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This study explored the influence of social and syntactic-pragmatic factors on a speaker’s choice between hesitation markers este and eh in oral discourse. Data collected from San Juan (PR), Mexico City, Montevideo, and Medellín were analyzed as a large corpus and on an individual country basis. Este was found to be the most prevalent hesitation marker overall and within three of the four countries studied. On an overall level, the factors of city, education level, gender, and position of the marker within the turn were found to be statistically significant to hesitation marker choice, while age was not. On a per-city basis, education was significant everywhere, age and gender were significant everywhere except Medellín, and turn position was significant everywhere except San Juan. The lack of uniformity in the results suggests that speakers’ choice between este and eh is affected differently by these factors in each area.
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