Spanish Form Research Articles

Shared Syntactic Representations in Balanced Bilinguals: Cross-linguistic Priming with and without Verb Overlap

ABSTRACTThis study investigated cross-linguistic priming in six-year-old, balanced Spanish-English bilinguals (n = 60). We examined bilinguals’ production of transitive forms in English (active, passive) after exposure to Spanish transitives (Study 1; M age = 6.2 years; SD = 0.3) and their production of transitive forms in Spanish (active, passive) after exposure to English transitives (Study 2; M age = 5.9 years; SD = 0.5). We varied whether the verb matched between the modeled prime sentences and target drawings that children described. Results revealed two-way, cross-linguistic structural priming effects, from Spanish to English as well as English to Spanish. Further, the results did not show evidence of a lexical boost in priming. These findings suggest that by school age, balanced bilingual children have generalized, shared syntactic representations and that language experience may influence the strength of the connections between these syntactic representations and lexical items.

La elección de las formas de tratamiento en las páginas de tiendas online: Un recorrido por el mundo hispano

The article deals with the choice of Spanish forms of address on online web stores. It focuses on the choice between informal (tú/vos) and formal address (usted), studied empirically using a corpus created with Google searches. In the context of an online web store, the aim is to build enough confidence in the potential buyer so that they end up buying the product offered even when the seller is not physically present and the customer does not have an opportunity to examine the product. Moreover, payment is done online, which often involves certain risks. 
 Both tuteo/voseo and ustedeo include elements aimed at building confidence in the potential customer, though from different perspectives. When the customer is addressed with tú/vos, the aim is to build confidence including a nuance of familiarity in the sales discourse. By contrast, ustedeo includes nuances of politeness and formality, and conveys the hidden message that since the online web store addresses the customer in a correct and respectful manner, the same good practices also extend to purchase situations. 
 The article presents results and conclusions related to the following research questions: the general features of the use of forms of address on online web stores; the forms of address on the online web stores in the 21 Spanish-speaking countries of the world; the forms of address in Spanish texts on US online web stores, and pages on which the potential customer is addressed with usted.

Assessing individual differences in the way people deal with ridicule and being laughed at: The Spanish form of the PhoPhiKat-45

The PhoPhiKat-45 assesses individual differences in the way people deal with ridicule and being laughed at. This instrument encompasses three intercorrelated—but independent—laughter-related traits: the fear of (gelotophobia) and the joy in (gelotophilia) being laughed at, and the joy in laughing at others (katagelasticism). This research tested the psychometric properties of the Spanish form of the PhoPhiKat-45. A total of 636 individuals whose ages ranged from 18 to 70 years participated in three different studies. Our data indicated good reliability coefficients and an adequate-to-good fit for the expected three-factor structure across all samples. As indicators of external validity, prior associations among these three laughter-related traits and diverse research variables were examined. Gelotophobia correlated with low self-enhancing humor; gelotophilia correlated with a high use of all humor styles, especially affiliative and self-defeating humor; and katagelasticism correlated with high aggressive and high self-defeating humor. Moreover, gelotophobia correlated with high subclinical autistic traits and high trait anxiety; gelotophilia correlated with low trait anxiety; and katagelasticism existed independently from both subclinical constructs. Finally, we replicated the location of the three dispositions in the Five-Factor Model (FFM) assessed by NEO-FFI. Additionally, curvilinear relationships among the traits of the FFM and gelotophobia, gelotophilia and katagelasticism were explored. Inverted U-shaped curvilinear relationships between agreeableness-gelotophobia and neuroticism-katagelasticism emerged. Our results suggest that the Spanish form of the PhoPhiKat-45 can be considered a promising instrument for the study of these dimensions in Spain.

Screening Patients Who Speak Spanish for Low Health Literacy.

