Search

This paper is based on the idea that the study of peripheral phenomena or marginalia in language can shed new light on the interpretation of other, less marginal linguistic data. Specifically, it focuses on the joining or separation of linguistic elements, which is often considered a typically marginal phenomenon, but which constitutes one of the syntactic criteria for classifying verbal periphrases. For this purpose, interpolation, i.e. the separation of the two components of a periphrasis by another element, is examined in three specific cases: , and . The analysis offers clues for reconsidering interpolation as a criterion for the classification of periphrases. At the same time, the study makes it clear that, on the one hand, verbal periphrases are characterised by a type of syntactic ambiguity and, on the other hand, their semantic value is decisive in determining their periphrastic nature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Latinx families who become involved with the child welfare system are expected to engage with an unfamiliar government entity to avoid separation of their families. Unfortunately, many of these families struggle with receiving appropriate services due to their inability to fully understand English. This paper explores the experiences of bilingual child welfare social workers who serve Latinx families throughout California. The results of the study highlight the multiple areas that child welfare agencies need to address and develop to improve their existing strategies--and develop new ones--to mitigate language barriers with Latinx families who have limited English proficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper analyses the reasons for comprehension monitoring failure and the regulatory actions performed by Spanish university students when reading in English as a Foreign Language (EFL). Two different but connected empirical studies were conducted to obtain data about students' behaviour during a reading task. In Study 1, comprehension monitoring was assessed following the Error Detection Paradigm. Then, semistructured interviews were conducted to analyse subjects' regulatory actions. In Study 2, a questionnaire was proposed to classify subjects' detection X regulation actions when reading in EFL. Results showed that participants' comprehension monitoring level was not very high according to other literature findings. Moreover, the lack of language proficiency could imply additional processing and monitoring difficulties. The questionnaire accounted for a great percentage of participants' behaviour: semantic obstacles, spurious detections, no re-reading, skip information or no detection. Knowing students' reading obstacles is necessary for teachers and practitioners in order to help students become effective readers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces a system that incorporates several strategies based on scientific models of how the brain records and recovers memories. Methodologically, an incremental prototyping approach has been applied to develop a satisfactory architecture that can be adapted to any language. A special case is studied and tested regarding the Spanish language. The applications of this proposal are vast because, in general, information such as text way, reports, emails, and web content, among others, is considered unstructured and, hence, the repositories based on SQL databases usually do not handle this kind of data correctly and efficiently. The conversion of unstructured textual information to structured one can be useful in contexts such as Natural Language Generation, Data Mining, and dynamic generation of theories, among others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a proposal on how to select suitable vocabulary items to teach Spanish as a foreign language (SFL) based on the triangulation or complementation of three sources of lexical information: (1) the available lexicon in native Spanish speakers, (2) the most frequent vocabulary in Spanish and (3) the specific notions of the Plan curricular del Instituto Cervantes. Previously, an analysis of the lexical needs of a sample of SFL students has been carried out, whose results have been collated with the abovementioned sources of vocabulary. The found shortcomings have been evaluated in order to observe how they are covered by each of these three sources. It has been proven that each source covers different lexical needs (with a similarity of 12.5% in the covered needs and a lexical compatibility of the sources of 24%), so the viability of the triangulation is justified. The resulting proposal offers a lexical compilation in different levels that combines the benefits of several well-established selection criteria and overcomes the limitations arising from using them individually. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

La orientación en el uso de la lengua es un tema central tanto para los estudiosos como para los propios hablantes del español. Esta orientación la proveen la Real Academia Española (RAE), en conjunto con la Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (ASALE), así como los investigadores de la lingüística hispánica. El objetivo de este trabajo es discutir la confiabilidad que tiene esta orientación evaluando no solo cuán policéntrico es el punto de vista de la RAE-ASALE, sino que también cuán acertada es la orientación que tanto la RAE-ASALE como los estudiosos ofrecen. Language guidance is a central issue among scholars and the Spanish speakers themselves. This guidance is provided by the Spanish Language Academy (RAE) and the Association of the Spanish Language Academies (ASALE) as well as by researchers in Hispanic linguistics. This paper aims to discuss the authoritativeness of that guidance. It evaluates not only how polycentric is the RAE-ASALE's point of view, but also if RAE-ASALE and scholars' language guidance is always accurate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we study the nuclear configurations of declarative broad focus utterances in Yucatecan Spanish, a Mexican variety spoken in southeast Mexico in contact with Yucatec Maya, from a sociolinguistic perspective. We draw on a corpus of 276 utterances elicited from 16 speakers, eight Maya–Spanish bilinguals (four female/four male) and eight Spanish monolinguals (four female/four male). We particularly concentrate on the roles of bilingualism, gender, and their relationship to local (Hispanic) identity. Although the intonation of Yucatecan Spanish is known to be very different from Central Mexican Spanish, we find in our data a considerable number of contours that Martín Butragueño (2017) refers to as typical "Central Mexican circumflex intonation" (p. 153). What is more, this feature is distributed unevenly among speaker groups in our data. First of all, it is much more frequent in the bilingual than in the monolingual group. We suggest that this is due to the monolinguals' higher degree of identification with the local Spanish language and culture (whereas the bilingual speakers are more oriented toward the Mayan language and culture and less toward the local Spanish ones; see Uth, 2018b). Secondly, as regards gender, there are many sociolinguistic works that suggest that women tend to be less oriented toward local vernaculars than men. Building on that, we argue that a greater decrease of the supraregional circumflex configuration within the monolingual male group than within the monolingual female is to be expected. However, this hypothesis is not confirmed by our data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the spectral properties of anterior sibilant fricatives in Northern Peninsular Spanish, and sibilant-merging and non-merging varieties of Basque. Non-merging varieties of Basque have two voiceless anterior sibilant fricatives, characterized as apico-alveolar and lamino-alveolar. In other Basque varieties, however, these two phonemes have merged with varying results. Twenty-four participants divided into four different groups have been studied. One group is a set of monolingual Spanish speakers from north-central Spain, while the remaining three are Basque–Spanish bilingual groups with different sibilant fricative systems in Basque. The goal is to describe the spectral properties of anterior sibilant fricatives and examine the effect of the L1-Basque sibilant system upon L2-Spanish. The Basque varieties chosen are: (i) Azpeitia Basque, where merging in favor of the lamino-alveolar sibilant fricative has occurred; (ii) Lemoa Basque, where the merging in favor of the apico-alveolar sibilant fricative is widespread; and (iii) Goizueta Basque, where no merging has happened. Participants took part in an elicitation task where they produced sentences containing target words with an intervocalic anterior sibilant fricative in Basque and Spanish. Bayesian probability was used for inferential statistics. Speakers of the non-merging Basque variety show the narrowest acoustic dispersion of /s/ in Spanish, as opposed to broader diffusion in the other three groups. Regarding L1 transfer, while the Azpeitia group does not show transfer into Spanish, the Lemoa and Goizueta groups do. Results show that /s/ is more fronted for monolingual Spanish speakers from north-central Spain than the previous literature has reported. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

