Spanish and Portuguese Language and Literature Commons^™

Nationalism In Mourning: An Epitaph For Ideology In Ramon Saizarbitoria’S ​Gorde Nazazu Lurpean, David Laraway

Faculty Publications

On July 24, 2001, Olaia Kastresana, a twenty-two year old woman from the Basque Country who had once dreamed of becoming a school teacher, was killed by an explosion of more than ten kilos of dynamite on the southeastern coast of Spain. Her death would undoubtedly have been more widely mourned had she not been an agent of ETA who, through either clumsiness or ignorance, accidentally detonated the bomb that she was trying to put together.1 One detail of the story that several news sources at the time could not resist reporting was that the blast, which took place in …

Mi Mama Es Bonito: Acquisition Of Spanish Gender By Native English Speakers, Scott M. Alvord, Lisa Griebling Mccowen

Faculty Publications

For an adult, learning a second language can be a complex and demanding task. Differences between one’s native language and the target language can contribute to the complexity of the task. One significant way in which languages can differ is the system of gender. The difference between gender in English and Spanish provides a challenge for adult native English speakers learning Spanish as a second language. The aim of the current study is to examine gender marking on a variety of tasks by adult NS of English as beginning learners of Spanish, with hopes that such examination will provide insight …

Descriptive Adequacy Vs. Psychological Reality: The Case Of Two Restrictions On Spanish Stress Placement, Scott M. Alvord, Timothy L. Face

Faculty Publications

This paper examines two supposed restrictions on Spanish stress placement: 1) the heavy penult condition, which prohibits stress leftward of the penultimate syllable if the penultimate syllable is heavy, and 2) the three-syllable window condition, which prohibits stress other than on one of the final three syllables of a word. While these two conditions are clearly descriptively adequate generalizations about the lexicon, this study sets out to determine whether they are psychologically real restrictions, serving as constraints that prohibit words that violate them. The results of a perception study indicate that neither of these conditions is a psychologically real restriction …

The Blind Spot In The Mirror: Self-Recognition And Personal Identity In Borges’S Late Poetry, David Laraway

Faculty Publications

La poesfa tardfa de Bo,ges podrfa parecer conservadora y hasta redundante para el lector que ya conoce sus cuentos y su poesfa temprana. No obstante, en el presente artfculo propongo una interpretadon de la ceguera en su poesfa tardfa, interpretdndola como motivo estructurador vinculado con el proyecto de sus obras mejor conoc1das. De interis especial es la cuestion de! cardcter aparentemente ilusorio de! yo. Basdndome en la filosefia analftica contempordnea, hago una distindon entre la identtficadon metajfsica y la identtficadon estitica. .Esta, a mi ver, nos propordona una clave esendal para entender la fancion de la primera persona gramatical en …

Forms Of Address And Epistolary Etiquette In The Diplomatic And Courtly Worlds Of Philip Iv Of Spain, Lynn Williams

Faculty Publications

Observance of established etiquette in the matter of forms of address is a feature of all societies in all ages. Nowhere could this be more evident than in the diplomatic and courtly worlds of Philip IV of Spain. The following extract from the entry on 'tratamiento' in the Enciclopedia Universal Ilustrada will serve to set the scene for this period in Spanish history: Contra las infracciones de las reglas sobre el tratamiento se dicto ya el 2 de Julio de 1600 por Felipe III una Pragmatica y otra en 1636 por Felipe IV disponiendo (que los que vinieren contra 10 …

Jose Marti And The Call Of Technology In "Amor De Ciudad Grande", David Laraway

Faculty Publications

Sometime in November of 1883, readers of the Spanish-language periodical La Ameica opened their paper to discover that a fantastic-sounding invention had recently been unveiled at a technology exposition in Vienna. "Es un aparatillo ingeniosisimo," exclaimed Jos6 Marti, a correspondent for the paper:

Puesto en lo interior de la boca [...] reproduce [el habla] sobre el papel con perfecci6n de escribiente del siglo XV. S6lo exige que se pronuncie con toda claridad; y cada silaba, al punto que es pronunciada, ya es colocada sobre el papel que la espera, sin molestia alguna para el que habla; y sin confusi6n para …

Shadowing Silva, David Laraway

Faculty Publications

The dark eroticism of Jose Asunci6n Silva's "Nocturno m" has scarcely been domesticated by over a century of criticism and the poem's canonization in countless literary anthologies. The reasons for the spell it has held over readers are apparent. Not only is the poem highly innovative from a metrical standpoint, its composition shortly after the death of Silva's sister Elvira has invited some critics to find images of incest and even necrophilia in the text.¹ Others have stridently opposed such readings.² In fact, the history of the poem's critical reception has in large measure been the history of …