Background:Inadequate health literacy is a national health problem that affects about 90 million people from all racial and ethnic groups in the United States. Conceptual and empirical models of health literacy position language as one of the most significant contributors to health literacy.Objective:A validated Spanish health literacy screening question asks how confident patients are at filling out medical forms, but it does not clarify whether the forms are in English or in Spanish, contributing to ambiguity and potentially affecting validity. The purpose of this study was to compare responses to questions that clarified the language of the forms referenced in the validated screening question; to explore how the clarified items predicted scores on a measure of health literacy; and to compare the predictive ability of the clarified health literacy items to that of a question about patients' self-reported English proficiency.Methods:Participants who speak Spanish (N = 200) completed the following surveys: Spanish Health Literacy Screening Question that clarified “English forms” (HLSQ-E) and that clarified “Spanish forms” (HLSQ-S), self-reported English proficiency (SEP), demographic questions, the Short Test of Functional Health Literacy for Adults Spanish (S-TOFHLA-S), and the Newest Vital Sign-Spanish (NVS-Spanish).Key Results:Participants reported less confidence with English medical forms than Spanish forms. The sensitivity of screening approaches varied; each predicted inadequate health literacy on the NVS-Spanish and S-TOFHLA-S with different levels of sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy. In general, the HLSQ-E was a better predictor of inadequate health literacy than the HLSQ-S; however, the SEP performed nearly as well as the HLSQ-E.Conclusion:“How confident are you at filling out medical forms in English…” more appropriately identified patients with inadequate health literacy who speak Spanish. Health literacy screening practices should consider the patient's language and the language of the health care system and use questions that are less ambiguous. [HLRP: Health Literacy Research and Practice. 2019;3(2):e110–e116.]Plain Language Summary:This project focused on patients who speak Spanish and who have a hard time understanding health information. We wanted to find out the best ways to identify these patients so that doctors and nurses can be sure to give them information in ways that they can understand. We tested screening questions that can identify these patients.

The exclusion of vos from the Spanish as a foreign language classroom discourse: A critical examination through the lens of the language management theory

ABSTRACTThis paper explores the presence of Spanish form of address vos in the university Spanish classroom discourse from the perspective of Language Management Theory. Under this model, language management is understood as any type of activity that influences language or communication, in other words, language or language use (Nekvapil & Sherman, 2015). We observed five Spanish classes as well as interviewed their instructors with the intention of examining the presence of vos in the classroom discourse and the reasons for including or excluding this form of address. Our findings show that vos is practically nonexistent in the university classroom discourse of these instructors due to a variety of reasons that include the negative connotations associated with the form vos, its linguistic complexity, its absence in the textbook, and the unfamiliarity of some instructors with this form of address. We propose that teachers use their agency in promoting the elimination of negative traditional language ideologies toward non-standard forms such as vos, which are not only used by millions but also make part of the target community’s linguistic and cultural identity.

Applied Linguistic-Tú and Usted Spanish Personal Subject Pronouns

While the simple phonetics of Spanish language makes it easier to learn and speak irrespective of its grammar complexity, acquiring a good command of this language requires a serious and disciplined study of its grammar. The use of null and overt pronouns and their different grammar related forms in Spanish elevates the level of complexity when it comes to second language acquisition (SLA). In this regard, the teaching and learning of Spanish grammar still remains a subject of interest among linguists. Thereby, the article aimed to provide a guideline through which English language native speakers would gain an insight about language traits, associated with two pronouns and how they should be used in the speaking and writing context of Spanish language communication.

Self-competence in death work. Spanish version of the Self-Competence in Death Work Scale

ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to translate into Spanish the Self Competence in Death Work Scale (SC-DWS) and to explore its psychometric properties of validity and reliability. MethodParticipants were 106 nursing professionals, who worked in units related to care at the end of life. Participants answered a questionnaire containing the Spanish forms of the Self-Competence in Death Work Scale (SC-DWS), Perceived Life Significance Scale (PLSS), Death Anxiety Inventory-Revised (DAI-R), Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) and General Self Efficacy Scale (GSE). ResultsA Cronbach's alpha coefficient of .71 was obtained. The factorial analysis yielded five significant factors that accounted for 59.9% of the variance. The scores of the SC-DWS presented a positive and significant coefficient of correlation with Self-efficacy (GSE) and Meaning of life (PLSS) and negative with General anxiety and Depression (HADS) and Death anxiety (DAI-R). DiscussionThe Spanish form of the SC-DWS has acceptable psychometric properties. This instrument could be used for evaluating competences of the professionals that work in environments related to the end of life. Likewise, it could be used to assess the efficiency of interventions directed to the acquisition of skills and coping strategies for suffering and death.

