This article analyses the main and secondary characters of stories written by 9-to 15-year-old informants with level 1 autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The approach to this task is based on three explanatory principles of this condition (i.e. central cognitive coherence, executive function and theory of mind). In particular, we focus on expressions of internal states of the main and the secondary characters, and on the role that the latter play in the plot. For this purpose, we analyse 36 humorous narratives written by neurodivergent minors (experimental group) and 22 stories created by neurotypical children (control group).
This article aims to outline the structural positions of gestures in conversation. From a theoretical standpoint, the study is based on an interactional approach to multimodality (Kendon, McNeill, Bavelas, among others), combined with the conversational pragmatic units proposed by Val.Es.Co. (subact, act, intervention, exchange, dialogue, discourse). Methodologically, the study focuses on gestures made with the head, face, shoulders and hands. The examples analysed are obtained from the GestINF corpus (Rodriguez Rosique and Cifuentes Honrubia, online). Five different gesture positions are distinguished (initial, medial, final, independent and simultaneous) relative to conversational units with specific textual, modal, interpersonal, performative and referential functions. By considering the position of gestures within a hierarchy of pragmatic units, this framework offers new insights into the interplay between gestures and verbal language. Furthermore, this approach opens up new perspectives on the relationships among position, form and function of gestures.
This article examines nomina agentis in the field of medicine, based on the analysis of a corpus of online curricula vitae of women doctors in Spain and Italy (Topdoctors). The choice of this type of text is based on its relevance in defining female professional identity in society. The frequency and distribution of masculine and feminine forms, as well as the grammatical agreement patterns, confirm a greater acceptance of feminine terms in Spanish compared to Italian, even in the case of a form such as medica, which initially seemed to offer resistance. In contrast, in Italian we find an alternation of masculine and feminine forms. This alternation, which is often ambiguous and ungrammatical, reflects a strong resistance to the use of feminine lexicon and ultimately reinforces the social prestige of the masculine and its public assessment in the field of professional marketing.
This paper analyses verbs that are apparently coordinated, such as Camino y camino, which in Spanish grammar have been considered as instances of lexical reduplication (Escandell Vidal, 1991; Roca & Surier, 2000; but cf. Feliti, 2011). We argue that they could rather be considered as instances of pseudo-coordination (cf. De Vos, 2005 for English) and we also call into question some of the claims found in the relevant literature. In particular, this article rejects the claim that pseudo-coordinative structures always have a durative aspectual reading with atelic verbs and an iterative reading with telic verbs. Hence, contrary to what Escandell Vidal (1991) and Roca & Surier (2000) suggest, this study also rejects the claim that pseudo-coordinative structures are systematically equivalent to the quantifier mucho. With this discussion we expect to make a valuable contribution to the descriptive and theoretical grammar of Spanish.
The aim of this paper is to show the relationships between lexical semantics and culture by means of an etymological and historical analysis of four terms for nautical knots (the hyponyms ballestrinque and cote) and moorings (the homonym amante and the polysemous cornamusa). The study underlines the connection between etymology and the history of words. The starting point for the latter is the first attested occurrence of the word in text corpora and in Spanish dictionaries. Moreover, this study provides an explanation of the links among etyma, derivatives, semantic variations and attested usage of each term in maritime slang. The methodology used for this task is a sociocognitive one informed by anthropology and ethnolinguistics. Following this approach, "cognitive models are only cultural models if they have a chronological continuity and a historical permanence, an awareness of the history of ideas is methodologically indispensable for Cognitive Semantics" (Geeraerts, 2006: 251).
In the 19th century, grammarians found an alternative means to communicate their linguistic reflections, c ifferent from the traditional approach of grammar manuals (textbook approach), and which involved publishing short articles in journals related to teaching (media approach). This paper argues that there was a third approach to grammatical dissemination, halfway between the other two, which can be called the compilation approach and which surfaces in works whose titles include the terms entertainments, curiosities, minutiae or grammatical issues. Using a corpus composed of six treatises published between the last third of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century in Spain and in several American countries (Argentina, Colombia, Puerto Rico and Venezuela), this article analyses the characteristics of what we consider a specific discourse genre. For this purpose, we examine first the professional and personal circumstances in which the authors produced the texts, along with their self-concept, their motivations for writing the treatises and their potential readers. Then, we address the characteristics of the works themselves (structure, content and academic style).