Property And Propriety In Galdós’S ​Doña Perfecta, David Laraway

Faculty Publications

One question sure to stir up a spirited discussion in any gathering of galdosistas is whether Benito Perez Galdos's Dofia Perfecta is finally able to transcend the tendentiousness of its own ideological leanings. 1 A long tradition of criticism of the novel faults its didacticism and questions whether its characters are endowed with any real depth (see Penuel 80-86). Stephen Gilman's observation that Dona Perfecta constitutes an "ideological Flatland" by comparison with the depth of Galdos's mature works nicely captures an intuition chat runs deeply among defenders and critics of the novel alike (378-79). However, a widely cited article by …

Dis-Semblances: Physiognomy And Fiction In Borges’S ​Historia Universal De La Infamia, David Laraway

Faculty Publications

Over a decade after publishing Ficciones and some six years after El Aleph made its way into print, Borges had occasion to write a new introduction to Historia universal de la infomia, his first extended exploration of the mechanisms of fictional narrative. It was, he reflected of the 1935 work, an "irresponsable juego de un timido que nose anim6 a escribir cuentos y que se distrajo en falsear y tergiversar [ ... ]. No es otra cosa que apariencia [ ... ] una superficie de imagenes" (Obras l: 291). There can be little question that, compared with Ficciones and El …

On The Assignment Of Gender To Chicano Anglicisms: Processes And Results, Robert N. Smead

Faculty Publications

The creation of neologisms through linguistic borrowing is a complex process. For donor language models to be transformed into host language replicas, phonological and morphological adaptation must take place. Part and parcel of that adaptation is the assignment of gender to loanwords in a host language like Spanish. The present article examines gender assignment in two corpora of loanwords (New Mexican and Southern Colorado Spanish: N=212 and General Chicano Spanish: N=595). Through the application of variable rule methodology (GoldVarb 2), five factors are posited as significant. Two of these categorically determine gender assignment when present: (1) the biological sex of …

Fantasy And Purchasing Power: The World Wide Web As A Utopian Space And The New Capitalist Arena, Cheyla Samuelson

Faculty Publications

A review of The World Wide Web and Contemporary Cultural Theory by Andrew Herman.

Generations: Borges And His Progeny, David Laraway

Faculty Publications

"Jovenes, imatad a Borges!" Legend has it that these were the parting words of novelist Witold Gombrowicz as he set sail for his native Poland after spending the duration of World War II in Argentina (King xi). Gombrowicz perceived---correctly, as it turns out-that subsequent generations of writers would need to reconcile themselves to Borges before they could find their own voices. To be sure, Borges was not always engaged willingly by his immediate successors, and anecdotes about the suspicions with which he was regarded by the so-called Boom writers are as ubiquitous as the traces of his presence in their …

Elisión De La /D/ Intervocálica Postónica, Orlando Alba

Faculty Publications

Los testimonios que confinnan el desarrollo del proceso de debilitamiento y la subsecuente desaparición de la consonante /d/ intervocálica en español, se remontan a fechas muy antiguas. En la actualidad, frente a palabras que han conservado la /d/, como crudo (de crudu), nido (de nidu), hay otras donde se ha perdido, como oir (de audire), creer (de credere), pie (de pede(m)). Sin embargo, las demás sonoras, /b, g/, se han conservado con mayor regularidad. Se trata de un fenómeno revelador de que posiblemente las dentales se caractericen por un grado menor de fuerza consonántica que las labiales o las velares.

Variable Léxica Y Comparación Dialectal, Orlando Alba

Faculty Publications

El desarrollo de nuevos enfoques metodológicos, como los de la sociolingüística, la etnografía de la comunicación, o la pragmática, parecería haber dejado rezagada a la dialectología dentro del amplio conjunto de disciplinas que estudian los fenómenos lingüísticos. Pero esa impresión solo sería válida desde la perspectiva que encierra a la dialectología en el marco de unos planteamientos tradicionales que la estancan y que suponen que debe mantenerse siempre apegada a los mismos métodos y las mismas herramientas. Como ha señalado Alvar con mucho acierto, la circunstancia de que la dialectología haya dejado de ser "la disciplina directriz de los estudios …

Doctoring The Revolution: Medical Discourse And Interpretation In ​Los De Abajo​ And ​El Águila Y Laserpiente​, David Laraway