These notes set forth a linguistic model reminiscent of glossematics, with four differentiated modules each dealing with variation in the system of address in Spanish according to the characteristics of each of the analyzed phenomena. The model distinguishes two main levels: content and expression. In each, the model further distinguishes between form and substance. Within the level of content, the study of social relations belongs to substance, and the way those relations are grammatically formalized and how they interact with each other belongs to form. A fundamental aspect of the model is the connection between the enunciative person and the grammatical person. The paper concludes with an analysis of the morphological instantiation of the grammatical person in different varieties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a comparative analysis of two Spanish constructions that are usually characterised as passive, namely the periphrastic or attributive passive – formed with the verb ser 'be' plus a participle – and the reflexive passive – formed with third‐person reflexive clitic se. An isomorphic functional approach is adopted whereby the inherent syntactic‐semantic features of each construction are considered to be at the basis of their discourse‐pragmatic uses. Using a corpus of local written news pieces from the Peninsular town of Salamanca, the grammatical expression of both the initiators and the endpoints of events in each construction is quantitatively and qualitatively analysed, paying special attention to their variable encoding and placement within the clause and the semantic correlates of formal variation. While attributive passives are used to predicate transitive events of topical endpoints, reflexive passives often conceptualise events as thetic, reducing transitivity and defocusing initiators. These meanings are projected onto the discourse‐pragmatic domain by favouring different interpretations of the role of human participants, particularly with respect to their involvement in events amenable to negative judgements. This supports the hypothesis that the syntax and semantics of each grammatical construction are undetachable from its communicative potential in specific contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the use of language during the emergency eLearning period due to Covid-19 in the Basque Autonomous Community. Specifically, the main objective of this study is to analyze how the use of Basque (local minority language), English (foreign language), and Spanish (local majority language) changed during this period among children and the interactions that may exist between them. Four hundred eighty-four teachers and 410 parents participated in this research. The results revealed that teachers perceived a significant decline in the use of Basque that correlated with an increase in the use of Spanish. The decline in the use of Basque was particularly significant among children in kindergarten. The use of English also decreased but was not associated with the use of the other languages. It was also found that the perceptions of children's language use differed between teachers and parents. The findings are explained in terms of assumptions regarding language learning and use in relation to the context of the study. Finally, we discuss some implications of empowering minority and foreign language use in multilingual contexts during emergency eLearning and the measures that should be taken to mitigate the decline in their use at the current time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As in other countries, bilingual/multilingual education has become widespread in Spain. However, research either focuses on Spanish programs' implementation, students' performance or teacher training, but not on their contribution to graduates' self-perceived linguistic success (understood as a combination of intercultural competence, international mobility and employability). Therefore, this paper studies whether Spanish bilingual education results in higher self-perceived competences. An instrument examining these three elements is applied, and Facebook Audience Insights is used for sample targeting. Findings prove that Spanish bilingual education graduates have higher self-perceived intercultural competence and international mobility. In terms of gender, women who have participated in Spanish bilingual education show higher self-perceived intercultural competence, whereas men who have studied in these programs consider themselves more interculturally competent and mobile. Conversely, there is no evidence of more positive self-perceived employability than in monolingual education. All in all, participation in a Spanish bilingual program is demonstrated to be an influential factor in self-perceived global linguistic success, employability, and intercultural competence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we examine existing analyses for (restrictive) relative clauses and propose an analysis for Spanish relatives from the perspective of a lexicalised Tree Adjoining Grammar (TAG). We will provide a summary of the main proposals in the literature and examine the questions that any analysis of relative clauses should address. Our TAG approach synthesises the descriptive and theoretical advantages of existing models (the head external analysis, the raising analysis, and the matching analysis) and offers a solution to some of the main problems that have been observed in the literature. We will focus on the internal configuration of relative clauses, their structural position, and the category of the expression que in Spanish. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ambiguous relative clauses with two possible antecedent nouns have been widely studied in Spanish since they cast doubt on the universality of syntactic parsing principles. Current research suggests that there is an early contribution of prosodic information in the disambiguation of this kind or sentences in oral comprehension and production tasks. In this paper we present two comprehension experiments of locally ambiguous relative clauses with two possible attachment sites in Spanish, in which different prosodic parameters were manipulated to yield either congruous or incongruous pairings of prosody and syntax, with the aim of testing their influence on listeners' attachment preferences of the ambiguous clause and on their response times. Additionally, fundamental frequency (F0) and temporal (pause distribution) prosodic parameters were manipulated in different subexperiments so as to assess their separate contribution to participants' performance. Our results confirm an effective and relatively early use of prosodic information by listeners during language processing. In particular, congruous prosody with syntax generally facilitates participants' responses, though this effect was found to vary across the two attachment options. Finally, F0 and temporal prosodic features were found to make a similar contribution to participants' responses, with few occasional differences between them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper discusses the