The automatic tagger ESMAS-ES+ aims to annotate semantically and ontologically texts in Spanish, French, German and Galician. Besides examining the feasibility of a new method of analysis, the development of the tagger involves investigating new approaches to intelligent information and knowledge processing, and also to a deep comprehension of meaning. This paper outlines the methodological principles of the tagger's design and provides an overview of the techniques and strategies applicable for generating sustainable linguistic, multilingual and technological knowledge. These insights will support in turn the development of tools that are adaptable to various languages. The development of ESMAS-ES+ can have a positive impact on several areas of natural language processing, particularly those related to meaning comprehension and disambiguation. Consequently, it can enhance machine-driven readability and understanding of linguistic data.
This article analyses how the linguistic strategies used to express disagreement in everyday conversations in couples may contribute to conflict escalation. Using the ESPRINT-Conversation corpus, different linguistic resources are identified and classified according to their potential to generate unpleasant emotions, which leads to a conflict intensity continuum. The study shows two main patterns: the first type consists of versations with predominant low-conflict strategies, characterised by an indirect expression of disagreement or data-based argumentative patterns; the second type includes conversations in which disagreement is based on reproaches or is accompanied by impolite expressions, which increases its conflict potential. Moreover, a correlation is observed between the density of digressive speech acts and conflict intensity. Overall, results suggest that conflict escalation in couples depends not only on the disagreement itself, but also on its form of expression, argumentation and reiteration.
This paper examines the process by which secondary interjections are formed. The outcome of such process (grammaticalization by fixation) is used as the basis for analysing various types of interjective phrases (e.g., caramba con el nino, hostia el Messi, venga ya, Dios bendito, que demonios) and drawing morpho-syntactic boundaries between these units and two other types of expressions, namely phrases integrated into the structure of a sentence (e.g., ojala, asi, vaya) and formulae such as buenos dias, hasta luego, hola, por favor, gracias, enhorabuena, felicidades. In these two types of expressions, the lexical and grammatical properties that characterise them in their respective paradigms have not been neutralised.
The aim of this study is to identify and analyse the connections between terminology and other linguistic and non-linguistic disciplines. In particular, I will examine how the development of terminological and terminographic studies is facilitated by the interaction of terminology with various fields and by the adoption of methodologies from digital linguistics and from corpus linguistics. The linguistic disciplines addressed here can be classified into two main groups: internal disciplines (lexical semantics/lexicology, neology) and external ones (translation, language policy and language planning). As for non-linguistic disciplines, documentation and computer science stand out as playing a role in the management, retrieval and analysis of terminological data. By means of this interplay with other disciplines, terminology becomes a more robust discipline and helps to enrich those fields with which it interacts. This reinforces the central role of terminology in organising, structuring and disseminating specialised knowledge.
Rodolfo Lenz, a distinguished German philologist settled in Chile, was the author of well-known works dealing with the questions of what we understand by grammar, how and for what purpose it should be studied. These topics are addressed against the background of a widespread debate that unfolded during the second half of the 19th century and the early 20th century in Europe and in America. Moreover , as a result of political circumstances arising from the independence of the Latin American countries, the national language and its grammar became the focus of linguistic-ideological debates. The aim of this study is to shed light into these debates. For this purpose, I will examine some of the works published in the said period.
This study investigates the linguistic performance of a bilingual patient with damage to the caudate nucleus. The literature suggests that lesions in this region affect three primary linguistic functions: control of language in use, lexical access and prosody. To determine which of these deficits were present in the patient, various tasks were conducted: naming, semi-structured conversation and recorded reading. The findings show that the patient was able to activate both languages in directed conditions, and prosodic performance remained normal However, difficulties were observed in semi-structured conversation, in which code-switching occurred involuntarily. This suggests that the lesion affects control of language in non-structured tasks. This study contributes to the understanding of the role of the caudate nucleus in bilingual linguistic behaviour and its impact on the regulation of language use.
Tense is the basic notion to understand the Spanish verb system. However, certain uses characteristic of Ecuadorian Spanish have given rise to new theories based on evidentiality to explain the particular value attributed to the present perfect in this language variety. Using a psycholinguistic approach, this study aims to collect data through a survey with a special focus on the production and perception of the present perfect in the Ecuadorian variety. These findings will be compared to data from peninsular Spanish, in which past tenses are not linked to evidential values. The results show statistically significant differences between both varieties. Nevertheless, except for mirative contexts, these are usually minor differences, which calls into question the need to resort to evidential theories to explain the use of the present perfect in Ecuador.
