Spanish Linguistics Commons^™

The Catalan-Speaking Linguistic Landscape Of Spain: A Comparative Analysis Of Commercial Signage In Barcelona, Valencia, And Palma De Mallorca, Kyle Reasons

Honors Theses

The present study is a linguistic landscape of the Catalan-speaking region of Spain. Linguistic landscaping is a relatively new survey technique in the world of linguistics first developed in a study by Landry & Bourhis (1997) and has a focus on addressing the languages present on various forms of signage within a given area. Catalan is a Romance language with approximately 9 million speakers where it is recognized as a co-official language in 3 communities included in this study (the Balearic Islands, Catalonia, and the Valencian Community). This study looks at 3 cities in Spain (Barcelona, Valencia, and Palma de …

A Treasure Hunt: The Interdisciplinary Challenge Of A Digital Humanities Hackathon, Marie Barras, Adélaïde Quenson, Adrien Jeanrenaud, Angela Allemand, Marina Berazategui, Levyn Bürki, Michel Capot, Simon Gabay, Vestin Hategekimana, Pauline Jacsont, Bokar Lamine N'Diaye, Elina Leblanc, Clara May, Anne-Laure Oberson, Margherita Parigini, Lara Pitteloud, Fassaleh Taal, Cédric Viaccoz

Artl@s Bulletin

Abstract: This article tells the story of an interdisciplinary hackathon emphasizing exploration, collaboration, and creative engagement with globalization-related cultural datasets. Participants worked in teams to produce research posters, which were then presented at the opening of the international conference Image Deluge & Globalization in Geneva. The article discusses three projects: one on 19th-century Spanish chapbooks using topic modeling and network analysis; another on leopard motifs in print imagery; and a third on olfactory heritage. The hackathon highlighted both the potential and the limitations of working with digital cultural data, offering insights into interdisciplinary methods.

Résumé: Cet article raconte un hackathon …

Integrating Non-Binary Morphology Into Spanish Grammatical Gender: A Study On Native And Second-Language Speakers, Abigail H. Gustafson

Scripps Senior Theses

This study investigates how native (L1) and second-language (L2) Spanish speakers process non-binary gender morphology, focusing on the pronoun ‘elle’ and the adjective/noun ending ‘-e’. Prior studies show that native speakers outperform L2 speakers in processing traditional masculine–feminine agreement, non-binary forms and their emergence in a binary grammatical system are understudied. To address this gap, I conducted an online reaction-time experiment with bilingual speakers from the Claremont Colleges, who judged the grammaticality of Spanish sentences containing either grammatical gender or social gender (él/ella/elle) agreement and disagreement. Survey data also captured participants’ familiarity with and attitudes toward the pronoun ‘elle’. The …

Voces En Contacto: El Español En La Amazonía Peruana, Margarita Jara, Andrés Napurí

Department of World Languages Faculty Research

Este dossier reúne investigaciones dedicadas al estudio del español amazónico peruano, un conjunto de variedades moldeadas por el contacto con lenguas indígenas y por profundas transformaciones sociopolíticas. Los trabajos aquí compilados abordan fenómenos fonéticos, fonológicos, morfosintácticos y discursivos, así como actitudes e ideologías lingüísticas, con el objetivo de caracterizar la complejidad estructural y social de estas hablas regionales. A través de metodologías que combinan análisis acústico, corpus de habla espontánea, entrevistas sociolingüísticas, herramientas variacionistas y análisis crítico del discurso multimodal, los estudios documentan innovaciones gramaticales y procesos de nivelación típicos del bilingüismo, así como prácticas de resistencia identitaria frente a …

Ya Vuelta En El Español Peruano Amazónico: De Marcador Discursivo A Emblema Subversivo, Alonso Vásquez-Aguilar, Pilar Valenzuela Bismarck, Margarita Jara Yupanqui

Department of World Languages Faculty Research

Este estudio analiza la expresión ya vuelta en el español peruano amazónico (EPA), proponiendo que ha trascendido su función como marcador discursivo mirativo para convertirse en un emblema de identidad regional y un recurso discursivo de resistencia. A partir de un corpus recopilado exclusivamente de interacciones en redes sociales —incluyendo X (antes Twitter), Facebook, Instagram y YouTube— se examinan los usos prototípicos de ya vuelta como marcador de miratividad y sus funciones innovadoras vinculadas a la reafirmación identitaria, la subversión de jerarquías lingüísticas y la autenticidad en contextos comerciales. El análisis muestra que los hablantes del EPA emplean ya vuelta …

A Content Analysis Of Spanish Language Curriculum In Texas, Sarah Moore, Jessica Sanchez, Sarah Herrera

Journal of Global Awareness

The shortage of Spanish-speaking social workers is significant in the United States, especially in border states such as Texas. Experts are calling for Spanish language training in social work education. However, it is unclear whether social work programs are incorporating Spanish into their curriculum at a pace needed to keep up with demand. Using conceptual content analysis, this article examines the frequency of Spanish language courses relevant to social work education across Texas.