effect of mood on the availability of an existential interpretation of negative words such as nadie in the complement of affective emotive factive predicates in Spanish. In these contexts, the subjunctive mood allows nadie to function as a NPI, and it may be interpreted either as a non-negated existentially quantified expression, ∃x, equivalent to alguien, or as negative universally quantified expression, ∀x¬, equivalent to the English "nobody". On the other hand, the indicative mood allows only for a negative universal interpretation, as ∀x¬. An account of this phenomenon is proposed in terms of the notion of settledness. A proposition expressed by an indicative complement is asserted, and the speaker is signaling their intention that it be settled in the context set. It is said that the proposition is grammatically settled. By expressing a proposition in the subjunctive mood, the speaker is not intending that it be settled at the time of utterance, and, as a consequence it is in a grammatically unsettled state (p/¬p: a state in which it is undetermined whether p or ¬p). A negative word such as nadie is analyzed as denoting a quantity scale <∀, ∃>. Within an asserted complement, the interpretation of nadie is fixed at the highest, most informative, point in the scale, ∀. On the other hand, within the grammatically unsettled complement of an affective predicate, which allows for scale reversal, the interpretation of nadie is not fixed. This indeterminacy allows it to assume the value of the lowest point, ∃. It is noted that this possibility provides an expressive tool which may be used to add an emphatic hue to an utterance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

People formulate places for different interactional goals (e.g., arranging meeting up with one another, giving directions). Although most research agrees that using names or numbers for streets is common, there are cultural realities that imply using other resources accessible to participants. This paper examines place formulation when there are not street numbers available. Data come from audio-recorded telephone calls to 911 Costa Rica. The study uses the method of Conversation Analysis combined with ethnography. Findings show that participants use three formulations: geographical, landmarks and "other signs". This paper shows that such formulations correspond to levels of granularity, and that there is cultural diversity when formulating place. • Participants use three interactional practices when formulating place. • Geographical formulations use the country's division: province, county, district. • Landmark formulations are comprised of the landmark, distance and direction. • "Other signs" formulations describe details or physical characteristics of places. • These formulations correspond to different levels of description used by callers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The subject of the paper is a basic descriptive analysis from a diachronic and synchronic perspective of the (socio)linguistic phenomena seseo, ceceo and distinción with particular focus on the region of Andalucia; it traces back the phonetic and phonological changes (the reduction) of the fricative consonants that occurred in the Golden Age (XVI and XVII s.) and the far-reaching effects on the present consonant system in the Spanish Language, it illustrates the geographic distribution of the phenomena and the sociocultural implications of the use of the seseo-ceceo-distinción supported by copious examples excerpted from relevant sources among which the “Ortography of the Spanish Language” and the “Panhispanic Dictionary of Doubts” by the Spanish Royal Academy (RAE), “Spanish Dialectology” by Alonso Zamora Vicente etc. Concurrently, the paper in a rather concise form in compliance with the manuscript requirements of the Editorial board of the Journal compares the three phenomena that understandably generate considerable confusion and represent a major difficulty for the non-native Spanish learners. The purpose of the paper is, in absence of Spanish grammar(s) in Macedonian language and published comparative papers on the subject, to familiarize the Macedonian linguists with these colorful traits of the Spanish Language and provoke scientific interest in the subject matter. The paper on the (socio)linguistic phenomena seseo, ceceo and distinción in the Spanish Language is penned within the scientific research macroproject of the Faculty of Philology “Blazhe Koneski” in Skopje. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides an insight on the centrality of two main paradigms of the current linguistic theory in the field of Spanish as a second/foreign language acquisition, and its operative role in teaching. Generative Grammar (GG) as well as Cognitive Grammar (CG) are mentalist models, however, its postulates on the connection between human cognition and non-native linguistic knowledge are, in many cases, opposite; therefore, these models imply different conceptions of a pedagogical grammar. Throughout the paper, it is taken into consideration the way in which they are antagonistic, but also how they can be complementary. Even though GC has been more popular in classroom teaching, current GG may have a relevant impact on the curriculum, as well as on the instruction, by presenting a greater predictive capacity to identify the learner’s difficulties in processing certain linguistic structures. Finally, other key notions on linguistic knowledge, processability, and input, regarding didactic intervention, are also provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives The relationship of the disciplines object of this study, geographic diversification and international market selection (IMS), has been hampered by a high degree of fragmentation of the IMS in the various research streams, and by its greater link in favour of works focused on the entry mode into foreign markets. Although Tihanyi, Griffith and Russell (2005) study the effect of IMS factors on geographic diversification, their work focuses on cultural distance. In turn, in the work of Cos and Escardíbul (2019) is concluded that the diversification of export destinations of the companies is opening the way to use other criteria in the IMS that differ from geographic and cultural proximity. Although the research recognizes that IMS may be associated with the criteria most commonly used in the literature, it does not explicitly focus on its relationship with geographic diversification, suggesting, however, the influence of IMS factors. The objective of this paper, focused on the geographic diversification of an economy, is to determine the impact of the most common factors of traditional internationalization theories to select countries. More specifically, it is intended to answer the following questions: a) Is psychological distance an influencing factor in the growing of geographic diversification of an economy? b) What is the relationship between the external factors of the IMS and a tendency to an economy towards greater geographic diversification? This research focuses on a specific economy chosen for its particularities, the exporting agri-food sector of Lleida. From the perspective of exporting agri-food cooperatives, highlight the interest that the results obtained in this study may arouse. Although non-cooperative companies predominate over cooperatives in the exporting agri-food sector of this province, Lleida stands out as the most exporter of the Catalonia agri-food cooperative sector, concentrating more than half of the total exported and with two out of four exporting cooperatives (Cos, Aldaz, Escardíbul, Millán and Moltó, 2019). In turn, the horticultural is the main exporting sector of the Lleida agri-food cooperatives, as in the case with the total exports of this province. Methodology The study data are obtained from several secondary sources. The first one, from the Customs Department of the Spanish Tax Agency, is used to obtain the 23 countries that make up the sample, the main destinations of the 672 agri-food exporting companies in the province of Lleida. The importance that the agri-food cooperatives of this province acquire in these figures, still represented by 10%, must be analysed in the context of the agri-food