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- Volume 15, Issue, 2018
Spanish in Context - Volume 15, Issue 1, 2018
Volume 15, Issue 1, 2018
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Variation in hesitation
Author(s): Lamar A. Grahampp.: 1–26 (26)More LessThis study explored the influence of social and syntactic-pragmatic factors on a speaker’s choice between hesitation markers este and eh in oral discourse. Data collected from San Juan (PR), Mexico City, Montevideo, and Medellín were analyzed as a large corpus and on an individual country basis. Este was found to be the most prevalent hesitation marker overall and within three of the four countries studied. On an overall level, the factors of city, education level, gender, and position of the marker within the turn were found to be statistically significant to hesitation marker choice, while age was not. On a per-city basis, education was significant everywhere, age and gender were significant everywhere except Medellín, and turn position was significant everywhere except San Juan. The lack of uniformity in the results suggests that speakers’ choice between este and eh is affected differently by these factors in each area.
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Ultimate attainment in Spanish spirantization
Author(s): Timothy L. Facepp.: 27–53 (27)More LessThis study examines the acquisition of the Spanish spirantization of /b/, /d/ and /g/ by a group of very advanced L2 learners who immigrated to Spain from the United States and have lived in central Spain for many years. While spirantization has received considerable attention in previous L2 research on Spanish, the participants in previous studies have typically been newer learners of Spanish, typically studying at the university level. By examining the production of immigrants to Spain, the present study provides insight into ultimate attainment, and whether this results in a native-like pronunciation in the case of spirantization. Productions are examined both categorically to determine the manner of articulation employed (i.e., approximant, fricative, stop) and also gradiently, using intensity measurements to determine the degree of spirantization when approximants are produced. The comparisons for manner of articulation show significant differences between native Spanish speakers and L2 learners, although when approximants are produced the intensity measurements often do not differ significantly between the two groups. The degree to which individual learners approach native-like pronunciation, both in terms of manner of articulation and intensity measurements of produced approximants, varies considerably.
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Interviews as sites of ideological work
Author(s): Rosina Márquez Reiterpp.: 54–76 (23)More LessThis paper maintains that the interview, understood as an interactionally achieved social practice, can be a locus for ideological work. It shows how a differentiated understanding of stance, alignment and the discourse identities that the participants assume and leave in interaction, can bring into focus aspects of ideology that would be difficult to capture otherwise. Specifically, the paper shows how mis- and realigning actions with respect to the stances conveyed by the interview participants relative to a given subject or from a given discourse identity can lead to the construction of ideology, encouraging (or not) movement along a given interview trajectory. The ideological work observed is contingent on how the participants locate themselves and others in the interview where tensions between legitimised linguistic views and discourse identity adoption, as well as contradictions with regard to other circulating discourses emerge. The paper thus suggests that (language ideological) analyses of interview data can and should be focused on the social dynamics of the participants and how their ideological presuppositions play out in the situated interaction of the interview.
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An investigation of unaccusativity and word order in Mexican Spanish
Author(s): Aaron B. Roggiapp.: 77–102 (26)More LessStudies of unaccusativity and word order in Spanish have yielded conflicting results. This study further investigates unaccusativity by testing the ability of the ‘Auxiliary Selection Hierarchy’ ( Sorace 2000 ) to account for word orders with intransitive predicates in Mexican Spanish. The results of an oral production task show significant word order differences between verb categories and locate an unergative/unaccusative cutoff point midway along the hierarchy, situating unaccusativity in Spanish as being similar to Italian but trending in the direction of Dutch or French. Other variables affecting the word order are identified and ranked, including subject heaviness, definiteness, and the location of adverbial phrases. Greater inter-speaker variation at the syntax-discourse interface when compared with the syntax-lexicon interface shows that the Interface Hypothesis has application to native speakers of Spanish. The results of this study are important for current research on unaccusativity and syntactic interfaces.
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Análisis cognitivo-discursivo y situacional de las formas de tratamiento en función de sujeto y de objeto en español
Author(s): María José Serranopp.: 103–126 (24)More LessLas formas de sujeto y de objeto de segunda persona singular tú/usted y te/a ti; le, lo, la /a usted son recursos que posee la lengua española para indexar a los participantes en las distintas situaciones discursivas. Pocos estudios han profundizado en los valores cognitivos que subyacen a esta elección y, de forma general, se prefiere seguir aludiendo al eje de solidaridad-poder para su explicación. Para ello se suele recurrir a un conjunto de factores meramente descriptivos (edad, distancia social, respeto, etc.). Este trabajo pretende contribuir al desarrollo del conocimiento de estos pronombres desde una perspectiva discursivo-cognitiva y situacional, que, además presenta como novedad la distinción entre las funciones de sujeto pronominal y objeto de persona. Para ello se realizará un análisis cognitivo-discursivo basado en la prominencia de los referentes de estas formas en distintos géneros y situaciones comunicativas y entre hablantes de distintas afiliaciones socioprofesionales. Se utilizarán textos del Corpus Conversacional del Español de Canarias (CCEC).
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Y luego se pintan patrás…
Author(s): Len Beképp.: 127–150 (24)More LessThe expanded use of patrás is among the most salient features of US Spanish and commonly attributed to English influence. For Lipski (1986) , it constitutes a syntactic calque from English constructions with back; Otheguy (1999) maintains it shows cultural but not linguistic influence; Villa ( 2005 , 2010 ) ascribes patrás to grammaticalization processes internal to Spanish. Previous studies lack a detailed account of the semantics of the spatial adverbial in its historical and contemporary usage. Applying Talmy’s (1983) typology of motion events to corpus data, this paper traces a grammaticalization path for patrás from its historical use to its contemporary use in Nuevomexicano Spanish. Patrás has shifted from primarily atelic backwards motion meanings to primarily telic return meanings. This shift is evident across Germanic languages for adverbs deriving from the noun back and in the Romance prefix re- from Latin adverb retro. This study proposes contact with English led to an increased frequency of satellite-framed constructions in Nuevomexicano Spanish, creating the frequency conditions for innovations in the form and meaning of para atrás to conventionalize and lead to systematic linguistic change.
Volumes & issues
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Volume 21 (2024)
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Volume 20 (2023)
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Volume 19 (2022)
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Volume 18 (2021)
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Volume 17 (2020)
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Volume 16 (2019)
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Volume 15 (2018)
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Volume 14 (2017)
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Volume 13 (2016)
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Volume 12 (2015)
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Volume 11 (2014)
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Volume 10 (2013)
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Volume 9 (2012)
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Volume 8 (2011)
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Volume 7 (2010)
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Volume 6 (2009)
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Volume 5 (2008)
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Volume 4 (2007)
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Volume 3 (2006)
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Volume 2 (2005)
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Volume 1 (2004)
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