Propuesta Curricular Para La Asistencia Médica Bilingüe Orientada A La Concordancia De Lenguas Y La Interpretación Médica En Español, David Sanchez-Jimenez, Noemi Rodriguez, Justin Harnandan, Margarita Perez, Melissa Garcia

Publications and Research

Resumen: El presente trabajo describe el proceso para establecer una especialización secundaria bilingüe centrada en la comunicación y la interpretación médica en una universidad de Estados Unidos designada como Institución al Servicio de los Hispanos. Este nuevo título universitario brindará a los estudiantes bilingües de español e inglés especializados en el área de la salud la oportunidad de mejorar sus destrezas comunicativas para convertirse en competentes profesionales de la salud concordantes de lengua.

Abstract:This paper details the process to establish a new bilingual academic minor in health communication and medical interpretation at a United States university designated as a Hispanic-Serving …

Volume 8 (2025) The Spanish Language, Language Variations, Cultures And Responsibility

International Journal on Responsibility

This issue reflects an intentional and profound commitment to linguistic inclusion, cultural diversity, and the shared responsibility of scholars to broaden the scope of academic dialogue beyond the boundaries of English. The essays collected here invite us to reimagine bilingualism not only as a communicative skill but also as a moral, social, and institutional responsibility.

Esta edición representa un compromiso intencional y profundo con la inclusión lingüística, la diversidad cultural y la responsabilidad compartida de ampliar los horizontes del diálogo académico más allá de los límites del inglés. Los ensayos aquí reunidos nos invitan a reimaginar el bilingüismo no solo …

Sharing And Preserving Sociolinguistic Corpora On The U.S.-Mexico Border, Katherine Christoffersen, Isabella Calafate, Julio Ciller, Ana M. Carvalho, Ryan M. Bessett, Brandon J. Martínez, Hannia Rojas Barreda, William Flores, Richard Quiroz

Writing and Language Studies Faculty Publications

Since William Labov outlined the methodology for the sociolinguistic interview in 1972, sociolinguistic corpora have been used widely in the field of sociolinguistics to study diverse speech communities and linguistic features. However, most of these invaluable sociolinguistic collections have been available only to the individual researcher or research group, and these data sets usually disappear from use with that individual scholar. More recently, there has been a push towards data sharing in sociolinguistics, reflective of data sharing and the open science movement in other fields. Still, accessible online sociolinguistic corpora are few and far between, in part due to the …

“Let Me Be A Bridge”: Language Brokering Among Emerging Adult Latina Professionals In The Midwest, Elise M. Dubord

Faculty Publications

In immigrant families, bilingual children and adolescents regularly act as translators and interpreters for family and community members who are not fluent in the dominant language. These childhood language brokers later shift the focus of their translation activities as they transition into adulthood and develop professional skills. This research explores narratives of language brokering trajectories of three bilingual Latinas who were emerging adult professionals in three cities in Iowa. Based on a series of interviews collected over a 15 month period, this analysis examines how participants described realigning their family language responsibilities while simultaneously transferring their language brokering skills to …

Iconicity As An Organizing Principle Of The Lexicon, Erin E. Campbell, Zed Sevcikova Sehyr, Elana Pontecorvo, Ariel Cohen-Goldberg, Karen Emmorey, Naomi Caselli

Communication Sciences and Disorders Faculty Articles and Research

The view that words are arbitrary is a foundational assumption about language, used to set human languages apart from nonhuman communication. We present here a study of the alignment between the semantic and phonological structure (systematicity) of American Sign Language (ASL), and for comparison, two spoken languages—English and Spanish. Across all three languages, words that are semantically related are more likely to be phonologically related, highlighting systematic alignment between word form and word meaning. Critically, there is a significant effect of iconicity (a perceived physical resemblance between word form and word meaning) on this alignment: words are most likely to …

