Los conectores pragmáticos en el habla culta costarricense

Abstract

Expressions such as bueno, idiay, verdad, digamos.fijáte, etc., which reccurvery frequendy in spoken

Costa Rican Spanish, traditionalIy have been stigrnatized as pet words without much meaning or

function. On the basis of data from recorded interviews, cooversations and lectures, the author of the

artic1e posits that they are pragmatic connectors with important phatic and discourse organizing

functions which make them necessary and even obligatory in spontaneous speech. This explains why

alI speakers, inc1uding those aware of the fact that they are coosidered "errors", keep using them.