cooperative sector in Catalonia, as Lleida is the most internationalized province. The growth of Lleida's agri-food exports, in the analysed period, has been considerably lower in the main destinations of the EU-28 than in the rest of the countries of both advanced and emerging economies, the latter acquiring greater prominence to the detriment of European Community destinations, despite its higher export quota. Regarding the Catalan cooperatives studied, they tend, on the one hand, to a greater diversification in the number of destinations, and, on the other hand, to a greater concentration of the percentage of exports to the EU-28 countries. The dependent variable of this study, geographic diversification, when analysed from the general perspective of an economy and considering the dynamic nature of this strategy, is the 'Growth rate', during a certain period, of exports to each selected market. The independent variables used are psychological distance (cultural, geographic and language), economic intensity, country risk, a country's competitiveness and the market size. To measure these variables in each priority destination country, the information used comes from secondary sources: World Bank, World Development Indicators Database (WDI); OECD; WTO; Global Competitiveness Report (World Economic Forum); Hofstede Centre (2010); Geobytes Database; and Centre for the Practice of International Trade (Melbourne Business School). Like other studies related to the scope of this research, a factor analysis is performed first (e.g., Whitelock and Jobber 2004; Sakarya et al., 2007; Sheng and Mullen 2011), followed by a multiple regression analysis (e.g., Triguero-Cano and Cuerva, 2011; Benito-Osorio et al., 2016) with the scores of the retained factors, avoiding the problem of correlation between the variables and the influence of many items. The three working hypotheses are: • H1. The psychological distance (cultural, geographic and language) positively influences the geographic diversification of an economy. • H2a. Environmental factors (economic development) influence the geographic diversification of an economy. • H2b. Environmental factors (market) influence the geographic diversification of an economy. Results / conclusions / limitations Four factors are obtained from the factor analysis ('Economic development', 'Market size', 'Cultural / Language distance' and 'Geographic distance'), which together explain 88.1% of the variance. The results of the regression analysis allow the validation of H2a and H2b hypotheses. The model shows a significant and negative relationship between economic development and the market size of an exporting country with the tendency of an economy to geographic diversification. In this way, companies tend to diversify their sales towards countries with less political and economic stability (lower GDP per capita, lower competitive intensity and with country risk) and with smaller market size. Regarding H1, with the results obtained, it could not be confirmed, as there was no empirical evidence of a relationship between both variables. As part of the analysed economy, the agri-food cooperatives described in this paper could use these conclusions as a reference and comparison of the companies in the studied economy, considering their specific characteristics. The importance that international activity acquires in agri-food cooperatives for their growth (Bretos, Díaz-Foncea and Marcuello, 2018), makes this work of special interest for this group of companies, especially considering that the internal limitations and Cooperatives' externalities make them less competitive and hinder their international expansion. The influence of the relevant criteria of the IMS with various strategic internationalization decisions, such as geographic diversification, should serve the cooperatives in this study to be able to evaluate the different alternatives that are presented to them. Regarding the main limitations, it is worth highlighting the exclusive use of secondary sources and the dependent variable used. Limitations, however, that do not significantly influence the results and that could open the way to future research. Original value and practical implications With the present work it has been tried to continue advancing in the knowledge of the internationalization of the Spanish company, among which is the cooperative sector, providing new empirical evidence on a little-discussed topic, such as the relationship between IMS and international diversification. Thus, an integrative analysis of the external factors of the IMS that influence the geographic diversification of a specific economy is provided, based on secondary sources that provide us with objective information and immediate accessibility. From the present study, a series of practical implications can be found in the field studied. Diversifying destinations should help companies to become aware of the importance of selecting markets in their internationalization process, applying, for this, a methodology with a systematic approach or not, which allows them to expand their range of target markets. Above all, considering that companies in their territory and sector, whether they are competitors or not, seek new options to direct their international sales, beyond the security of community markets, geographically close and favoured by belonging to a common market. Probably these companies that target markets that are not desirable a priori due to their macroeconomic characteristics, select them for a series of reasons that, although unknown in this study, offer them some competitive advantage that makes them suitable. For the agri-food cooperative sector, the usefulness of these practical implications acquires special relevance, when operating, most of the large global cooperatives of the agri-food sector, at an international level (Bretos et al., 2018), standing out, in turn, the export as entry mode compared to the rest of the modalities. With these premises, the cooperative sector studied still has a journey in its internationalization, since half of the agri-food cooperatives in Lleida still do not export. In addition, with a tendency towards the concentration of their exports to EU countries in terms of volume, they could be based on environmental factors to diversify their foreign target markets, increasing their exports in those markets already served, with ly used by the cooperatives studied to select foreign markets, typical of the non-systematic approach, which implies that to choose export countries from other advanced or emerging economies they should develop systematic models, which would provide cooperatives with a structured method in the IMS, with the benefits that this entails. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Born in New Spain, fray Juan Bautista Viseo (b. 1555) authored perhaps a dozen books in Nahuatl, Castilian, and Latin, making him one of the most prolific writers of the colonial period in Mexico. While many are lost, his available texts provide a valuable window into religious conversion efforts in the Spanish monarchy around 1600. This paper investigates his recommendations regarding how priests and members of religious orders ought to use indigenous languages. In the sixteenth-century Spanish territories, Church and Crown officials discussed language strategies on several fronts. This paper also compares Juan Bautista's ideas about language use in Mexico to similar discussions elsewhere in the Spanish kingdoms. Existing scholarship has highlighted parallels in how the Spanish monarchy dealt with Native American and Islamic communities. However, an examination of Juan Bautista's writing, together with that of contemporary churchmen, suggests fundamental differences in the ways that Spanish officials thought about and approached Amerindians and Moriscos. