Puebla, Mexico: Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla, 2006.

In  ‘Oficio de Tejedores (Weavers of Words),” Yanira Paz describes and analyzes Spanish oral speech collected in “El Empedrao” (Maracaibo, Venezuela), and specifically studies: a) the most recurrent verbal tenses and their relationship to specific discursive functions; b) the use of subordination as it is used in oral speech in this particular Spanish dialect; c) the use of deixis (“linguistic pointing”) and its discursive function; d) the use of discursive connectors; and e) the poetic function of daily speech. 

As it is analyzed in the book, Paz provides evidence to show that oral discourse is a highly planned form of expression, and that it targets the involvement of the interlocutors by means of image constructions into which details are carefully interwoven.

Yanira Paz is an associate professor of Spanish and director of Elementary Language Instruction in the College of Arts and Sciences Department of Hispanic Studies at the University of Kentucky.  She received a bachelor’s degree in Spanish from the Universidad del Zulia (Maracaibo), a master’s degree in linguistics from the University of Florida and a doctorate in Spanish from the University of Kentucky.  Her areas of interest include the teaching of Spanish, sociolinguistics, discourse analysis, linguistics and literature. She has published several articles in those areas.