Por qué estudiar el lenguaje inclusivo desde la perspectiva sociolingüística variacionista: la elección del género gramatical. Un estudio preliminar

In Argentina, the so-called “inclusive language” aims at avoiding the bias for a particular sex or gender and objects to a grammatical binary system (feminine – masculine). Although in most Spanish-speaking countries, inclusive language has been limited to the realms of activism, gender studies and a certain type of public administration, in Argentina, its use has been extended to different social spheres, mostly urban. Considering such context, this work aims to investigate the inclusive language in Spanish and characterize its most relevant resources in a series of public texts that circulated in Argentina between 2018 and 2020. On the one hand, its origin is explained, differentiating it from non-sexist language and the different theoretical positions around inclusive language are exposed. On the other hand, from the Dialogical Approach to Argumentation and Polyphony, this paper proposes to address inclusive language resources as subjectivity and polyphony marks which evidence certain aspects of the discourse of patriarchy, with respect to which there is dissent; therefore, inclusive language resources show viewpoints that were once silenced and rejected. For this, a corpus of various speeches is addressed, made up of outdoor urban inscriptions, flyers (advertisements), audiovisual informative speeches and digital press, written in inclusive language, between 2018 and 2020. Throughout the paper it is warns that the inclusive language marks, such as –e and x, are traces of the “heterogeneity shown marked” that object to grammatical binarism and convey comments by the subject about their own enunciation, alluding to the image of previous sexist and patriarchal discourses with whom they disagree. The analysis reveals that the words or expressions in which inclusive language resources are employed (-e and x) work as traces of harassed identities and manifest comments by the speaker on their own enunciation. This way, this research shows that gender inclusive language holds conflict linguistic marks which point to historically denied dissidence forms, linked to gender identity and the assertion of collective rights. Finally, this article aims at, on the one hand, contributing to the description of Argentinean Spanish, and on the other, promoting reflection in favor of linguistic education. Undoubtedly, opening instances of debate on the subject can have an impact on the deepening of linguistic reflection and the training of speakers who contribute to forging a more egalitarian society, one which is inclusive and respectful of differences.

Research into gender-inclusive language in Spanish has demonstrated that inclusive language generally appears in four forms: doublets, -@, -x, and -e. There is little research on language attitudes towards the use of gender-inclusive language in Spanish, although studies exist for other languages. The present study compiled a corpus of published tweets that contained the markers -@, -x, and -e. Based on this data, hypothetical tweets were constructed that fell into four different categories, corresponding to the author of the tweet: business, personal, academic, and political. These hypothetical tweets were built into an attitudes survey that was distributed on Twitter. Findings indicate that language attitudes for each type of inclusive marker and category of tweet are generally positive. Statistical analysis indicates a significant relationship between gender identity and attitudes towards the use of inclusive language in the political category.

Inclusive morphemes in Spanish, -e y -x, have begun to be used in place of generic masculine forms. In this study, we look at the processing of sentences with inclusive language from the perspective of experimental cognitive psychology and with the methodological tools of psycholinguistics. A sentence-by-sentence self-paced reading experiment examined the difference in reading times between sentences containing the traditional, masculine, generic form and sentences with gender inclusive language. The experiment was carried out in 69 monolingual speakers of River Plate Spanish: 38 young adults (between 18 and 30 years: 23 women and 15 men) and 31 older adults (between 31 and 60 years: 12 women and 19 men). Results: sentences with inclusive language were read more slowly than sentences with the generic masculine form. Surprisingly, neither age nor gender were found to have significant effects. These results suggest that reading sentences with inclusive morphemes results in a higher processing cost and that this language change is in its very early stages.

Equality and inclusion are part of the strategic plans of the universities. In particular, the Spanish government has established that the universities should have equality units to apply the principle of equality between women and men. These units are in charge of the definition of the Equality Plans. These Plans vary from one university to another, but they are focused on including the gender perspective in the university's different activities. Teachers' specific training about gender mainstreaming should be one of the key actions to foster equality in higher education. This work presents findings on participants of a course about "Introduction of the gender perspective in the University teaching" developed in the University of Salamanca in June 2020. The document describes the organization and structure of the course with a particular focus on the adaptation to online format due to the COVID-19 crisis. Furthermore, we share some of the results about the participants' perceptions and opinions on the inclusion of nonsexist language in Spanish and their educational practices.

