“Qué lengua más avasalladora, oiga …”

Abstract This paper surveys the Spanish discourse marker oiga (‘listen [to me]’ — a polite form of address for seeking attention), its pragmatic functions according to its position within its clause, and t he various possible ways of translating it into German. This analysis has been carried out using samples of contemporary fictional texts extracted from the Parallel Corpus German-Spanish (PaGes). Our contribution aims to prove that the functions already described in previous studies (e.g. Vigara Tauste 1990 , Zorraquino/ Portolés 1999 ) can be observed in our data, thus showing the polyfunctionality of the pragmatic marker at stake. Furthermore, we will present prototypes for the translation of the marker into German to preserve the nuance it contains and which is often neglected by translators. The results can serve as a guide for language teachers, linguists, and translators.