Faculty Publications

EVER since a moribund Artemio Cruz became an emblem of the fragmented, postrevolutionary history of Mexico, the individual human body and the Mexican body politic have been regarded as dual aspects of a single text, demanding a unifying act of interpretation even while the possibility of a seamless reading is perpetually undercut. However, it might well be claimed that the very synecdoche by which the human body and the Revolution are linked in Carlos Fuentes's novel is anticipated by earlier narratives of the Revolution, including, as this study aims to demonstrate, Mariano Azuela's Los de abajo and Martin Luis Guzman's …

Facciones​: Fictional Identity And The Face In Borges’S “La Forma De La Espada.’, David Laraway

Faculty Publications

A SCAR, AS HOMER KNEW LONG AGO, is more than a distinguishing mark that permits one to be identified: it is the promise of a story to be told. Upon Odysseus's return to Ithaca, his old nurse Eurykleia, without yet recognizing her master, prepares to bathe his feet. Richmond Lattimore's translation renders the ensuing scene in these words: "Now Odysseus I was sitting close to the fire, but suddenly turned to the dark side; I for presently he thought in his heart that, as she handled him, / she might be aware of his scar, and all his story might …

English Loanwords In Chicano Spanish: Characterization And Rationale, Robert N. Smead

Faculty Publications

One highly visible, often stigmatized feature of Chicano Spanish is lexical innovation due to intimate contact with English and the mainstream culture. As noted in table 1, these Anglicisms are the result of varying degrees of host language adaptation and integration and include at least three distinct types of innovations: the lexical switch, the loanword, and the calque.

Densidad De Anglicismos En El Léxico Disponible De La República Dominicana, Orlando Alba

Faculty Publications

En este artículo se presenta un análisis cuantitativo con el propósito de descubrir la densidad de los anglicismos en el léxico disponible dominicano de acuerdo con diversas variables. Se descubre que el factor más relevante para motivar la presencia de los anglicismos es la diferencia de centros de interés. En unos campos, la densidad es alta (medios de transporte, juegos, el vestido), pero en otros es muy baja e incluso, nula (animales, el cuerpo humano).

Zonificación Dialectal Del Español En América, Orlando Alba

Faculty Publications

La dicotomia que opone «el espanol de America» a «el espanol de Espana» ha sido acunada desde hace mucho tiempo por diversos investigadores de la dialectologia hispanica. En el fondo, tales designaciones son inapropiadas en cuanto que se basan en una suposicion: la existencia de dos realidades o entidades linguisticas unitarias, susceptibles de ser clasificadas o encasilladas dentro de categorias homogeneas. lmplican, de hecho, un grado elevado de generalizacion que simplifica exageradamente la variada realidad linguistica del extenso mundo hispanohablante. Una ligera observacion de los aspectos rigurosamente estudiados hasta ahora de la lengua hablada en el Nuevo Continente permite descubrir …

Vigencia Y Significación Sociolingüística De Los Marinerismos En El Español Dominicano De Santiago, Orlando Alba

Faculty Publications

El objetivo de este estudio consiste en verificar la vigencia real o la caducidad de los términos de origen marino convertidos en palabras del vocabulario general en el español dominicano de Santiago. El material que sirve de base a la investigación es el incluido en la obra de Pedro Henríquez Ureña, El Español en Santo Domingo. Además de su posible utilización, se analizan también las implicaciones y los valores sociolingüísticos de dichas palabras.

Ralph Waldo Emerson And Helen Hunt Jackson In La Edad De Oro, Anne Fountain

Faculty Publications

When Jose Martí began publication of La Edad de Oro in the summer of 1889, his purpose was to inform and to entertain the "children of America." In the four issues he published (July, August, September, October) Martí's range of topics included literary classics modified for children, original poetry, versions in Spanish of two North American poems, and a commentary on the youthful beginnings of famous writers-in sum a variety of literary lessons.While Martí is much studied and there are numerous works about La Edad de Oro, scant attention has been given to its selections from United States poetry: the …

Función Del Acento En El Proceso De Elisión De La /S/ En La República Dominicana, Orlando Alba

Faculty Publications

Durante los ultimos años se han realizado diversos estudios sobre el español del Caribe que ofrecen un análisis detallado de los factores, tanto lingüísticos como extralingüísticos, que condicionan el proceso de aspiración y de elisión de la /s/ en posición final de sílaba y de palabra. Entre los factores lingüísticos examinados cabe señalar: el contexto fonológico, la función sintáctica de la /s/, la posición de la palabra dentro del sintagma, el número de silabas de la paiabra, la categoría gramatical de la palabra y el acento de la vocal inicial de la palabra siguiente.

