Search

Grammatical agreement, a property of inflectional languages such as Spanish, consists of a formal association of different syntactic constituents. Even though it is a categorical morphosyntactic phenomenon, in Peruvian Spanish non-agreement occurs in different communicative contexts, due to certain social factors that will be analyzed in this paper. Based on a variationist perspective, we intend to identify and analyze non-concordant (NC) utterances extracted from the PRESEEA-LIMA corpus (directed by the author) in several linguistic contexts related to the constituents of noun phrases and verb phrases. An overview of the quantitative results will be provided in this paper. Moreover, we will approach data from both a heuristic and a hermeneutic point of view, through a reinterpretation of the role of quantitative value in the determination of linguistic variation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to present the social and stylistic variation in the speech prosody of the Spanish of Mérida, Yucatán. Assertive utterances from sociolinguistic interviews and discourse completion tasks are analyzed considering the social variables of age, gender and educational level. The prosodic analysis is carried out within the Autosegmental Metrical model (Pierrehumbert 1980, Ladd 2008) and with the Sp_ToBI labeling conventions (Hualde & Prieto 2015). The results show that this variety of Spanish is characterized by a prominent descent starting from the first tonal peak, the early-peak alignment in some prenuclear positions, and the presence of some non-falling boundary tones. The social and stylistic variation suggests that the last two are features that indicate vernacularity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Passivization in Spanish takes (active) clauses with a direct object and turns them into (passive) clauses in which that argument behaves as a subject. English allows secondary passives as well, in which the constituent that is promoted to the subject position is the goal or beneficiary argument of ditransitive predicates such as give: Peter was given a book. Although Spanish does not have this kind of passives, this paper discusses some data on ditransitive verbs whose passives allow the promotion of goal or beneficiary arguments. It is shown that there are at least two major types with differentiated characteristics: verbs that enable a construction we call beneficiary accusative and verbs that trigger what we call lexicalized goal-passives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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]

This paper analyses concessive resources with a mitigating function which are found in argumentative acts in the PRESEEA corpus from Santiago, Chile. Based on data from 36 semi-structured interviews, the behaviour of concessive-oppositional moves and concessive discourse particles in argumentative acts is analyzed, and their sociolinguistic variation is described in relation to the speakers' gender, age and level of education. The key findings highlight that in Chilean Spanish there are at least 12 strategies that fulfill a mitigating concessive function, among which "sí, pero (yes, but) + negation", "aunque (even though)", "no, pero (no, but) + assertion" and "a pesar (de) que (despite the fact that)" stand out. These strategies are linked to the functions of self-protection and face prevention in the development of the argumentative act. Furthermore, it is also observed that the variation is mostly due to the subject's age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the linguistic features of Afro-Peruvian Spanish as spoken in the municipality of El Carmen, in the immediate vicinity of Chincha. These are linguistic variants that can mostly be found in other parts of Peru, being always stigmatized as 'peasant', 'vulgar', etc. Some features, however, are rather unusual within their national context and may even be related to Caribbean Spanish or to other afrovernacular varieties spoken in Latin America. Against this background, some comments about the place of Afro-Peruvian Spanish in the Peruvian variational context and in the so-called Afro-Hispanic Linguistics turn out to be mandatory. Finally, this paper highlights the actual need of an accurate variational description of Afro-Peruvian Spanish, even more as the Afro-Peruvian community is demanding and, fortunately, gaining visibility in today's Peru (although much work remains to be done). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Word formation in Spanish, mainly by affixation, shows a mostly concatenative behavior in which the relationships of form and meaning are established linearly. However, there are many cases that cannot be described based on the recurrent attachment of affixes. These formations have long been identified, but they have not been studied in detail, since the type of analysis that prevails in approaches to the lexical morphology of Spanish cannot fully account for morphological relationships of this type. One of these non-concatenative correspondences is the one established between pairs of suffixes that correlate at the level of meaning but not at a formal level, such is the case of the suffixes -ismo and -ista (comunismo, comunista), probably the best-known case of this type of derivation. In this research we will analyze this type of word-formation scheme starting from the concept of solidarity, proposed by Beniers (1996). We will study four productive solidarity schemes from Mexican Spanish, all of them suffixal. In