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The deconstruction of the 'War of Independence' (1808–1814) as a Spanish nationalist myth was a necessary step in advancing our knowledge of the history of the Age of Revolutions in Spain and of Spanish nation-building itself. However, it set aside those who had in fact experienced those events through a genuine Spanish nationalized lens. Using a corpus of autobiographical sources written between the 1780s and the 1830s, this paper argues that political concepts of Spanish nationhood were already available before the liberal revolution unleashed by the French invasion, that anti-liberals used the language of nationhood in their ego-documents too, and that ideas of independence and constitution pervaded social cleavages and ideological divides. Arguably, then, the War of Independence had both mythical and real dimensions in terms of the history of national identities. Therefore, the great issue in nineteenth-century Spanish nation-building would have not been a congenital 'lack' or 'weakness' of nationhood but an intense cultural war for its definition along political lines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, our aim is to present the results of our researchs about the anaphoric accusative object in the Spanish variety of Madrid and in the Brazilian Portuguese variety of São Paulo and to propose a theoretical analysis to these constructions based on minimalist developments (CHOMSKY, 1999, 2000, 2004). Interviews of the Spanish variety of Madrid (CESTERO MANCERA et al. 2014) and Brazilian Portuguese variety of São Paulo (LIMA-HERNANDES; VICENTE, 2012) were analysed. Regarding the theoretical approach, the biological (CHOMSKY, 1981, 1986) and social (LABOV, 2008; WEINREICH; LABOV; HERZOG, 2009) perspectives on language were combined. We observed the effect of the antecedent referenciality, of the determinant indefinite features, of the bare nouns, of the structure and lexical aspect of verbs on possibility of elipsis in the Spanish variety of Madrid. Concerning the Brazilian Portuguese variety of São Paulo, the null objects were almost categorical and the lexical pronoun presented restrictions to less referencial antecedents. These results ressemble the tendencies of our previous research (SIMÕES, 2015) and the Spanish varieties of País Vasco (LANDA, 1993) and Quito (SUÑER; YÉPEZ, 1988). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we highlight the importance of distilling the computational assessments of constructed responses to validate the indicators/proxies of constructs/trins using an empirical illustration in automated summary evaluation. We present the validation of the Inbuilt Rubric (IR) method that maps rubrics into vector spaces for concepts' assessment. Specifically, we improved and validated its scores' performance using latent variables, a common approach in psychometrics. We also validated a new hierarchical vector space, namely a bifactor IR. 205 Spanish undergraduate students produced 615 summaries of three different texts that were evaluated by human raters and different versions of the IR method using latent semantic analysis (LSA). The computational scores were validated using multiple linear regressions and different latent variable models like CFAs or SEMs. Convergent and discriminant validity was found for the IR scores using human rater scores as validity criteria. While this study was conducted in the Spanish language, the proposed scheme is language-independent and applicable to any language. We highlight four main conclusions: (1) Accurate performance can be observed in topic-detection tasks without hundreds/thousands of pre-scored samples required in supervised models. (2) Convergent/discriminant validity can be improved using measurement models for computational scores as they adjust for measurement errors. (3) Nouns embedded in fragments of instructional text can be an affordable alternative to use the IR method. (4) Hierarchical models, like the bifactor IR, can increase the validity of computational assessments evaluating general and specific knowledge in vector space models. R code is provided to apply the classic and bifactor IR method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, Heritage Language Programs have been attracting more and more attention in the European academic and educational policy contexts. In Germany, many efforts are being undertaken to foster the teaching of heritage languages in schools. This paper provides an overview of the teaching of Spanish as a Heritage Language in Germany through the long-established Program 'Spanish Culture and Language Lessons' (Aulas de Lengua y Cultura Españolas) funded by the Spanish Ministry of Education for school-aged Spanish heritage speakers. The principal objectives of the study are to analyze the main fostering and constraining factors to participate in this program and to propose improvement measures. To achieve these purposes, a mixed quantitative and qualitative research methodology has been used. The findings are discussed according to these main topics arising during the research process: reasons for students to participate and learning needs, teaching challenges, family implication, relationship with the regular formal education system, blended learning, linguistic and culture diversity. Moreover, improvement measures for this Spanish Heritage Language program are suggested. The main conclusions may be useful for heritage language teachers and program managers in other heritage language (HL) programs in Germany and more generally in Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this paper was to analyze the teaching practice of a preschool teacher in a private school in San Luis Potosi, Mexico, based on the dimensions of effective and represented work. From the analysis of the instructions and the simple self-confrontation, axes of analysis were identified that allowed an approach to the main challenges that the teacher faced with the online education developed during the pandemic by covid-19. The results of the work placed at the center of the discussion the teacher's challenges and concerns about the ways of teaching online literacy, the relationships with the students' families when working from home, and the interaction with technology in the virtual classroom. Taken together, the findings broaden the picture of teaching practices during social distancing and contribute to the empirical knowledge of this object of study as a result of the impact generated by the pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present investigation is a conversation-analytic study that examines a particular type of informing sequence where the new information is received with a turn displaying ritualized disbelief. In this paper, I analyze a range of ritualized disbelief and news-confirmation turn designs in Mexican Spanish talk: I describe the trajectory that different ritualized disbeliefs have, the composition of the disbelief they display, and how news-producers deal with ritualized disbelief turns. I argue that a speaker's knowledge about the matter at hand relates to the type of disbelief expressed in his or her disbelieving turn; that is, the social actions involved in this type of sequences show a relationship between turn design, epistemics and disbelief. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we put to the test the validity of the theory of isochrony using data from Chilean Spanish. Spanish has been historically classified as syllable-timed, meaning its basic unit of prosody is the syllable. However, recent studies have shown that different methods of elicitation can have a significant effect on rhythm metrics (i.e., Arvaniti 2012). The present study measured a series of rhythm metrics from samples of 30 native Chilean Spanish speakers producing spontaneous speech and reading aloud. Using MANOVA analyses, the study determined that method of elicitation had a significant effect on the metrics: while spontaneous speech tended to produce values indicative of accent-timed rhythm, reading aloud yielded values which placed them closer to the syllable-timed rhythm category. This study helps to contribute to the notion that speech rhythm is not necessarily determined by language, but rather that there are other relevant factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we study the use of the verbs “poder” and “conseguir” among basic level learners of Portuguese as a foreign language. These verbs in context are discussed from a semantic-pragmatic perspective, in the light of modal theories such as those of Kratzer (1977; 1981; 1991; 2008; 2012) and others, as well as the