The aim of this commentary is to discuss and promote discussion on some linguistic and pedagogical issues around the use of gender inclusive language, particularly the -e morpheme in plural forms, in Spanish. Its speakers are experiencing and becoming aware of language change in real time concerning the use of morphosyntactic choices that seek embrace gender equality, diversity, representation, and diversity. This language change impacts directly on formal education and educational administrators who are under pressure not only from different social actors but also from their own beliefs on whether they should promote, ignore, or mitigate the linguistic changes that society is producing through their situated practices. Against this background, to what extent are educational authorities professionally prepared to encourage academic discussions on inclusive language in education? How can applied linguists help? Having these questions as our Southern Cross, our commentary lies at the intersection of language change and educational authorities’ professional knowledge.

The use of (gender-)inclusive language is increasingly gaining attention in all spheres of society, including corporate communication. The main aim of this paper is to present GILAF, an evaluation framework to analyze and describe Spanish (gender-) inclusive language in corporate websites. For such a purpose, the elaboration process of the analysis framework is described, quantitatively validated, and applied to a sample of corporate websites from Spanish SMEs. The validation process proved that the GILAF framework is suitable for analyzing and describing (gender)-inclusive language strategies in corporate websites. In addition, the extracted results from the analysis of the sample showed that the application of (gender-)inclusive language is scarce in the analyzed websites, except for Graphic and visual language strategies and Presence of sexist stereotypes. The GILAF analysis framework has a great potential to be used as well as a guide for companies willing to apply (gender-)inclusive language strategies to their corporate web content.

We argue that the causal theory of memory and the simulation theory of memory are not as straightforwardly incompatible as they are usually taken to be. Following a brief review of the theories, we describe alternative normative and descriptive perspectives on memory, arguing that the causal theory aligns better with the normative perspective and the simulation theory with the descriptive perspective. Taking explanatory contextualism about perception as our starting point, we then develop a form of explanatory contextualism about memory, arguing that, depending on the context in which we find ourselves, either the normative perspective or the descriptive perspective may be appropriate. It follows that, while the causal theory and the simulation theory cannot both be right with respect to a given perspective, and while it is necessary to choose one perspective or the other in a given context, there an important sense in which we need not choose between causalism and simulationism. We conclude by differentiating our position from and critiquing a related position developed by Craver (2020) and defending our position against objections.

Kadare on the beach near the village of Qerret, Albania, in October 2020. Qerret lies on the Strait of Otranto along the Adriatic coast, about 175 kilometers from Brindisi, Italy. Turn to page 44 to read the cover feature about Kadare’s life and work. “With their departure, great writers like Aeschylus and Dante Alighieri seemed to have been looking for a way to return to that zone, that climate, and that chaos in which literature was born.”—Ismail Kadare Features WORLDLIT.ORG 11 PHOTO BY ALDO BONATA What is the difference between an o and an e in Spanish? For 51.06 percent of Argentina’s population, everything. LINGUISTIC R/EVOLUTIONS A Brief Exploration of the Use of the e in the Spanish Language as a Means of Combating Sexism Regardless of the Opinions of the Academy by Ana Ojeda PHOTO BY TIM MOSSHOLDER / UNSPLASH e 12 WLT WINTER 2021 I remember my father enthusiastically sharing his love for the film Deprisa, deprisa, by the Spanish filmmaker Carlos Saura. At the end, the song “Me quedo contigo,” an extraordinarily catchy tune with the chorus “si me das a elegir / me quedo contigo” (if you give me the choice / I choose you), plays over the credits. As I write these words to consider the use of the e in Spanish nouns as a means of doing away with the stereotypes and pressures that turn women into our worst possible selves— powerless, docile—I’m paying attention to the lyrics for the first time. Although, in a typically #patriarchal twist, the subject of the song is male, the choice described (the mere fact of having to choose) is essentially the one faced by women in romantic relationships ; the compromises they have to make if they are to fit within the traditional frameworks. In fact, women have to choose between work and family, because they can’t have both. Smart but tacky like most tango lyrics, “Me quedo contigo” portrays a tortured male desperate to win the love of a woman. But the reality of the cliché is the opposite and far more grim: in 2019, 280 femicides were recorded in Argentina, almost one a day—women murdered by their male partners or (in the majority of cases) ex-partners. Although it might not seem like it, these issues are related to representation and perspective . Who is represented, who is visible in the public eye and the collective consciousness . And how. And when. Women who are murdered or raped only seem to be seen once they are either already dead or violated. Before that, even when these crimes are reported, the state’s response is inadequate, often going no further than a restraining order or a panic button. The powers that be don’t see the urgency of the request for protection. What they see is exaggeration, pettiness, wanting attention, to make a scene, nagging, or madness. Inclusive (or antisexist) language and use of the e are very relevant to this. They make visible all those subjectivities that identify as being nonmale within language itself. This is just one of the ways women’s collectives are waging the battle to protect themselves, to live their lives free of violence , because language is a deeply political tool. To be visible linguistically is a means of changing how we are seen in real life. We are changing the status quo. Everyone knows that History is written by the victors (i.e., “men”). We live in hetero-patriarchal societies, communities governed by rules that allocate privileges (comparative opportunities) to those born with a dick between their legs. Across the social classes, that dangling organ smooths one’s path, tamping down the difficulties one faces in life. This in itself is already a feminist concept: recognizing there are collectives that have been marginalized, deprived of the rights and opportunities available to others. As is the concept of intersectionality : different aspects of social and political identities (gender, sex, race, class, religion, etc.) combining to create unique modes of discrimination and privilege. Women are the foremost marginalized majority in the world. In Argentina, according to data from the World Bank, women make up 51.06 percent of the...