Aceptación De La Variedad Hispanounidense: Un Paso Hacia La Descolonización De La Lingüística Española En Los Estados Unidos, Wendell J. Shank

International Journal on Responsibility

Resumen

La emergente variedad de español que se habla en los Estados Unidos (EE. UU.). carece de prestigio entre la lingüística española a pesar de que cualquier crítica dirigida a ella pueda ser dirigida a otras variedades aceptadas. Esto lleva a la conclusión de que los lingüistas no reconocen la variedad hispanounidense a causa de la historia de colonización y la mente colonizada de ambos: los hablantes de esta variedad y los lingüistas que la estudian. Hay que tomar un paso hacia la descolonización de la lingüística española para producir grandes cambios positivos tanto personales como sociales en los EE. …

Remaking A Monument: The Troubled Meaning Of Fascist Remains In Contemporary Spain, David Divita

Pomona Faculty Publications and Research

The Valley of Cuelgamuros, until recently known as the Valley of the Fallen, lies about 35 miles outside of Madrid. Inaugurated by the dictator Francisco Franco in 1959, this landmark comprises a vast underground basilica and houses the mostly anonymous remains of 34,000 Spaniards who died during the civil war (1936–1939) and its repressive aftermath. Since the early 2000s, the Valley has been a political lightning rod in a country that has long struggled with how to address the legacies of its authoritarian past. Ongoing debates among politicians, scholars, and journalists have revolved around the possibility of the Valley’s ‘resignification’ …

La Intensificación En Los Comentarios De Noticias: La Prensa Deportiva Digital, David Sanchez-Jimenez

Publications and Research

Las plataformas digitales de los periódicos permiten una comunicación más fluida y dinámica con y entre la audiencia, que refleja algunos patrones de la comunicación oral (Briz, 1997, 1998; Yus, 2001, 2010; Albelda, 2004; Albelda y Estellés, 2021). Entre ellos, se encuentran los recursos lingüísticos de intensificación que refuerzan la fuerza ilocutiva de los comentarios emitidos, en una clara apuesta por dotar al texto de una mayor interactividad con sus potenciales receptores. El objetivo de esta investigación consiste en conocer cómo se relacionan entre sí los participantes de estas plataformas en la prensa deportiva. En particular, se prestó especial atención …

La Historia Externa Del Español Hasta La Reconquista, Alicia Westmoreland

World Languages and Cultures Senior Capstones

This paper talks about the romance language, Spanish, which evolved from Vulgar Latin after the fall of the Roman Empire. Influenced by the Visigoths, Moors, and the Christian Reconquista, its linguistic development reflects centuries of cultural exchange. The Moors introduced Arabic vocabulary, while the Reconquista reinforced Castilian dominance. Despite external influences, Spanish retains a phonetic system closely linked to Latin. This essay examines Spanish’s historical linguistics, highlighting how conquests, migrations, and societal shifts shaped its evolution.

Book Review - Language Ideologies And Linguistic Identity In Heritage Language Learning., Michelle F. Ramos Pellicia

International Journal of the Linguistic Association of the Southwest

No abstract provided.

Hugo Chávez, El Camino Hagiográfico: Religión Y Bolivarianismo En La Construcción Discursiva Del Culto A Un Presidente, Lilia Malavé Conley

Theses and Dissertations--Hispanic Studies

This dissertation examines the discursive construction of the political-religious cult surrounding Hugo Chávez through a theoretical and methodological approach that integrates Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) and Multimodal Discourse Analysis (MDA). Its central objective is to identify and interpret the incorporation of elements from the Venezuelan religious imaginary–particularly from popular Christianity–into the symbolic configuration of Chávez as a sacred figure within official discourse. The corpus analyzed includes official transcripts from the television program Aló Presidente, as well as two animated short films titled Chávez Nuestro que Estás en el Cielo (“Our Chávez Who Art in Heaven”), broadcast on Venezuelan public …

Span 338/704 Syllabus - Oer, Mark Hoff

Open Educational Resources

No abstract provided.

