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This paper combines quantitative and qualitative analyses in a corpus-based study of how and for what purposes politicians, in the context of the Spanish Parliament, use the impersonal pronoun uno 'one'. I begin by contrasting how uno is used in parliamentary debate versus non-political language. After reviewing traditional definitions of the semantic range and general behavior of this pronoun, I argue that a more accurate account that the one provided by standard grammars is needed for us to better understand how the peculiar characteristics of a parliament affect intentionality in the use of impersonal pronouns. In particular, it is argued that uno is utilized by politicians to serve principally two purposes: 1) avoidance of bluntness - a means of preserving professional etiquette, and 2) avoidance of self- praise - demonstrative of humility. Both purposes serve the larger objective of preserving professional face. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last two decades, there has been an increasing coverage of transgender people in Latin American and Spanish media. However, there are very few research studies that thoroughly examine the increasing use of terms such as transgender "transgénero" and trans in Spanish-speaking press. This contribution studies the linguistic representation of transgender people in Spanish-speaking quality press produced in Colombia and Spain. Within the framework of Queer Linguistics and Corpus-based Discourse Analysis, this article explores the linguistic choices employed by the Spanish-speaking press to name transgender people and examines the main differences in the linguistic choices made by newspapers in the two countries. Unlike in English, the findings suggest that trans and transexual are the most commonly used labels in Spanish. Although the semantic categories of representation are seen to differ between the two countries, the linguistic choices observed seem to be closely linked to sociopolitical and ideological preferences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1783, the King of Spain Carlos III enacted the last Royal Order for the control and assimilation of Gitanos or Calé. The law required that local authorities listed the Gitanos living in their counties. The resulting census is the most important document on the Spanish Romani written during the ancien régime. Unfortunately, its data has never been studied in depth. This paper analyzes the surnames of the 12,037 Gitano persons identified in the census and finds 567 different heritable family names. Interestingly, 10% of these surnames identified 75% of the Gitano population. The analysis shows that Gitanos already had the same names they have today, and that it is possible to trace personal genealogies linking Gitano people from this census with people alive now, some fourteen generations later. Gitano surnames were all Hispanic and many of them of aristocratic origin. Some were common to all Gitano groups, but most followed regional patterns and were differentiated by region and even by province. Baptism, mixed marriages, and imitation of neighbors were the most likely sources for the adoption of these surnames. Gitanos also used personal and family nicknames in their communities, but their official names were a crucial part of their personal and collective identity. Resistance, opposition, and contrasting cultural strategies should not ignore the hybridizing and creative adaptations of the Romani peoples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Verba: Anuario Galego de Filoloxia is the property of Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, Servicio de Publicaciones and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This corpus-based article explores London and Madrid teenagers' use of phatic expressions as a politeness device in their everyday conversations. The starting-point for the study is Leech's 'Phatic Maxim', which he suggests as a supplement to the four maxims making up Grice's Cooperative Principle. The purport of the maxim is to avoid silence by keeping talking, which may involve anything from loose formulaic talk to connectors and the use of taboo words, all of which are phatic devices with a strong bonding effect. The teenage talk studied here is largely void of the formulaic expressions that characterize conversational openings and closings in adult speakers' casual encounters. Both groups are frequent users of turn-final appealers which trigger turn-initial uptakes and of reaction signals realized by interjections and taboo words, all with a strongly bonding effect. Boys in particular are not only allowed but even expected to use taboo language as a sign of camaraderie and a means to reinforce the phatic strength of an exchange. In both corpora, there is ample use of fillers that help the speaker to hold the turn, and hedges, which often act as fillers in addition to helping the speaker avoid self-commitment. And whereas the Spanish teenagers use certain vocatives as a purely conversational resource to establish and maintain contact, the English teenagers insert 'unsolicited' minimal feedback signals (for example, realized by mhm or mm) which encourage the current speaker to go on speaking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]