Introducción.La hospitalización por ictus afecta negativamente al estado de ánimo. Las guías clínicas recomiendan evaluar precozmente el estado de ánimo. Sin embargo, no existe consenso sobre la escala más apropiada en idioma español.Objetivo.El objetivo del estudio es realizar una adaptación transcultural de la Signs of Depression Scale en pacientes ingresados en la unidad de ictus.Materiales y métodos.El esquema de trabajo de la adaptación transcultural al español fue: a) traducción directa; b) conciliación y síntesis de las traducciones; c) traducción inversa al inglés; d) consenso de la versión retrotraducida; e) interrogatorio cognitivo; f) revisión y versión consensuada en español; g) prueba de lectura, revisión ortográfica y gramatical, y h) versión final. Se realizó un análisis y un resumen descriptivo del proceso de adaptación transcultural.Resultados.Las versiones de traducción directa no presentaron diferencias. La versión de la traducción inversa fue aceptada por la autora del cuestionario original. Para el interrogatorio cognitivo se incluyó una muestra por conveniencia de 22 pacientes con/sin afasia a partir de la cual no se identificaron problemas en la aplicación del cuestionario. Se utilizó un lenguaje inclusivo en la versión final.Conclusiones.La versión española es equivalente al instrumento original. La adaptación transcultural de la escala permite, de forma sencilla y precoz, la evaluación del estado de ánimo en pacientes con ictus. Esta adaptación se puede incorporar en los cuidados en la unidad de ictus y es extrapolable a otros centros de habla hispana.

En este trabajo se abordará una cuestión central en la investigación lingüística contemporánea: la del lenguaje no sexista o “lenguaje inclusivo” y la intervención política de la Real Academia Española en esta cuestión. El objetivo de este trabajo es dar cuenta de una discusión centrada en la posibilidad de ejercer transformaciones en la lengua española con miras a cambiar algunas de las desigualdades estructurales que la integran. La metodología y teoría desde la cual se aborda el objeto es la glotopolítica: un modo de abordaje del estudio de la lengua que pone en foco el carácter político que constituye toda discusión sobre el lenguaje.

When we speak Mock Spanish, the relevant aspects of this practice are usually activated and acknowledged in terms of indexical connections to specific stereotypes regarding the Spanish language and its speakers. However, when we speak about “Mock Spanish”, in order to deconstruct such an indexical ideological presupposition and entailment, it is important to focus on the iconic features of this language, or better, of this linguistic practice. The aim of this paper is to investigate the complex network of sign-relationships that inform the linguistic and ideological phenomenon of Mock Spanish. The work by Jane Hill (1998, 2005) will be the main reference used to highlight the indexical meanings of this language and their ideological presupposition. Exploring its entailments, additionally, requires integrating the indexical aspect with the semiotic process of ‘iconization’ (Irvine and Gal 2000). Iconization between Spanish speakers and language – ideologically naturalized through an intertextual series of Mock Spanish – is a key element in the construction (and deconstruction) of the negative racial stereotypes of Spanish speakers and, inversely, of the White ‘hegemony’ in the public space. In conclusion, an overall understanding of Mock Spanish as a ‘metapragmatics’ (Silverstein 1993) will be useful to further analyze the issue of language ideology.

