The main aim of this research is to study the variation presented by the element occupying the lexical slot of the phraseological construction no importar un pito/bledo/pimiento/pepino from a diatopic perspective. For this purpose, we relied on data from the regional linguistic geography of European Spanish and analyzed it from different points of view to complement the information offered by other studies whose data come from lexicographic and corpus sources. The results obtained, beyond evidencing on the lexical variation of the construction related to the territory, offer interesting insights into the methodological problems of geolinguistics in the phraseological field. Furthermore, the data from the atlases reflect notable differences compared to those provided by other documentary sources analyzed by other researchers, demonstrating the need to continue advancing in the comprehensive study of the information compiled by atlases to reconstruct a part of the history of the Spanish language that cannot be obtained from other documents.
Adhering to the principles of variationist sociolinguistics, the present study aims to examine variable usage patterns of the affricate palatal phoneme /(t integral) over cap/ in Chilean Spanish-speaking mothers and their children. Given this is a salient trait of this Spanish variety, its study has a long and robust tradition. However, research focused on Chilean children and child-directed speech (CDS) is still unexplored. Using the Corpus Conversacional del Espanol de la region de O'Higgins (CCEOH), this study analyzes 1,521 occurrences collected during recording sessions in which children interacted with their mothers in their own homes. Our results show that both children and their caregivers are variable in their production of the affricate palatal phoneme /(t integral) over cap/, producing both affricate and the fricative [integral] variants. Additionally, the findings reveal a gender distinction such that young boys produce a significantly higher rate of the nonstandardized fricative variant when compared to young girls and also their mothers. At the subsegmental level, which examines only the affricate variants, we found that young boys also tend to produce shorter durations of the occlusion than young girls. These findings contribute to the literature by showing that already, between 5;6 and 7, Chilean children are distinguishing variable use of /(t integral) over cap/ phoneme by gender.
Conceptual Metaphor Theory (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980) underscores the role of metaphors in understanding and communicating complex experiences, such as depression. In the Spanish-language press, depression is often framed within the metaphorical domains of WAR and SPACE, as identified in the corpus analyzed for this research. This comparative study examines the impact of these two metaphorical domains on (1) emotional responses, (2) perceptions of depression severity, and (3) opinions on recommended strategies for overcoming the illness among native Spanish speakers (L1) and speakers of Spanish as an additional language (LX), both with and without a history of depression. A questionnaire-based quantitative methodology was employed to gather data from 162 participants. The findings indicate that war metaphors evoke stronger emotional responses and a heightened perception of severity among those with a depressive history, while improving the evaluation of recovery strategies among those without such a history. Additionally, spatial metaphors trigger greater emotional intensity and a stronger perception of severity among LX speakers compared to L1 speakers. This study underscores the importance of considering linguistic and cultural factors in depression communication, demonstrating that these factors significantly influence the interpretation of metaphors and, consequently, the perception of the disorder.
In parliamentary discourse, the pragmatic dimension of language is of particular interest when it comes to interpreting the intention with which each participant imbues their speech. The traces of this intentionality can be identified, among others, through parenthetical utterances and modalisation. Indeed, parenthetical utterances may be an ideal marker to identify where modalisation takes place and to interpret its effects on the discourse. To test this, 30 bilingual parliamentary speeches were analysed. Using the recordings along with their transcripts, parenthetical utterances were identified, followed by the type of modalisation. The results show that, regardless of the language used, these metadiscursive mechanisms are closely related. They also play an important role in guiding and evaluating discourse, thus providing information on how the speaker's position is established. Furthermore, they contribute to a better characterization of parliamentary debate as a textual genre.
Phonological awareness is one of the main predictors of reading performance, making its assessment at early developmental stages crucial for the early detection of reading difficulties. However, various studies have assessed phonological awareness as the child's global achievement, which restricts understanding of its development and limits the identification of strengths and support needs. This study aimed to identify phonological awareness profiles in kindergarten children, considering four tasks: phoneme synthesis, rhymes, initial phoneme recognition, and phoneme segmentation. The participants in this study were 268 children aged between 4.6-and 6.4-attending types of schools. Using latent profile analysis, three distinct performance profiles were identified, primarily differentiated by their phoneme synthesis and phoneme segmentation skills. In addition, the study explored the association between profile membership and variables such as sex, type of school, maternal education level, and school attendance, but no significant associations were found. The findings suggest that kindergarten students display heterogeneous performance in the assessed phonological awareness tasks, highlighting the importance of using assessments that do not categorize performance globally, but rather broaden our understanding of the development of this skill to guide more effective and tailored interventions aligned with children's individual developmental profiles.
