power differences. It is most frequent with unknown elderly addressees, followed by service encounters with professionals; informal forms are more frequent in the workplace. The qualitative attitude interviews (n=47), transcribed and analyzed using the package Atlas.ti, confirmed that usted has retreated noticeably from USp since the mid-20th century. Most interviewees claim not to use it with family members, and to do so infrequently in school and a work. Although usted typically conveys respect, its absence is not perceived as disrespectful. Older interviewees are aware of changes over time, noting a relaxation of rules to the point that usted is only required in situations of extreme social distance (age, gender, social class).
As a consequence, usted is fraught, and many speakers avoid it. However, its elimination hasn’t led to loss of politeness differences in address, but rather to the development of alternatives. These may include address avoidance or mirroring the interlocutor’s address choice (Clyne et al. 2009: 78). Younger speakers have promoted tú to the role of a mid-distance all-purpose polite form, thus maintaining a contrast with the alternative informal form, vos. In sum, USp shows how the elimination of formal usted doesn’t necessarily imply the loss of formality contrasts in a speech community, if this distinction is considered socially desirable.