Judgment and Decision Making Under Uncertainty: Descriptive, Normative, and Prescriptive Perspectives was motivated by our interest in better understanding why people judge and decide as they do (descriptive perspective), how they ideally ought to judge and decide (normative perspective), and how their judgment and decision-making processes might be improved in practice (prescriptive perspective). We sought papers that addressed some aspect of judgment and decision making from one or more of these three theoretical perspectives. We further sought contributions that examined judgment and decision making under conditions of uncertainty, which we intentionally left loosely defined. Our focus on uncertainty reflects the fact that the vast majority of decisions people make in life are not made under conditions of complete certainty, and the uncertainties may be more or less well-defined. Indeed, different components of a single judgment or decision may have multiple uncertainties associated with it, some of which may be fuzzier than others. Following our call for papers, we received 32 submissions, 17 of which were accepted. The latter set comprises this book. There are 11 original research articles, 2 hypothesis and theory articles, 2 perspectives, and 1 book review and systematic review each.

Many Spanish language education programs in the US focus heavily on second language acquisition, often prioritizing communicative competence over intercultural competence (IC) and intercultural citizenship (iCit). This narrow emphasis on language development can overlook the unique needs of heritage speakers, leading to feelings of marginalization and potential attrition from programs. The authors argue that by centering the Communities goal area of the World-Readiness Standards for Learning Languages, educators can create inclusive Spanish language programs that better serve both heritage and non-heritage students. The chapter begins with an overview of heritage language learners followed by how the theoretical frameworks of IC and iCit can be used to center the Communities standards. The chapter then provides practical examples from the authors' classrooms, illustrating effective implementation strategies at elementary and high school levels. Finally, the authors offer reflective questions for teachers and program directors interested in centering the Communities standards.

The study of linguistic units operating as part of the national language within the framework of the regional usage is determined by the need to identify the features of heterogeneous variants and their place in the system of the national language, their relationship and interaction with the literary norm. The purpose of this article is to investigate the content of the linguistic term “localism” and distinguish it from other concepts used to denote territorially marked vocabulary. The article attempts to clarify the content of the linguistic term “localism” using examples from the Russian and Spanish languages, which occupies a central place in foreign linguistic regionalism. The theoretical basis of the study relies on the ideas of linguistic relativism and sociolinguistic determinism, according to which linguistic phenomena are studied taking into account variability as a fundamental property of language and in close relationship between language and social context. The methodological base is formed by general scientific methods, includingThe study of linguistic units operating as part of the national language within the framework of the regional usage is determined by the need to identify the features of heterogeneous variants and their place in the system of the national language, their relationship and interaction with the literary norm. The purpose of this article is to investigate the content of the linguistic term “localism” and distinguish it from other concepts used to denote territorially marked vocabulary. The article attempts to clarify the content of the linguistic term “localism” using examples from the Russian and Spanish languages, which occupies a central place in foreign linguistic regionalism. The theoretical basis of the study relies on the ideas of linguistic relativism and sociolinguistic determinism, according to which linguistic phenomena are studied taking into account variability as a fundamental property of language and in close relationship between language and social context. The methodological base is formed by general scientific methods, includingtheoretical analysis and synthesis of linguistic literature on the problem of regional vocabulary, as well as comparative analysis of terms denoting territorially marked language units. In the practical part of the study, the sociolinguistic interview method was used. General characteristics of localisms in Russian and Spanish are revealed. The conclusion about a stricter regulation of the use of localisms in the Spanish language is substantiated.

The paper describes the development of a short Spanish-language version of the General Well-Being Questionnaire (GWBQ; Cox and Gotts, 1987), based on the 12 items of its Worn Out scale. Research has shown the English-version Worn Out scale to be sensitive to aspects of the design and management of work. This study aimed to test its cross-cultural consistency in a Spanish-language workplace context. The data were collected from a sample of 229 workers in Valencia (Spain). Confirmatory Factor Analyses showed the factorial validity, reliability, and concurrent validity of the new Spanish version to be adequate. The sensitivity of the new measure to safety behavior and the reporting of accidents was also assessed and shown to be good. The new questionnaire extends the usefulness of the parent questionnaire to occupational health psychology research in the Spanish language by offering a short assessment tool appropriate for workplace studies.