addition to the afore mentioned -ismo, -ista, we will analyze -ero, -ería; -nte, -ncia and -azo, -iza. As we will see, the solidarity scheme allows us to describe in detail the relationships that are stablished between each of these pairs of suffixes. In this paper we will first present the concept of solidarity, its background and the previous work that has been done based on this kind of analysis. Next, we will analyze each of these solidarities to establish their characteristics and constraints. Finally, we conclude that this type of analysis allows a more accurate and appropriate description of such non-concatenative word-formation schemes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses «El problema argentino de la lengua», an article published by Amado Alonso in 1932. To this end, we first analyze the type of theoretical and critical intervention that the author carries out; then, we consider it within a broader textual series that comprises a set of texts published between 1927, as Alonso becomes chair of the Institute of Philology of the University of Buenos Aires, and 1935, when he publishes the book El problema de la lengua en America, which includes a highly modified version of his 1932 work. We conclude that this article is an exceptional text in Alonso's linguistic production as a whole, and that this exceptionality can be interpreted as a sign of the process of theoretical reformulation that he underwent during the period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this article is to present the design features of the DIACOM corpus, a tool for the study of the field-specific lexis related to trade and commerce in the Spanish and French language. This study, carried out by the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures of the University of Verona (Italy) within the framework of a government-funded project, aims at developing the field of Digital Humanities and specifically its application in linguistic and philological research. The paper addresses the issues related to designing the Spanish subcorpus, particularly the ones which have proved especially problematic in the building of a diachronic corpus within the area taken into account. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on expressions of age combined with the verbs ser and estar in the Spanish of Guatemala and Mexico. It analyses the linguistic and extralinguistic factors favoring the extension of estar and the process of linguistic change involved in the expression of age in the two dialectal groups. Based on the analysis of three linguistic corpora from these communities (one from Ciudad de México and two from Guatemala), the results show, on the one hand, that estar is the most frequent copulative form, and, on the other, that some age-related adjectives favor the extension of the copulative form: chico, chiquito, grande. The paper concludes that age expressions with ser and estar are a feature of dialectal differentiation and, at the same time, an evolution of estar at the expense of ser. [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 addresses three Spanish focus constructions: clefts, the Det+N+ SER construction (e.g. la verdad es que...), and the lo+ADJ+SER construction (e.g. lo bueno es que...). Since their status in the oral-written dimension is still ambiguous and it has even been proposed some closeness with the written language, the research focused on their frequency in an oral corpus of Mexican Spanish, as well as their discourse functions. The data collected shows that these constructions are more frequent in the telenovela, while among non-fictional genres they are linked to those situated within the communicative immediacy space (v. Koch y Oesterreicher 1985). Their functions are grouped in two dimensions: micro- and macrotextual; the latter being the prevailing one since by using these constructions the speaker organizes and marks topical lines in discourse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes a singular political-linguistic event in the framework of the New panhispánica language policy (RAE y ASALE 2004): the publication of the Dictionary of Americanisms (2010). One glottopolitics perspective that considers dictionaries as interventions in public space of language, noting the relationship they establish with broader historical requirements is adopted. The work under study operates as a complementary gesture of the idea of "global Spanish" which would undermine lexical variants conceived as localisms. That is, both models of language, with emphasis on the global or local as appropriate, different meta-linguistic arguments and discourses, participate in a game denoted by the same economic interests, eager to capture a more profitable market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of the following paper is to present a study about the voiceless vowels in Shuar and their decreasing vitality. The hypothesis of the study presumes that the voiceless vowels disappear due to the influence of Spanish vocalic system. The database for the research was collected in 21 Shuar communities. The study takes into account three extralinguistic factors: age, locality and grade of bilingualism. The conclusion confirms that the contact with Spanish plays an important role in the disappearance of the voiceless vowels as the intensity of contact with Spanish is the most influential factor in their gradual disuse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Approximately over the past ten years, the RAE and its associated Academies have