Cambio De Código Y Fenómenos Léxicos En Tres Generaciones De Hispanohablantes Dominicanos En Nueva Jersey, Rocio Leguisamon Tolentino

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

En Estados Unidos, el contacto prolongado entre el español y el inglés ha generado diversas situaciones de bilingüismo. Sin embargo, históricamente, la comunidad mexicana en el suroeste del país y la comunidad puertorriqueña en el noroeste han sido las más representadas y, por tanto, las más estudiadas (Poplack 1980; Silva-Corvalán 1994; Torres Cacoullos y Travis, 2015; Rodríguez-Ordóñez et al., 2023). Recientemente, las investigaciones sobre el bilingüismo en la comunidad dominicana han ido cobrando más relevancia, debido al rápido incremento de dominicanos en los Estados Unidos. Investigaciones anteriores han propuesto que los dominicanos muestran una alta lealtad al español, y a …

Caracterización Lingüístico-Discursiva De Los Mecanismos De Despersonalización Y Posicionamiento Del Autor En El Género Médico Ficha Clínica, David Sanchez-Jimenez, Paulina Meza

Publications and Research

El dominio de géneros especializados es una competencia que representa gran dificultad para los estudiantes en formación. Su falta de dominio puede impedir o retrasar el proceso de enculturación de un individuo en una comunidad. Para formar adecuadamente a los estudiantes en las prácticas discursivas disciplinares, son necesarios datos empíricos sobre las características lingüístico-discursivas de los textos que deben producir. El objetivo de esta investigación cualitativa es describir los recursos lingüístico-discursivos de despersonalización y posicionamiento del autor en el género médico Ficha clínica. El corpus está constituido por 52 Fichas clínicas producidas por estudiantes de medicina de una universidad chilena. …

Féminas Speaking Up: Three Papers On Feminine Transgender Identities, Gender Identity Activism, And Language Reform In Lima, Peru, Ernesto Cuba

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In this three-paper dissertation, I explore the linguistic and discursive practices of Féminas, a leading transgender rights activist organization based in Lima, Peru. Building on scholarship on language ideologies (Irvine & Gal, 2000), queer linguistics (Motschenbacher, 2011), and socio-onomastics (Ainiala & Östman, 2017), I analyze the role that language beliefs and language-in-use plays in performing local (trans)gender identities and shaping grassroots politics within this specific community of practice (Eckert & McConnell-Ginet, 1992). Based on an extensive corpus of semi-structured interviews and ethnographic material gathered during my long-term investigation with Féminas, I present three studies exploring distinct –though related– ideologically-driven sociolinguistic …

Overregularization Of Irregular Spanish Verbal Morphology: The Cases Of 2sg Preterit And Irregular Past Participles, Elisabeth Baker Martínez

Spanish and Portuguese ETDs

This dissertation investigates a widely observed phenomenon in child language acquisition: overregularization, which occurs when a child applies a regular linguistic pattern where an irregular form is expected (Bybee, 2015), for example, when a child overregularizes irregular 1sg Spanish sé ‘I know’ as sabo. This dissertation adds to the research on the overregularization of Spanish verbal morphology. The population of focus is Spanish-speaking children ranging from the ages of 1;10 – 12;4 with different language backgrounds (e.g., monolingual Spanish children, U.S. child heritage speakers). The studies included address the development of two Spanish morphological forms by focusing on children’s …

La Voz Del Autor En El Discurso Médico Y Sus Implicaciones En Ele, David Sanchez-Jimenez

Publications and Research

La demanda de profesionales de la salud que pueden prestar atención lingüísticamente concordante al paciente en contextos multilingües explica el aumento de los cursos de español médico en el currículo de pregrado y posgrado en instituciones universitarias de Estados Unidos en las últimas décadas. El aprendizaje de los estudiantes matriculados en estos cursos requiere el conocimiento de las características retórico-discursivas propias de los principales géneros discursivos que estudian durante su carrera para fines específicos en el campo de la salud los alumnos universitarios de español, cuyo fin último será el de replicarlos eficazmente en su práctica profesional. Por ello, en …

Spanish As A Heritage Language In Ñuu Savi Children In Rural Northwest Oregon: Identity, Attitudes, Usage Domains, And Maintenance, Carlos Enrique Ibarra

11th National Symposium on Spanish as a Heritage Language (Archived)

Spanish as a heritage language in Ñuu Savi children in rural northwest Oregon: Identity, attitudes, usage domains, and maintenance

