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Abstract
This study compares the strategies and linguistic expressions used by Spanish speakers when performing the speech act known as indirect complaints (ICs). It compares the language used by speakers of two varieties of Spanish, Peninsular and Peruvian, when expressing these complaints in everyday situations and examines the ways in which native Spanish speakers respond to them. Two instruments were used to collect data: a Discourse Completion Test (DCT) that elicited what the participants would say in situations to express and respond to indirect complaints, and a Multiple-Choice Questionnaire (MCQ) that elicited the participants underlying beliefs and their tolerance toward a set of everyday social events. Results show that social structure determines the choice of pragmatic strategies. The main finding of this study is that social preconceptions can influence the degree of seriousness with which the speakers of two different varieties of Spanish, Peruvian and Peninsular Spanish, regard certain events.