The use of global and local semantic strategies in the oral discourse of non Mapuche Chileans from the city of Temuco

Abstract

This paper shows partial results of a research project having to do with ethnic discrimination of non Mapuche Chileans against the Mapuches in the city of Temuco, Chile. To this effect, based on the hypothesis that such discrimination exists and is expressed through oral discourse, global semantic strategies and local semantic strategies are analyzed from a corpus of semiformal interviews using a guide questionnaire of said non Mapuche Chileans.

The results showed that global semantic strategies, basically evasion and positive self-representation, are manifested through local semantic strategies, which are, mainly, self-justification, evasion of certain topics, apparent concession and implicatures. Besides, the explicit discriminatory expressions are more evident in the lower social stratum, while the implicit prejudice prevails in the middle and high social strata.