29.3284, Review: English; Spanish; Historical Linguistics; Lexicography: Schultz (2018)

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-29-3284. Mon Aug 27 2018. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 29.3284, Review: English; Spanish; Historical Linguistics; Lexicography: Schultz (2018)

Moderator: linguist at linguistlist.org (Malgorzata E. Cavar)
Reviews: reviews at linguistlist.org (Helen Aristar-Dry, Robert Coté)
Homepage: https://linguistlist.org

Please support the LL editors and operation with a donation at:
           https://funddrive.linguistlist.org/donate/

Editor for this issue: Jeremy Coburn <jecoburn at linguistlist.org>
================================================================


Date: Mon, 27 Aug 2018 15:52:37
From: Laura Dubcovsky [lauradubcovsky at gmail.com]
Subject: The influence of Spanish on the English language since 1801. A lexical investigation.

 
Discuss this message:
http://linguistlist.org/pubs/reviews/get-review.cfm?subid=36423577


Book announced at http://linguistlist.org/issues/29/29-894.html

AUTHOR: Julia  Schultz
TITLE: The Influence of Spanish on the English Language since 1801
SUBTITLE: A Lexical Investigation
PUBLISHER: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
YEAR: 2018

REVIEWER: Laura Dubcovsky, University of California, Davis

SUMMARY

“The influence of Spanish on the English language since 1801: A lexical
investigation” presents a detailed analysis of lexical items that were
borrowed from Spanish to English in the last three centuries.  The study
addresses a specialized audience, interested in the Spanish/ English
relationship at the lexicon level. The book, which has a clear layout with
three distinctive parts, two appendices and a pertinent bibliography, may be
used as a manual in basic and advanced courses of lexicology and languages in
contact.

The first part includes a general introduction that comprises previous studies
on Spanish borrowings (chapter one), as well as main aims and methodology
(chapter two). Schultz claims that “the present survey will offer a more
up-to- date and exhaustive description of the variety of words and meanings
that have been introduced from Spanish into English since 1801” (p. 3). The
author defines the terminology used in the book, - word, lexical item, term
and meaning-, and emphasizes the notion of vocabulary core, as pertinent to
the more common lexicon with which the “ordinary” native speakers of English
are usually familiar.  Schultz adds more subject fields to the existing in
former studies, underlines the need for situating the Spanish/English lexicon
in context, and lists main sources used in the book. More importantly, she
integrates quantitative and qualitative tools of analysis, drawing from the
Oxford Electronic Dictionary (OED), the Corpus of Contemporary American
English (COCA), English as a foreign language (EFL) and the British New Corpus
(BNC). These rich sources enable her to account for total numbers of lexical
items, ratios of core vocabulary and duration, as well as to explain stylistic
functions, semantic changes and contextual usage of the Spanish borrowings.  

In the second part Schultz describes major spheres of life influenced by
Spanish in the nineteenth century (chapter 1) and since 1901 (chapter 2). The
author traces similar subject fields for each century and recounts 1355
lexical items (159 of which belong to the core vocabulary) and 525 lexical
items (59 from the core vocabulary) for the 19th and 20th and 21st centuries,
respectively. The broad life areas include technology (metallurgic, machinery,
electronics, etc.),  leisure and pleasure (entertainment, games, tourism,
etc.), civilization and politics (security and criminalistics, war and the
military, administration and government, economy and business, etc.),  fine
arts and crafts (architecture, literature, dance, music, etc.), humanities
(church and religion, linguistics, archeology, etc.), gastronomy (utensils,
restaurants, food and drinks, etc.), people and everyday life (transport,
shopping, monetary units, communication, housing,  agriculture and farming,
etc.) and natural sciences (from chemistry and medicine to geology and
geography and biology, etc.). The author pays special attention to semantic
changes, elaborating on how borrowings may broaden or narrow the context of
use, improve or worsen the original meaning, and even embellish the
significance through the use of metaphors and metonyms. 

The last part of the book summarizes in integral manner quantitative and
qualitative results from the analyzed periods. For example, Schultz is able
not only to point at the peak of lexical items borrowed during the 1850, but
also to explain the high number in light of the more intense cultural and
linguistic contact during the spread of English settlers from North America to
the West (Figure 1, p. 240). Likewise, the numerical decline of Spanish
borrowings since 1930 is also accompanied by socio-cultural explanations
(Figure 4, p. 250).  The author also compares the borrowings’ distribution per
decades of each particular century, and highlights its decreasing order
according to different lexical domains (Figures 2 and 5, pp. 241 and 251,
respectively).  For example, the field of natural sciences has the highest
rank (31.6%)  during the nineteenth century,  because of the increasing
interest in learning terms of exotic animals, plants, and landscape occurring
in Spanish speaking countries of the new world.  The field of people and
everyday is the second largest in the 1800s (28.2%) and remains strong in the
1900s (20.8%), mainly through the incorporation of historical and cultural
borrowings (“tertulia,” “cabildo,” and “Latino”) that are used in the original
language to preserve the heavily loaded connotations. Likewise the field of
gastronomy is popular in the two centuries (10.4% and 17.3%, respectively),
incorporating items of typical cuisine, wines and tobacco items (“empanadas,”
“tequila,” and “cortado”).   Preferred borrowings from the fields of arts and
crafts mainly derive from dances (“flamenco,” “guiro,” and “tango”), while the
field of civilization and politics lends governmental terms (“guardia civil”,
“conquistador”), and political parties and movements (“Sendero Luminoso” and
“guerrilla”).   