The Burden Of Responsibility In The Libro De Buen Amor, Lynn Williams

Faculty Publications

In three of the early sections of the Libro de buen amor, Juan Ruiz explains to his public how, for various reasons, he is conditioned to love women. In stanzas 71-76 he uses the unimpeachable authority of Aristotle to argue that men and animals are biologically determined to seek 'juntamiento con fenbra plazentera' (st. 71d), and since he is a man like any other, it is natural, perhaps even inevitable, that from time to time he too should feel the attraction of the opposite sex. Paraphrasing St Paul (I Thessalonians 5.21), the Archpriest tells us rather cheekily that one must …

Estudio Sociolingüístico De La Variación De Las Líquidas En El Español Cibaeño, Orlando Alba

Faculty Publications

Este artículo se propone mostrar la contribución del factor socioeconómico y de la edad en los procesos de variación de las líquidas /r, l/ en el Cibao, República Dominicana. Asimismo, se pone de relieve el papel que desempeña el acento en estos cambios.

La Variation Du /R/ Dans L'Espagnol De Santiago, Orlando Alba

Faculty Publications

Le segment phonologique /r/ en position implosive montre une grande variete de manifestations phonetiques dans les differents dialectes hispaniques (v. Navarro Tomas 1972; Alarcos Llorach 1968; Zamora Vicente 1970). Parmi les manifestations les plus connues, on peut citer la variante alveolaire vibrante simple carne 'viande', la fricative carne, l'aspiree cahne, la lateralisee caIne, l'assimilee canne et l'elidee cane. On considere generalement la vibrante comme la realisation standard, mais la norma culta 'la norme cultivee' admet aussi la prononciation fricative. Toutes les autres prononciations, des points de vue academique et normatif, sont jugees vulgaires, populaires ou regionales (Navarro Tomas 1972:119-121).

Pedro Henríquez Ureña Y El Español En Santo Domingo, Orlando Alba

Faculty Publications

En este ensayo se realiza una revisión crítica del clásico libro de Pedro Henríquez Ureña El Español en Santo Domingo. La obra comentada marcó un hito, superando en calidad al resto de la bibliografía dialectal dominicana existente hasta ese momento.

Two Features Of Working-Class Phonology In Valladolid, Lynn Williams

Faculty Publications

Two factors prompted the research which led to the writing of this article: first, the apparent general consensus amongst linguists both inside and outside Spain that the phonology of Old Castilian is monolithic in terms of geographic and sodal space, and that it has more or less stagnated in the mould of traditional grammars, and, secondly, the insistence of many linguists on seeing some aspects of contemporary Spanish phonology as characteristic of certain non-standard varieties of Spanish, wilhout investigating whether the same features might not also be found in Old Castile.

The Pronunciation Of Women: Some Spanish Evidence, Lynn Williams

Faculty Publications

The material for this article bas been drawn from a larger sociolinguistic survey of various aspects of tbe phonology of 18-26 yr olds in Valladolid carried out between October 1976 and April 1977. The methodology used is basically the same as that developed by William Labov for his New York survey and has become one of the most established methods of enquiry into the social differentiation of the phonology of urban speech-communities. Informants were selected from the Valladolid census records in a semi-random manner and assigned to their socio-economic class according to the criteria of Spanish sociologists. Each informant was …

Sobre La Validez De La Hipótesis Funcional, Orlando Alba

Faculty Publications

En este ensayo se utiliza la variación de la /s/ final de palabra para examinar la validez o no de la llamada hipótesis funcional. En el español de Santiago, cuando el segmento /s/ es una marca morfológica de número plural (niños) o de segunda persona verbal (cantas), es elidido con tanta o con mayor frecuencia que cuando no tiene una función morfológica (lunes). Se concluye, sin embargo, que este hecho no constituye una prueba decisiva en contra de la hipótesis funcional ya que la /s/ con valor morfológico constituye, generalmente, una …

Análisis Fonológico De Las Líquidas En Un Dialecto Rural Dominicano, Orlando Alba

Faculty Publications

En este trabajo se realiza un análisis de la variación de las líquidas /r, l/ en un dialecto rural dominicano con el enfoque de la fonología generativa. Se toman como base los datos aportados por las obras dialectales publicadas hasta la fecha. Se busca mostrar que la concepción generativa permite realizar una descripción coherente de los procesos de cambio fonético, especialmente el de la vocalización de /r, l/ implosivas en la zona dominicana del Cibao.