published several works committed explicitly to a pluricentric vision of Hispanic language culture. This paper aims at examining the impact of pluricentrism -- a key concept in terms of current language policy -- on the conceptualization of linguistic variation and, consequently, the treatment of empirical data. In doing so, the focus will be on the Nueva gramática de la lengua española (from here "NGLE"), where this problematic interrelation is reflected in an especially complex way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to compile and analyse the most frequent anglicisms in the lexicon used in sports activities offered by Spanish gyms. This domain remains unexplored in the research of the phenomenon of anglicisms in the Spanish language, since the published literature has focused so far on the lexicon of other sports such as football (Fernández 1971; Alonso 1996; Rodríguez González 2012). We have studied a sample of 268 anglicisms taken from the brochures and websites of 15 gyms. Our analysis is not only quantitative but also describes different pragmatic functions of the anglicisms found in the data. This allows us to draw significant conclusions about the evolution of anglicisms as a sociolinguistic and cultural phenomenon in Spanish. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper shows the interdependence between semantics and pragmatics by analyzing two morphological phenomena of Spanish, one derivative ?the creation of deverbal nouns meaning ?action of 'x'? and the other inflective ?the use of future subjunctive in conditional si clauses (protasis)?. The results will show that the selection of the forms generated by these morphological processes is not entirely independent of certain pragmatic aspects, such as the use of particular language varieties (i.e., register), certain text types or the general configuration of the speech event. [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]

This paper is an empirical study of the presence of the address form su merced in the XIX century, particularly in Latin American literary texts representing the speech of Africans and their descendants, based on examples taken from Lipski (2005a, 2005b) and texts included in CORDE. Based on data found in other corpora, the discussion also includes uses of su merced in official written communication. It reviews earlier studies about su merced in Latin America and concludes that this address form appears in the context of asymmetrical social relations between groups and especially in the speech of Africans and their descendants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role that Latin played as the language of culture and prestige in the Spanish colonies of America has not been studied in depth. Especially, in the case of the viceroyalty of Peru, the lack of documents has prevented detailed research in this area. In this paper I analyze the importance of Latin in urban areas of Peru's colonial society based on documents written by Peruvian authors and published in the viceroyalty of Peru up to the beginning of the nineteenth century. Among these, and because of its unique nature, the Asclepiadaeum, a poem in honor of the Viceroy de la Pezuela, who arrived in Lima in 1816, stands out. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the constituent features of the textual type called memoria, in the context of the legal-administrative sphere of the Colonial Era. This textual type is embedded in both the Spanish and the native American legal tradition, so it is of particular interest for the history of the Spanish language, for the textual linguistics studies and for pragmatics studies. The research also aims to demonstrate that in the Peruvian judicial system of the 16th Century there was a particular type of memoria, modeled by the convergence of the Western way of recording data and the use of quipus as Andean recording medium. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper, inserted in the framework of the Cid studies, aims to identify the existence of a strong presence of the cult to the Virgin Mary in the Poema de Mio Cid (PMC), which articulates the battle scenes of the poem and is presented as a projection of Castile's expansionist intentions in the context of the wars of Spanish reconquest. Likewise, it seeks to demonstrate the strong French influence in the Marian cult, which can be seen throughout the text, and its adoption by the religious Peninsula, particularly in relation to the ideology of crusade that matches the changing notion of reconquest and constitutes one of the main motives of the poem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper tries to quantify the socioeconomic importance of seven phonetic characteristics (seseo, yeismo, /s/-aspiration, /x/-aspiration, /j/-assibilation, /r/-assibilation, and /n/-velarization) whose presence or absence allows distinguishing among twenty-four Spanish dialects. In order to accomplish this goal, we perform a least-square regression analysis to calculate "hedonic prices" for the abovementioned characteristics. The result is that the three more significant characteristics, which seem to operate as signs of a lower per-capita income, are seseo, /x/-aspiration and /r/-assibilation. The first of those characteristics keeps its statistical significance as a sociolinguistic marker when we restrict our analysis to the case of Spain, while /r/-assibilation keeps its statistical significance when we restrict our database to Colombian observations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]