Immigrants from Mexico and the rest of Latin America in the US who are monolingual in an indigenous language face challenges that have received some attention from scholars (Geyman et al., 2012) and in the popular press (Cengel 2013; DeCoursey 2015; Fox & Rivera-Salgado 2005 among many others) in the last 15 years. To date, little to no research exists on who the heritage speakers (TRI) of Spanish in rural Oregon with parents (OMS) who speak a Mexican Indigenous language are. …

“I Want To Help End Linguistic Discrimination”: Community-Based Global Learning In An Upper-Level Spanish Class, Jessica Cox

11th National Symposium on Spanish as a Heritage Language (Archived)

Community-based global learning (CBGL) can be a high-impact practice for heritage learners by promoting students’ awareness of linguistic ideologies in local and global communities. This presentation will share the aims and structure of a CBGL program and assessment of that program, with a focus on learners’ critical language awareness.

Retórica Intercultural En El Discurso Académico Universitario: Las Funciones Retóricas De La Citación En Los Trabajos De Fin De Máster Escritos En Español Y En Inglés Por Hablantes Nativos Y No Nativos, David Sanchez-Jimenez

Publications and Research

This research derives from the interest in learning the cultural differences in citation practices in the academic genre of Master's thesis of native Spanish (Ee), non-native Filipino writers of Spanish (Fe), native Filipino writers of English (Fi), and American writers of English. A total of thirty-two (32) master´s theses – eight (8) for each group – were analyzed. A quantitative and qualitative methodology was used to study this phenomenon based on the computerized textual analysis of the rhetorical function of citations arranged in typological classification that modified the outline proposed by Petrić in his 2007 article. The results obtained from …

Discursive Variation In Texas Spanish: A Dialectometric Approach, James Ramsburg

International Journal of the Linguistic Association of the Southwest

Texas Spanish has been characterized from a variety of perspectives, whether that be descriptively (Cardenas 1970), historically (Lipski 1988), and/or sociolinguistically (Chaston 1996, Martínez 2003, Bayley et al. 2012, Carter and Wolford 2016). However, to date, no study has sought to produce a dialectological account of Spanish discourse in Texas. By combining methods of quantitative and corpus linguistics, the present study seeks to investigate the dynamics of how Spanish discourse features, namely discourse markers and fillers, vary across multiple regions in Texas. To do so, this study utilizes a corpus of contemporary Texas Spanish (Bullock and Toribio 2013) and evaluates …

Northwestern Amazonian Spanish As A Macro-Region: Current Research And Future Directions, Ileana Margarita Jara Yupanqui

International Journal of the Linguistic Association of the Southwest

The Amazon rainforest, home to many and diverse indigenous language populations, expands over a vast territory in South America, the most extensive river system in the world. In the western area, Spanish coexists with many indigenous languages since colonial times. New varieties of Amazonian Spanish emerged in this context of long-term language contact. These varieties are understudied, although research has increased in the last decade. Recent works show that Spanish linguistic features are shared across political borders and point to a macro-region. This paper discusses the socio-historical and linguistic contexts of the expansion of the Northwestern Amazonian Spanish in Colombia, …

No Ela Without Ella: Understanding The Naming And Crafting Of Gendered Subjectivities In Puerto Rico, Carmín Quijano Seda

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

At the beginning of the 20th century, the official metadiscourses about gendered job titles sedimented the idea that names or indexes pointing to women should be interpreted as unskilled, cheap, or even free labor in Puerto Rico (Azize, 1985; Muñiz Mas, 1998; Baerga-Santini, 1999). For this reason, Puerto Rican women organized and fought for equality in work settings. Furthermore, they became more active in politics and the government. Nevertheless, the Estado Libre Asociado (ELA) and local media discourses and interpretations about women’s labor discouraged them from participating in more senior positions (Acevedo Gaud, 2012).

However, this interpretation seemed to have …

Representaciones Ideológicas De La Lengua, La Conversación Y La Comunicación En Manuales De Urbanidad Del Siglo Xix En México: Guías Para La Civilización, El Orden Y El Progreso Nacional, Luis B. Quesada Nieto

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study explores the main ideological representations of language, language use, conversation and communication found in a set of five etiquette manuals that were published and used in Mexico during the 19^th century. Following a glottopolitical perspective for the study of normativity, language policies, and sociolinguistic practices, the main hypothesis developed establishes that the ideas about language contained in these texts are strongly connected with the social, political, and economic period in which they are elaborated and enunciated, that is, the moment in which the nation is still defining itself, struggling to consolidate its viability and its value facing …