El chisme y su función en la conversación

Abstract

Gossip has played an important role in the evolution of human intelligence and social life (Dunbar, 2004, Davis & McLeod, 2003). It plays a key role in cultural learning (Baumeister, Zhang, & Vohs, 2004) and it is relevant as a source of information in social evaluation (Suls, 1977; Wert & Salovey, 2004, 2004, 2004 b).\nThis paper examines seven gossip situations with the aim of trying to establish their roles in everyday conversation. Following Haviland, (1977) gossip is considered as a narrative event within conversational discourse, and, according to one of the proposed methodologies for its analysis (Foster 2004), the seven situations are examined in the light of symmetrical or asymmetrical relations and the chances of acceptance or rejection on the part of the gossip recipient.\nBased on the analysis, I propose that gossip in everyday conversation can be assigned the following functions: a) economy of information; b) maintenance of the relationship between partners; c) definition (or re-definition) of the speaker and hearer�s personae at the time of the gossip exchange; d) rapprochement, estrangement, or re-adjusting of positions in the scale of values, beliefs, ascriptions, etc., of gossip-partners.