ADOLESCENT LANGUAGE

[Cornell Language Acquisition Laboratory]

I have a few examples of meaning change from Peruvian Spanish. Around the
late 70's or early 80's the word for 'cool' or 'great' was "mostro" a
derivation from  "monstruo" which means 'monster', and though "monstruo" is
a noun, "mostro" is an adjective; so you could says things like "Vi una
película mostra ayer" 'I saw a great movie yesterday' or "Ese disco es
mostro" 'That record is great'. Later, in the mid 80's I guess, the
adjective used was "bestial" 'beastly', and the last one I've heard,
probably still being used is "maldito" 'cursed'.
	Another interesting case is the use of the equivalent of 'shit'
(please, excuse my language) in Peru. That's a word that has been in use at
least since the late 70's . The interesting aspect is the use of the
article, if one says that some is "una cagada" 'a shit' it's bad, but if
one says something is "la cagada" 'the shit' then is the coolest thing of
all. I've heard English does a similar thing.

	María Blume
	Cornell University


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