Moreover Schultz examines semantic changes, stylistic functions, and
contextual usage that affect numbers, ratios and duration of the Spanish
borrowings.  First she underlines standard lexical categories of broadening,
narrowing, amelioration, pejoration, metaphor and metonyms that impact. For
examples, the term “vaquita” (“little cow”) is used both as the diminutive of
cow and beetle, broadening its semantic context, while the item “tiento” is
constraint to the specialized field of bullfighting, narrowing its meaning.
Likewise, some borrowings ameliorate the literal meaning,-such as “cinch,”
which changes from meaning “girth for horses” into a sophisticated sense of
firm or secure hold, while others worsen their original significance adapting 
pejorative nuances, such as current derogative term “pochismo.”  Finally some
linguistic devices can embellish meanings through metaphors and metonyms, such
as the mentioned “cinch”, or “Solena” (type of wine that represents a variety
of cask in which the wine is stored), respectively.   Then Schultz analyzes
stylistic functions that add local color, precision and vividness to the
Spanish borrowings, for example when borrowings refer to powerful individuals
- “jefe politico” (political leader) - and festivities -“fiesta de la
vendimia” (grape harvest festival).  Some borrowings have an “intentional
disguise” that enables to avoid the direct term, -such as the use of “pasta
básica” (basic paste) instead “cocaina” (cocaine)-, while others may add
humor, criticism, (un) favorable tones to the meaning, - such as colloquial 
uses of “compadre” (godfather) and frequent interjections , such as “olé” and
“caramba.” 

Above all Schultz highlights the contextual usage and the development of the
borrowing, within and between Spanish/ English speaking contexts. For example,
the term “unitarios,” as used in the Argentinean context of the 19th century,
signifies a “centralized government” that opposes to a federal system
(“federales”), bringing about a new meaning that was later transposed to the
English Language. Likewise the word “developmentalism” was originally
documented in English, linked to philosophical or theological doctrines.
However, under the influence of the Spanish noun “desarrollismo,” it came to
specify an economic theory by 1970.  Lastly, and after having traced so
delicately the historical path of Spanish borrowings, the author acknowledges
the increasing use, prestige and power of English, especially since 1950.  

EVALUATION

“The influence of Spanish on the English language since 1801: A lexical
investigation” represents a main contribution to the fields of lexicology and
languages in contact. Schultz dedicates the major part of the book to describe
the chronological distribution of general lexicon and particular core
vocabulary during the nineteenth, twentieth and twenty first centuries. Rather
than listing words and expressions in isolation, the author uncovers a sense
of development and contextual usage of the Spanish borrowings. To pursue her
goals, she underlines grammatical categories, semantic changes and stylistic
functions as applied in the English language. Along the book Schultz details a
variety of loan influences - lexical, Hispanicisms, direct and exoticisms-
drawing from historic and current newspapers, multimedia and electronic
dictionaries, which make the examples even more relevant. The two appendices
classify Spanish borrowings into grammatical categories (nouns, noun phrases,
adjectives, verbs, and interjections), dividing them by decades, according to
the mentioned sources of the OED Online and the EFL dictionaries. 

The systematic effort of searching for Spanish borrowings and integrating
quantitative and qualitative analyses is somehow lost under the numerous
examples that are not listed or organized in more manageable manner. We
suggest that the author offers the meticulous list of borrowings at the end of
the book, in alphabetical order and that she includes the page number.  By
this means, expert and novice readers would count with a useful tool to access
historical terms that still affect current Spanish/English interaction. 
Moreover Schultz could attract a broader audience that would learn of evolving
meanings of the core vocabulary, as well as current status and directionality
between languages. Definitely the author is committed not only to capturing
Spanish borrowings documented in the English language since 1801, but also
shedding light on the impact of a less explored directionality from Spanish to
English. Without any doubt the book constitutes a respected resource for
students and experts in the field.


ABOUT THE REVIEWER






------------------------------------------------------------------------------

*****************    LINGUIST List Support    *****************
Please support the LL editors and operation with a donation at:

              The IU Foundation Crowd Funding site:
       https://iufoundation.fundly.com/the-linguist-list

               The LINGUIST List FundDrive Page:
            https://funddrive.linguistlist.org/donate/
 


----------------------------------------------------------
LINGUIST List: Vol-29-3284	
----------------------------------------------------------