Pere Gimferrer in Catalan: from Personal to Political Commitment

This article sheds some light on the language change – from Spanish to Catalan – that took place in Pere Gimferrer’s work, one of the most acclaimed living poets in Spain. Specifically, the paper tries to analyse the political consequences of writing in Catalan during the Spanish transition form Franco’s dictatorship to democracy.

Formas pronominales de tratamiento en español y chino

A partir de un corpus compuesto por tres teleseries, este estudio analiza comparativamente tres características similares de las formas pronominales de tratamiento en español y chino –la elipsis de los pronombres de tratamiento sujeto, el polimorfismo pronominal y la lexicalización del pronombre de tratamiento de cortesía– y discute, asimismo, los distintos factores lingüísticos y socioculturales que les favorecen tales características.

Beware Occam’s Syntactic Razor: Morphotactic Analysis and Spanish Mesoclisis

Harris and Halle (2005) present a framework (Generalized Reduplication) that unites the treatment of phonological reduplication and metathesis with similar phenomena in morphology, thereby accounting for the apparently spurious placement of the imperative plural - n in mesoclitic Spanish forms such as hága-lo-n ‘Do it!’, in which clitic lo is sandwiched between the verbal stem and the plural suffix. Kayne (2010) has challenged their analysis, arguing that such cases should be treated purely within the syntax. We reassess some of Kayne’s arguments, agreeing with his conclusion that the most important desideratum of any general analysis of such phenomena is restrictiveness. However, we contend that greater restrictiveness can be achieved through morphotactic constraints and repairs in the Generalized Reduplication formalism, triggered by a Noninitiality constraint on the positioning of the plural affix, and we develop constraints on these operations that situate interspeaker variation within the postsyntactic component.

The use of -ing and -ndo forms in sales contracts

Abstract This paper analyzes the use of the -ing and -ndo forms in English and Spanish in sales contracts. More specifically, it aims to answer three questions: 1. Do the -ing and the -ndo forms occur more frequently in sales contracts than in general language? 2. Do English sales contracts contain more -ing forms used in more syntactic functions than the Spanish -ndo in Spanish sales contracts? 3. Are both the -ing forms and the -ndo forms found in all or most parts of the sales contracts retained for this study? Our study is based on two comparable corpora of English and Spanish: a legal corpus containing sales contracts, and a general corpus. Our corpora provide the following answers to the questions posed: 1. Both the -ing and the -ndo forms occur more frequently in sales contracts than in general language; 2. There are more -ing forms in English sales contracts than there are -ndo forms in Spanish sales contracts, but in both cases, they are used in a variety of syntactic functions; 3. Both the -ing forms and the -ndo forms are found in most parts of the sales contracts used in this study.

Dialectal variation of the preterit and imperfect

Abstract This investigation examines the use of the pretérito and imperfecto forms in Puerto Rican and Buenos Aires Spanish. These dialects were chosen because the pretérito can express a perfect event in Buenos Aires Spanish while this use has not been documented in Puerto Rican Spanish. This may cause differences in the use of these forms. The main goal of this investigation was to contrast the linguistic predictors in both dialects in order to determine if there are dialectal differences and if they are due to different grammaticalization pathways. The results indicate that there are some differences between the Spanish spoken by Puerto Ricans and that of the Argentines of Buenos Aires. Among the results, it was found that these two dialects had different predictors for the pretérito and imperfecto. These results show preliminary evidence that indicates that these dialects follow different grammaticalization paths.

J.-Sp. <em>puertas de rey (es)</em> 'royal courts'

La expresión puertas de rey (es), documentada sólo en tres versiones de un solo romance recogido en la isla de Rodas, en 1911, corresponde al antiguo español puerta del rey, con el sentido 'corte del rey', que consta en Calila y Dimna y en el Libro de los çient capítulos. El concepto puerta = corte existe en muchos idiomas antiguos y modernos del Próximo Oriente: árabe clásico bāb al-malik; turco otomano qāpu; persa y urdù darbār; babilonio bābu; hebreo ša'ar y arameo ṭĕra'; egipcio tardío 'ryt; antiguo persa *duvar; griego clásico thúrai; latín norteafricano porta. La forma antigua española sin duda tiene su origen en el mismo original árabe de Kalila wa-Dimna, mientras que la judeoespañola reflejará un calco semántico hecho a base del turco otomano qāpu, de acuerdo con otras muchas influencias del turco y de las lenguas balcánicas en el judeoespañol oriental.

