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In this paper we analyze the information structure of predicate doubling in Rioplatense Spanish (e.g., Leer, leyó 'as for reading, she/he read'). We propose that in this construction the dislocated predicate functions as a contrastive topic in the sense of Büring (2003), that is, it evokes a set of alternative questions with which it contrasts. We argue that this characterization explains the "continuation effect" that predicate doubling exhibits, i.e., the fact that a predicate doubling sentence suggests a potential continuation that involves another predicate. Moreover, we show that this analysis correctly predicts the distribution of predicate doubling in embedding contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we attempt to draw an overview on the evolution of the lexicon of bastionated Fortification from its origins, in the 16th century, until its apogee, during the 18th. To do this, we start from an intermediate point, the second half of the 17th, when the Epítome de la fortificación moderna (1669), written by Zepeda, was published. In that way, we select the specialized vocabulary which is defined in chapter II of the second part of its "Preludios geométricos" with the purpose of comparing and analysing this vocabulary with the lexicon contained in the first treatises of the Fortification in Spanish language, from the final years of the 16th, until the Tratado de fortificación (1772) of Lucuze. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the uses of the word chino, china in northern Peru in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, via historical documents and popular poetry couplets. Contrary to previous proposals, we corroborate the actual use of this term, especially in its feminine form, and we propose two possible meanings for it: the first, linked to caste terminology, refers to a type of ?racial mix? between ?Indian? and ?African?, with a minor and variable component of ?white blood?, while the second refers to a young woman, usually a peasant. We also examine the use of the word as a formulaic way to appeal to the loved one in popular poetry and we conclude that, although probably this formula was derived from the racial terminology, the word quickly gained positive affective nuances, making it possible to refer to the woman that it was possible to court. It is suggested that the former meaning 'servant', central in colonial sources of sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, began to blur in the studied period and in line with previous works. We propose a competition between the word and its homophone, referred to Asian migrants since the late nineteenth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

So far the study of the first Latin American lexicography after it's independence from Spain has neglected the close relationship between the first dictionaries, referred as "provincialism dictionaries", and the socio-historical context in which they were elaborated. The process of nation-building, especially in relation to the creation of a state policy and its impact in Latin American societies, is an element that makes clear the nature of the works in question, so that we can talk about a decisive political imprint on them. This paper proposes a renewed study of the foundational works of Spanish American lexicography from this perspective and exemplified with reading and comparison of the two most representative dictionaries, the Zorobabel Rodríguez's Diccionario de chilenismos (1875) and the Juan de Arona's Diccionario de peruanismos. Ensayo filológico (1883-1884), especially in relation to the notion of republicanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]