classical notions of “accomplishment” and “achievement”, according to Vendler (1957; 1967), Dowty (1979), Abusch (1985) and Smith (1997). Since the Brazilian-Portuguese (BP) and South American Spanish language pairs differ in several aspects, the objective is to verify weather or not non-facilitative transfer from Spanish to Portuguese occurs, according to Cabrelli et al. (2020). By analyzing the occurrences of these verbs in oral speech during classroom moments, the study suggests the possibility of adopting practices to raise awareness of these differences between BP and Spanish so that learners can use these forms appropriately according to their context of use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is on pedagogical translanguaging, understood as planned instructional strategies used with a pedagogical purpose in a multilingual educational context. The paper reports a study on cognate identification and cognate awareness carried out in a multilingual primary school. The study aims at analyzing whether the identification of cognates in three languages is related to linguistic factors and to teaching. The relationship between teaching cognates and metalinguistic awareness is also explored. Half of the participants took part in an intervention based on pedagogical translanguaging using multilingual resources from the students' own repertoire while the other half followed regular classes. Participants completed a background questionnaire and a cognate recognition task. Information was also gathered by means of a think-aloud protocol and an interview. The results indicate that the identification of cognates is connected to the linguistic characteristics of cognates but not to having Basque or Spanish as a first language. Participants who had taken part in the intervention showed a higher development of cognate awareness but there were no significant differences between the groups in cognate identification. The results are exploratory but they indicate that using the languages in the students' whole linguistic repertoire can create more opportunities for language learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The encoding of path shows systematic inter-typological variation, with speakers of satellite-framed languages (S-language; e. g. German, Polish) typically conveying path outside the main verb (in particles, prefixes, etc.) and speakers of verb-framed languages (V-language; e. g. Spanish) typically conveying path in the main verb. However, less is known about intra-typological variation in the expression of path, especially for bilingual patterns of path encoding. In this paper, we examine path descriptions produced by two groups of bilinguals and compare the descriptions made by these bilinguals with those made by native speakers of the corresponding L1 and L2 languages. The first group consisted of native Polish speakers who were L2 German speakers (intra-typological L1-L2 transition), while the second group comprised native Polish speakers who were L2 Spanish speakers (inter-typological L1-L2 transition). Our results provide evidence for greater alignment to L2 among bilinguals learning an L2 from a different typological group (i. e. Polish L1-Spanish L2 bilinguals), and closer alignment to L1 among bilinguals learning an L2 from the same typological group (i. e. Polish L1-German L2 bilinguals). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores cut-offs in the oral narrations of Spanish native speakers in their mother tongue (L1), and in their language-under-study, English (L2). Fluency in the L2 varies with proficiency, and so cut-offs offer a possible means of evaluating this. However, there are certain aspects of fluency which might be common to the L1 and the L2, suggesting that the L1 and L2 share cognitive factors that lead to similar disfluency patterns. To determine if cut-offs are reliable markers of L2 fluency, independent of those occurring in the L1, we assessed the cut-off patterns in the L1 and L2 narrations of this group of speakers, following a multimodal approach. We observed similarities in both languages, potentially indicating that speakers use comparable cut-off-gesture patterns in the L1 and L2. We conclude that using speakers' cut-offs in an L2 to gauge proficiency is meaningful only if the L1 cut-off behaviour is known. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on a writing programme I started at Bronx Community College to improve academic success among recently immigrated Spanish-speaking students by linking ESL courses to Spanish academic literacy courses within the framework of a learning community. My reflection begins by articulating the pedagogical rationale for looking beyond 'English-only' approaches to the teaching of college writing in the context of the U.S. language demographics. I discuss how the linked course model facilitated the circumvention of 'normative English monolingual ideologies' and the implementation of a translingual approach to college writing in an institution where English is the only language of instruction. Drawing on a longitudinal study that includes a comparative analysis of academic success metrics and in-depth interviews, I show how the translingual pedagogical strategies that emerged from the linked courses facilitated English academic literacy acquisition and the ability to succeed through this language. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After an initial period characterized by experimentation, amateurism, small audiences, technological difficulties, and scarce funding, podcasting is now fully consolidated. The aim of this paper is to analyze the characteristics of the Spanish podcast sphere: its structural, personal, thematic, formal, economic, and dissemination aspects. To this end, a content analysis of 21 variables was applied to the 206 programs that attained the highest popularity in the general rankings of Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and iVoox during the first quarter of 2021. Along the structural dimension, the results reveal the preponderance of digital-native podcasts in comparison with previously broadcast podcasts, and of podcasts promoted by radio stations or those associated with networks over independent ones. Regarding the personnel involved, programs produced by professionals from the media or other cultural industries are more popular than those produced by amateurs, while those presented by men are more popular than those presented by women. Regarding their themes, content related to mystery and/or crime, history, entertainment, and emotional well-being predominates. In the formal sphere, the majority of programs are exclusively audio programs, produced weekly and in Spanish, with a limited presence of the other co-official languages in Spain. In terms of funding, the most common situation is production by media groups or podcast networks, followed by monetization on YouTube and offering additional services. Based on all this, the main conclusion of this study is that podcasting in Spain has abandoned the democratizing potential attributed to it by some theorists and researchers in its beginnings to become embedded in a largely commercial logic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that constructions with subject-experiencer psychological verbs are adjectival passives, contra the received view that constructions are verbal passives across the board. We put forth a battery of morphological, syntactic and semantic tests to support our claim. The divide, we argue, is based on the individual-level/stage-level distinction, rather than on the lexical category of the participle. We provide a theoretical, aspect-based account that generates the distribution of ser and estar in verbal and adjectival participles and paves the way for a comprehensive analysis of the ser and estar distribution across other constructions where the alternation is attested, such as underived adjectives and prepositions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the growing migratory movement of Venezuelans to Brazil, the state of Roraima occupies a prominent place in the dynamics of reception of crisis migrants of Venezuelan origin. In this context, this paper aims to reflect on the representation of the