La genericidad en español: perspectiva contrastiva con el chino

El concepto de genericidad existe en todas lenguas humanas. En este trabajo estudiamos las diferentes formas genéricas en español. No solo revelamos sus rasgos semánticos y sintácticos sino también la analizamos desde perspectiva contrastiva con el chino. Encontramos que en chino, una lengua sin el sistema de artículos, también existen formas similares para expresar la genericidad, que son el nombre escueto, la estructura con el numeral yī (uno) -- yī + Cl + N y la estructura con los demostrativos y los clasificadores especiales que expresan la clase o especie-- zhè (este)/ nà (aquel) + zhǒng (tipo)/ lèi(especie) + N. Nos damos cuenta de que las distintas formas genéricas, sea en español o en chino, presentan unos matices en su base semántica o cognitiva. Además, sufren limitaciones cuando ocupen diferentes posiciones sintácticas en una oración. Repasando “la Hipótesis de la Universalidad de la Genericidad de los Grupos Nominales Escuetos” de Liu (2002), intentamos plantear nuestra propia propuesta nueva que denominamos como “la Hipótesis de la Genericidad Latente de los SSNN Escuetos en Español”. Con esta teoría se pueda entender mejor y con más facilidad los rasgos semánticos y sintácticos de la genericidad de español.

El pidgin chino-español de Manila a principios del siglo XVIII

AbstractDespite the relative abundance of written records from the late 19th century of interactions in Chinese pidgin Spanish (a modified form of Spanish used in business transactions between Chinese merchants in Manila and their customers), few of these texts have made it into the hands ―or research― of Creole experts. Up to now, Chinese pidgin Spanish has been largely dismissed by creolists as an unstable jargon unworthy of their attention. However, the presence and use of stereotypes among the local population, as evidenced by the substantial corpus of surviving documents from this period, demonstrates a certain degree of stability in at least some aspects of the pidgin. The recent discovery of a short dialogue in Chinese pidgin Spanish dating from the early 18th century has pushed the timeline for the language back much further. This article examines the main linguistic features of the dialogue and compares them with those from a century and a half later. The results indicate the prolonged stability of the stereotypes over a period of at least 150 years. The analysis also explores the possible origins of these linguistic forms and how they spread.

Translation as a part of linguoculture of Spain in the XVI-XVII centuries

XVI- XVII centuries were the «golden age» in the history of Spanish culture, which was largely due to the translation. Through translation into Spanish literature, the motifs and forms of lyrical and epic poetry, the themes of ancient and Italian plays, the knightly and pastoral novel, the novel genre have penetrated. The translation allowed the Spaniards to get acquainted with the ideas of humanists from di erent countries of Western and Central Europe. The translation contributed to the enrichment of the Spanish language.

The Relación de Michoacán (1539–1541) and the Politics of Representation in Colonial Mexico

Rather than a dichotomous split between conqueror and conquered, interethnic relations in New Spain have increasingly been approached with nuance, recognizing the multiple identities and agendas at play. Afanador-Pujol’s meticulously researched book on the Relación de Michoacán (1539–41) sheds light on the careful crafting of history, both recent and ancient, on the part of two indigenous groups that made up the multiethnic Tarascan state: the migrant Uanacaze, and the isleños who originated on the islands of Lake Pátzcuaro. Commissioned by the Spanish viceroy, supervised by a Franciscan friar, and authored by indigenous nobles and artists, it is one of the earliest surviving manuscripts from colonial Mexico. The author reconstructs the history of the region as expressed in the manuscript with a particular eye for the political machinations of its authors.Using colonial archival documents, Afanador-Pujol teases through the motivations behind the various historical episodes chosen to illustrate the indigenous history of the region. Ultimately she finds that through both mimicry of Spanish forms and the sustained usage of pre-Columbian iconography, the Uanacaze present themselves as conquerors of the region with a Christian-like ethnic identity. Similarly, the indigenous governor Don Pedro Cuiniarangari, an isleño, presents himself as an intermediary between the Uanacaze and the Spanish colonial authorities. Despite their differing agendas, both ethnic groups had to present a united front in their efforts to combat the encroachment of power-hungry Spanish encomenderos (Spaniards granted indigenous labor in the form of an encomienda).Afanador-Pujol highlights the groups’ “selective and calculated effort to convey a particular meaning in the hopes of better communicating with their audience while conveying their knowledge of the pre-Colombian past.” The hybridity visible in the document was thus a conscious effort on the part of the indigenous nobles and artists to carefully craft their history and identity for a Spanish audience.The manuscript is full of emendations to the images as well as discrepancies between image and text, phenomena that Afanador-Pujol examines through visual analysis. The written content of the Relacíon de Michoacán, however, could have been highlighted more clearly by the author. The painted portions of the manuscript are cropped from the text and the reader is at times left wondering how the images discussed fit with the written text of the manuscript. The book would also have benefited from more in-depth discussion of the materiality of the manuscript and its history from creation to the present day. The author nevertheless succeeds in revealing the intricacies of the collaboration between the Spanish patrons and multiethnic native artists and narrators and is an excellent resource for specialists and a wider audience alike.