This article undertakes a review of historical studies on the Spanish lexicon and its varieties, with special focus on Andalusian vocabulary. The aim is to discuss the validity of the documentation used as empirical source and of the methodological approaches adopted. In particular, we will highlight the relevance of archival documentation for linguistic historical cartography. This is illustrated with examples of notarial records from western Andalusia.
This article describes the distribution and frequency of use of pronominal forms of address usted, to and sumerced (along with its variant sumerce) in the Spanish spoken in the Colombian Orinoco region (Arauca, Casanare, Meta and Vichada). Based on a corpus of interviews and an online survey, the occurrences of these tokens were identified and mapped in order to describe their usage patterns. The results show a widespread preference for usted, while the use of to is strongly influenced by factors such as biological sex and educational background, and the use of sumerced is strongly associated with geographical factors, particularly with proximity to the central region of the country. Drawing on these findings and considering the population composition of the geographical areas under study, the hypothesis of an ongoing process of koineization in the Orinoco region is formulated. This work provides an initial approach to the study of Spanish morphosyntax in this region, and it contributes to broadening our knowledge of language usage in Colombia.
Este artículo tiene como objetivo presentar las posiciones estructurales que los gestos pueden ocupar en la conversación. Teóricamente, se apoya en un enfoque interaccional de la multimodalidad (Kendon, McNeill, Bavelas, entre otros), integrando además las unidades pragmáticas conversacionales de Val.Es.Co. (subacto, acto, intervención, intercambio, diálogo, discurso). Metodológicamente, la propuesta se especializa en gestos que se realizan con la cabeza, la cara, los hombros o las manos. Los ejemplos se extraen del corpus GestINF (Rodríguez Rosique y Cifuentes Honrubia, en línea). Se proponen cinco posiciones (inicial, medial, final, independiente y simultánea) en relación con las unidades conversacionales, asociadas a funciones textuales, modales, interpersonales, performativas y referenciales. Esta posición del gesto en una jerarquía de unidades pragmáticas ofrece un marco distinto para observar la interacción entre gestos y lenguaje verbal. Además, se abren nuevas vías para estudiar la relación entre la posición, la forma y la función de los gestos.
Estudiamos en este trabajo las características del proceso de creación de una interjección impropia. Sus resultados (gramaticalización por inmovilización) se aplican al análisis de distintos tipos de frases interjectivas (caramba con el niño, hostia el Messi, venga ya, Dios bendito, qué demonios) y nos permiten fijar las fronteras morfosintácticas con sintagmas o grupos nominales integrados en la estructura de una oración (ojalá, así, vaya) y con algunas de las llamadas interjecciones formularias (buenos días, hasta luego, hola, por favor, gracias, enhorabuena, felicidades), ninguna de los cuales ha neutralizado las propiedades léxicas y gramaticales que las caracterizan en sus respectivos paradigmas.
En este artículo se propone una revisión de los estudios históricos del léxico del español y de sus variedades y, específicamente, del vocabulario andaluz. Se pretende reflexionar sobre la validez de la documentación manejada y la de los enfoques metodológicos. En concreto, se destaca la importancia de la documentación de archivo para los estudios de cartografía lingüística histórica y se ejemplifica con algunos registros léxicos notariales de documentos del occidente andaluz.
Este artículo analiza cómo las estrategias lingüísticas empleadas para expresar el desacuerdo en conversaciones cotidianas entre parejas pueden contribuir, o no, a la escalada del conflicto. A partir del corpus ESPRINT-Conversación, se identifican y clasifican distintos recursos lingüísticos según su potencial para generar emociones desagradables, lo que permite establecer un continuo de intensidad conflictiva. El análisis revela dos patrones principales: por una parte, conversaciones en las que predominan estrategias de bajo potencial conflictivo, caracterizadas por la expresión indirecta del desacuerdo o su argumentación basada en datos; y, por otra, aquellas en las que el desacuerdo se fundamenta en reproches o se acompaña de expresiones descorteses, aumentando así su potencial conflictivo. Asimismo, se observa una correlación entre la densidad de actos de habla discrepantes y la intensidad del conflicto. En conjunto, los resultados sugieren que la escalada del conflicto entre íntimos depende no solo del contenido del desacuerdo, sino también de su forma de expresión, argumentación y reiteración.