Venezuelan as an "invader" in the midst of xenophobic manifestations of part of the population of Roraima and the Spanish language represented as "the language of the invader". The theoretical framework is based on applied linguistics with debates on language and crisis migration. The methodology used was qualitative and interpretativist, with clippings of oral narratives of crisis migrants living in Roraima generated in a focus group activity. The results point out that the representation of the "invading" migrant is present in Roraima's society by both Brazilians and foreigners, and the use of the Spanish language may influence the way these people are treated in the state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a public dataset for Offline Handwriting Recognition, along with an appropriate evaluation method to provide benchmark indicators at sentence level, is presented. This dataset, called SPA-Sentences, consists of offline handwritten Spanish sentences extracted from 1617 forms produced by the same number of writers. A total of 13,691 sentences comprising around 100,000 word instances out of a vocabulary of 3288 words occur in the collection. Careful attention has been paid to make the baseline experiments both reproducible and competitive. To this end, experiments are based on state-of-the-art recognition techniques combining convolutional blocks with one-dimensional Bidirectional Long Short Term Memory (LSTM) networks using Connectionist Temporal Classification (CTC) decoding. The scripts with the entire experimental setting have been made available. The SPA-Sentences dataset and its baseline evaluation are freely available for research purposes via the institutional University repository. We expect the research community to include this corpus, as is usually done with English IAM and French RIMES datasets, in their battery of experiments when reporting novel handwriting recognition techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Chinese should be categorized as a discourse-configurational language, namely a Category III language under Miyagawa's typology. • Several compelling empirical facts are presented to demonstrate that the δ-feature lowers to T in Chinese. • Chinese wh -adverbial zenme 'how come' is not base-generated in the CP periphery, but rather inserted in the TP. Assuming the Strong Uniformity Principle, Miyagawa recently proposed a typology of languages based on distinct patterns of Feature Inheritance at Phase C. In this typology, Chinese is identified as a Category II language (with the δ-feature on C and the φ-feature on T). That is, Chinese is regarded as a non-discourse-configurational language similar to English. This paper aims to review Miyagawa's discussion of Chinese and argue for its reclassification as a Category III language, that is, a discourse-configurational language like Spanish. I contend that Miyagawa's discussion of Chinese only pertains to Aboutness-shift topic, a type of topic base-generated in the CP domain across languages; as a result, his conclusions are unsustainable. On the other hand, I show that phenomena like Object Preposing, forced A-focalization, and the distribution of Familiar and Contrastive topics in non-assertive embedded clauses provide compelling evidence that the δ-feature has lowered to T in Chinese. Finally, I address a potential counterargument presented by the Chinese wh -adverbial zenme 'how come'. I argue that zenme is not base-generated in the CP periphery, but rather inserted in the TP layer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Author profiling consists of extracting their demographic and psychographic information by examining their writings. This information can then be used to improve the reader experience and to detect bots or propagators of hoaxes and/or hate speech. Therefore, author profiling can be applied to build more robust and efficient Knowledge-Based Systems for tasks such as content moderation, user profiling, and information retrieval. Author profiling is typically performed automatically as a document classification task. Recently, language models based on transformers have also proven to be quite effective in this task. However, the size and heterogeneity of novel language models, makes it necessary to evaluate them in context. The contributions we make in this paper are four-fold: First, we evaluate which language models are best suited to perform author profiling in Spanish. These experiments include basic, distilled, and multilingual models. Second, we evaluate how feature integration can improve performance for this task. We evaluate two distinct strategies: knowledge integration and ensemble learning. Third, we evaluate the ability of linguistic features to improve the interpretability of the results. Fourth, we evaluate the performance of each language model in terms of memory, training, and inference times. Our results indicate that the use of lightweight models can indeed achieve similar performance to heavy models and that multilingual models are actually less effective than models trained with one language. Finally, we confirm that the best models and strategies for integrating features ultimately depend on the context of the task. • Study of large language models for conducting Author Profiling in Spanish. • Feature integration improves the performance of large language models. • Interpretability of profiles using linguistic features. • Hyperlinks and hashtag are strong features when discerning between bots and humans. • Stylometry is the linguistic category most relevant in Author Profiling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This research focuses on the structural construction of scientific titles in English and Spanish in research papers (RP) and review papers (RVP) in the biological and social sciences. The questions raised were (i) whether structural construction is a key distinctive feature between RP and RVP titles; (ii) whether the inherent peculiarities of scientific disciplines imprint differences on the structural constructions of RP and RVP titles; and (iii) whether language-specific differences can be identified. To this end, a total of 1140 titles were analyzed, words per title were counted to measure their length and all structural constructions detected were registered. The major findings are: (a) the prevalence of nominal-group titles as a linguistic strategy of scientific discourse rather than as a disciplinary, generic or language characteristic; (b) the frequency of full-sentence construction in RP titles of the biological sciences; (c) the predominance of RP compound titles in the social sciences, and more flexibility of Spanish in the use of punctuation marks for the division of this title type; and (d) statistically significant differences in the length of RP titles in terms of discipline and language. Lines of evidence from this research contribute to underlining suggestions on how to guide novice scientists to write titles appropriately. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Being Spanish one of the most frequent languages of study, this paper aims to analyze, through a SWOT study, the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of Spanish for tourism textbooks so as to determine their present and future. In doing so, the authors of this manuscript have carried out a qualitative and quantitative study. After an online discussion with four experienced language teachers, we have elaborated an observation checklist that contributes to the field of study and could serve as a tool to analyse language textbooks. We have applied this observation checklist to analyse ten Spanish for tourism textbooks. Results show that textbooks in this field have been adapted to the new realities of language teaching but still fail to include important elements for the correct development of all the skills. [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 article brings up to discussion the idea of translation as a cognitive work which creates transitivity relations among linguistic codes. This phenomenon will be analyzed from a double perspective: the act of translating and the transmission by Lucretius of Epicureanism in Latin. So several aspects of theory of translation will be presented which have been used by the authors of this paper in their new Spanish translation of De rerum natura (2020). Moreover, it will be demonstrated how Lucretius developed meaningful semiotic chains in the Epicurean tradition and a linguistic theory in which words build a structure according to Nature's order. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper analyzes the uses of the Spanish indefinite pronoun uno, in a diaphasic oral corpus, which is organized by communicative situations ranging from formal monologues to colloquial conversations with family and friends. The description incorporates a basic distinction between the communicative and the thematic role of the sentences where the indefinite pronoun appears, as well as the pragmatic parameters of referential accessibility, interlocutivity and genericity, which allow observing the alternations with other pronouns in the communicative space of the discursive universe in the context of the conversation. The main results show a depersonalizationpersonalization operation linked to the interlocutory relationship that, in addition to the generic character traditionally assigned to the pronoun uno, allows describing an expressive and an appellative use, in a continuum of specificity-genericity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During academic exchanges, students are in contact with the linguistic landscape (LL). In this paper, we aimed to characterize the linguistic attitudes of Spanish as SL or FL students towards the linguistic taboo (LT). For that, we collected samples of tabooed signs detected inside the restrooms of a university. The data was used in surveys of students who were in face-to-face or online language immersion. With the samples collected, we describe the tabooed LL with which those who carried out the face-to-face exchange were in contact. The results of the surveys made it possible to investigate the students' knowledge of tabooed expressions in Spanish and, in addition, to characterize their linguistic attitudes towards LT. We conclude that the students, although they show a predisposed linguistic attitude to deal with LT, lack the communicative competence that would allow them to be competent users in relation to taboo expressions. Thus, this type of experience justifies the need to include the LT as part of the contents of the Spanish as a SL or FL class. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to model plural nominal concordance errors for a Spanish corpus of four learners of Spanish as a foreign language: SONIA (level A1/A2), NATI (level B1), JAKO (level B2), MIRKA (level C1). In the framework of dynamical systems, it is postulated that "correct" and "incorrect" concordances constitute stable discrete attractors to which the continuous flow of the system converges in three simple simulation models: Lokta-Volterra, coordination game (evolutionary games theory), gradient ascent. As a result, the models better approximate the global error pattern than the session pattern. In the latter, the model based on Lokta-Volterra offers better performance for SONIA, NATI and JAKO. MIRKA obtains the worst performance in all the models, but its error decreases with the gradient ascent model. It is concluded that learning patterns are self-organized and emerge from the dynamics of concordance microsystems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The term webtoon comes from the composition of web and cartoon and it starts to be used in 2000. Based in some way on the popularity of paper comics in South Korea, Daum website launched a webtoon service in 2003 for the first time. This work analyses the peculiarities of the Korean webtoon, specifically its verticality, adapted especially to mobile phones, and its transmediality, which facilitates the adaptation of these comics to other formats such as movies, TV series, novels, games, animation, etcétera. A list of the numerous webtoon adaptations to various media is collected, as well as the more detailed explanation of one of the paradigmatic webtoon in Korea: Misaeng. Webtoon's brief history in the domestic market and its vigorous expansion to the global market since 2013 (encircled within the popular Korean wave Hallyu) are explained. The strategies of the major webtoon companies (Naver, Daum, Kakao, and Lezhin) are briefly shown. The near constant growth in all parameters studied shows the vitality of the webtoon industry already in the global market, also with numerous works available in Spanish language. By approaching webtoon's authors and readers we aim to get a little closer to the phenomenon of webtoon and its success, especially among young people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From the very beginning, machine translation (MT) represents a significant advance in our society despite of the difficulties encountered in its way. Nowadays, different MT systems are used in private and public sectors in response to the increasing translation demand. This paper presents the quantitative and qualitative results obtained from the evaluation of two different MT systems—rule-based and neural-based MT systems—within the field of legal and administrative translation in public service interpreting and translation (PSIT). For this purpose, COSTA MT Evaluation Tool will be used. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present article aims at investigating the pro-drop phenomenon in L2 Spanish. The phenomenon of pro-drop or null subject is a typological feature of some languages, which are characterized by an implicit subject in cases of topic continuity. More specifically, behaviour regarding subject (dis)continuity in Spanish differs from French. This paper will offer a contrastive analysis on subject realisation by French learners of L2 Spanish compared to L1 Spanish speakers. So, the goal of this pilot study is to see if a different functioning in pro-drop in the mother tongue also influences the L2. The study is based upon a written description task presented to the two groups of participants: the experimental group of French mother tongue L2 Spanish language learners and the control group of Spanish native speakers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: When trying to modify urinary stents, certain pre-clinical steps have to be followed before clinical evaluation in humans. Usually, the process starts as an in silico assessment. The urinary tract is a highly complex, dynamic and variable environment, which makes a computer simulation closely reflecting physiological conditions extremely challenging. Therefore, the pre-clinical evaluation needs to go through further steps of in vitro, ex vivo and in vivo assessments. Methods and materials: Within the European Network of Multidisciplinary Research to Improve Urinary Stents (ENIUS), the authors summarized and evaluated stent assessment models in silico, in vitro, ex vivo and in vivo. The topic and relevant sub-topics were researched in a systematic literature search in Embase, Scope, Web of Science and PubMed. Clinicaltrials.gov was consulted for ongoing trials. Articles were selected systematically according to guidelines with non-relevant, non-complete, and non-English or Spanish language articles excluded. Results: In the first part of this paper, we critically evaluate in vitro stent assessment models used over the last five decades, outlining briefly their strengths and weaknesses. In the second part, we provide a step-by-step guide on what to consider when setting up an ex vivo model for stent evaluation on the example of a biodegradable stent. Lastly, the third part lists and discusses the pros and cons of available animal models for urinary stent evaluation, this being the final step before human trials. Conclusions: We hope that this overview can provide a practical guide and a critical discussion of the experimental pre-clinical evaluation steps needed, which will help interested readers in choosing the right methodology from the start of a stent evaluation process once an in silico assessment has been completed. Only a transparent multidisciplinary approach using the correct methodology will lead to a successful clinical implementation of any new or modified stent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]