Spanish Linguistics and Literature

Posted on Oct 18, 2024 in Language

Linguistic Influences and Processes

Spanish, a self-reflexive language, is influenced by various sources. Direct influences include those from Greek and rock music. Loanwords have been adopted from various languages:

  • Germanisms: spy
  • Arabisms: bricklayer
  • Gallicisms: paje
  • Italianisms: driver
  • Americanisms (Indigenous Languages of the Americas): potato
  • Anglicisms: football
  • Lusisms: oyster
  • Vasquisms: beret
  • Catalanisms: squirrel
  • Galleguismos: nostalgia

Neologisms, recent loanwords like “Cheerios,” often maintain their original meaning. Calques, like “basketball” (from “basket-ball”), adapt the meaning to existing words. Semantic calques, like “mouse” (for a computer device), copy the meaning from another language. Xenisms maintain the original form and pronunciation: leasing, hardware.

Word Formation

  • Derivation: lexeme + (prefixes, infixes, suffixes)
  • Composition: lexeme + lexeme
  • Parasynthesis: prefix + suffix + lexeme

Semantic Relations

  • Polysemy: One word with multiple meanings: Neck (body part, part of a garment)
  • Homonymy: Words with the same spelling but different meanings: ojear (to look), hojear (to flip through pages)
  • Antonymy:
    • Complementary: open/closed
    • Reciprocal: buy/sell
    • Gradable: temperate, cool, etc.
  • Hyponymy and Hypernymy: Tree (hypernym) encompasses oak, holm oak, pine, fir (hyponyms)

Loanwords in Spanish

  • Classical Languages: gravity
  • Greek and Latin Compounds/Derivatives: Various
  • English: video, stress, demo
  • Spanish Compounds/Derivatives: bajorrelieve, agenda
  • Shortenings (Acronyms and Initialisms): bit, UFO, DVD
  • New Meanings for Existing Words: (e.g., related to new technologies)
  • Eponyms: Alzheimer’s
  • Apocope (Shortening): castellano to caste

Text Types and Characteristics

Essay

Essays are didactic prose texts offering subjective viewpoints on a topic in a pleasant style. Essayists reflect freely on various subjects with a divulgative intent. The approach is personal, marked by originality, irony, and careful presentation. Essays are found in literature, humanities, and journalism.

Scientific and Technical Texts

These texts emphasize argumentative reasoning, inductive analysis, and often follow a structured format (introduction, development, conclusion). They use citations, technical language, and may include formulas and numbers.

Humanities Texts

Humanities texts, encompassing social sciences, employ argumentation, exposition, narration, and description. They analyze and synthesize, often using technical terminology.

News

News reports present current events, with headlines anticipating the content. They consist of an introduction (lead) and a body, providing objective information using denotative language.

Reportage

Reportage expands on news stories, providing greater depth and a more personal, signed narrative and descriptive style.

Interview

Interviews reproduce conversations between an interviewer and interviewee, presented as dialogue.

Editorial

Editorials express the newspaper’s opinion on current events, unsigned, using explanatory and argumentative styles.

Opinion Article

Opinion articles (columns, commentaries) analyze topics of interest, are signed, and employ varied argumentative and explanatory structures and styles.

Chronicle

Chronicles combine informative and interpretative elements, offering a personal vision of events with detailed information. They use narrative, descriptive, and explanatory styles.

Cultural Critique

Cultural critiques inform and evaluate cultural events, reflecting the author’s expertise. They are predominantly descriptive, explanatory, and argumentative, with subjective styles.

Bécquer’s Poetry

Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer (1836-1870), an orphaned poet from Seville, explored existential themes in his lyrical poetry. His style features symbolism, paradox, and a focus on the poetic self. He used octosyllabic assonant rhyme, figures like polysyndeton, personification, hyperbaton, rhetorical questions, and biblical references. His poetry can be divided into three phases:

  1. Symbolic poetry expressing feelings
  2. Love poetry reflecting happiness
  3. Existential poetry