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There are many procedures to describe F0 contours in acoustic-phonetic terms. Garrido’s (1996, 2001, 2010) and z-score normalization systems have the advantage that they are automatic procedures. Therefore, this paper aims at analyzing both systems in order to determine the possible future application for the analysis of Spanish as a Foreign Language spoken by Brazilians (SFL). To do so, we analyze the melodic curves in declaratives, yes-no questions and wh-questions in Madrid Spanish, in Brazilian Portuguese (BP) spoken in the city of São Paulo and finally, in SFL. The validity of both systems was tested through a perception test with 10 Brazilian and 10 Spanish listeners. Listeners rated the degree of similarity between the signals with original intonation and signals with stylized F0 contours. The results showed that Garrido’s automatic stylization method is really able to perceptually create representations equivalent to the original ones in Spanish, BP and SFL and also better than those obtained with the procedure based on z-score normalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is included in the framework of the research project Estudio del léxico en el habla del santarroseño (Primera etapa). After choosing the countryside as the first vocabulary domain and on the basis of the matrix survey, we have selected the most significant questions related to our search: which is the basic lexicon that freshmen at the Profesorado y Licenciatura en Letras at the UNLPam have in relation to the countryside. The corpus consists of 30 surveys carried out in 2009 amongst these students. On this first study, we will describe the words provided by the survey participants and we will analyze their recurrence. These objectives aim at identifying which words are more significant to our youngsters in relation to the countryside, and transversely, they will allow us to get closer to the levels of domain and knowledge that students have of an area that is supposedly constitutive of the pampean identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In contrast with previous analyses where ya has been disjunctively characterized as a temporal adverb, an aspectual and a discourse marker this paper offers a unified account as a complex grounding predication () that anchors the event with respect to the time of speech subsuming the evolutionary momentum of the event to be mapped against cultural frames. Unlike deictic markers, ya does not situate events, relations, entities or attributes by projecting them onto an objective socio-physical or temporal axis. It rather gives them a dynamic orientation by mapping them onto a programmatic base, often a cyclic one. Ya validates future or past events as most prominent for the time of speech as compared to surrounding ones that may be part of a larger action or an event chain. Ya is therefore best analyzed as a meta-linguistic focus marker that influences the conceptualization of the underlying base: it acknowledges progression within a process conceived of as globally oriented. In oral speech, ya is typically used to frame perception and propositional attitude predicates. In written language, it contributes to the framing of discourse structure at various levels of organization, especially when it comes to reflect the intertwining of parallel scenarios. The subjective perspective manifested by ya primarily relates to the course of time – the universal programmatic base par excellence – however, it also expresses more sophisticated time managing capacities and the specific mental ability of bridging gaps in linguistic representation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with the influence of structural and stylistic factors in the retention vs. elision of-Id!- in the Spanish words finished in -ado (termina(d)o, merca(d)o)- in Castellón, a Spanish bilingual community, where the ethnolinguistic background of the speakers has been found decisive in a previous study: the more use and competence in Valenciano (the regional variety of Catalan in the Valencian Community), the more level of retention, and vice versa. In this context, and from a linguistic point of view, the results of our current variationist analysis challenge the traditional association between the variable rule of elisions and some structural factors (i.e. part of speeches and function of the morpheme) and enact the effect of other, like the type of vocabulary and their frequency in ordinary discourse. Besides, we analyze some stylistic parameters which show a complex, and not always expected, influence. Our main conclusion is that the language contact situation conditions this linguistic variable in a structural and stylistic way at least partially different from what we find in other monolingual speech communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Models of communication strictly as a function of intention and control founder when confronted by variationist .endings of perspiration at di.erent levels of linguistic structure in use. When Polack (1981) .nds that Spanish [s] leads to more [s] and that "zeros lead to zeros," it is unclear how speaker intention is involved. But, it is clear that what a speaker says at one point will in fence what this same speaker says next. Here we identify perseveration of pronominal and null subjects in three dialects of Spanish: Madrid, San Juan, and New York City. In null subject Spanish, expression of subject pronouns leads to more pronouns, and expression of null subjects leads to more nulls. We argue that a perspicuous account of perseveration may be found within Spreading-Activation Theory (Dell 1986), a psycho- linguistic theory of production based on speech errors. Thus, this work integrates quantitative dialect description with psycholinguistics explanation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]