Remarks on research of anaphora resolution in situations of language contact: Cross-linguistic influence and the PAS

Purpose: This article proposes a new definition of cross-linguistic influence on anaphora resolution in situations of language contact appealing to the Position of Antecedent Strategy. Design: To this effect it examines existing evidence for and definitions of cross-linguistic influence across Spanish, Italian, Greek, and English, four languages research has concentrated on most intensively. Data and analysis: Methodological and theoretical issues are brought to the fore and the evidence of cross-linguistic influence re-evaluated in light of recent investigations of L1 processing of Spanish, Italian, and Greek anaphora. Findings/conclusions: The re-evaluation points to the conclusion that null pronouns are interpreted and processed in similar ways by native speakers, L2 speakers, and L1 attriters, even if speakers have contact with or are very proficient in languages such as English or Swedish where null anaphora is unavailable. Overt pronouns in Italian are more similar to Greek than Spanish and cross-linguistic influence affects only overt anaphora. Originality: If cross-linguistic influence is conceived in terms of the Position of Antecedent Strategy, then apparently contradictory cases such as the over-production of overt forms by Spanish speakers of Italian and the balanced co-reference of Spanish overt forms to topic and non-topic antecedents can be accounted for. Significance/implications: Cross-linguistic influence takes place from the language with less towards the language with more categorical biases. Recommendations for future research with the populations studied, data analysis and collection, and linguistic structures examined are made.

La función evangelizadora del teatro breve en la Nueva España del siglo XVI

Concebido como instrumento eficaz en la labor de cristianización de la población indígena, el teatro evangelizador fue el primer producto cultural plenamente mestizo de la Nueva España. Para desarrollarlo, los misioneros (en especial franciscanos) adaptaron a menudo al contexto americano formas dramáticas breves de la tradición peninsular, integradas en marcos celebrativos más amplios cuyas características fueron variando a lo largo del siglo XVI de acuerdo, por un lado, a las diversas etapas del proceso evangelizador y, por otro, a las necesidades concretas de las distintas zonas del virreinato. El presente artículo aborda algunas de esas formas de teatro breve a partir de la funcionalidad que estas adquirieron en los distintos tipos de eventos de los que formaron parte a lo largo de ese primer siglo de la colonia.

Anatomy and variability of "Cuvierichelys parisiensis", a geoemydid turtle that crosses the Eocene-Oligocene boundary in Belgium

Abundant material of turtles from the early Oligocene site of Boutersem-TGV (Boutersem, Belgium), is presented here. No information on the turtles found there was so far available. All the turtle specimens presented here are attributable to a single freshwater taxon that is identified as a member of Geoemydidae, Cuvierichelys . It is the first representative of the ‘ Palaeochelys s. l.– Mauremys ’ group recognized in the Belgian Paleogene record. This material, which allows to know all the elements of both the carapace and the plastron of the taxon, cannot be attributed to the only species of the genus Cuvierichelys so far identified in the Oligocene, the Spanish form Cuvierichelys iberica . The taxon from Boutersem is recognized as Cuvierichelys parisiensis . Thus, both the paleobiogeographic and the biostratigraphic distributions of Cuvierichelys parisiensis are extended, its presence being confirmed for the first time outside the French Eocene record. The validity of some European forms is refuted, and several characters previously proposed as different between Cuvierichelys iberica and Cuvierichelys parisiensis are recognized as subjected to intraspecific variability.