Semas. Revista de Lingüística Teórica y Aplicada is a biannual publication, available in digital format and open access, edited by the Faculty of Languages and Literature at the Universidad Autónoma de Querétaro (UAQ), Mexico. It publishes original research articles, written in Spanish and English, that have an impact on the field of theoretical and applied linguistics, as well as reviews and interviews of interest to the field. Each article undergoes peer review by academic specialists in the area, who issue a verdict through a double-blind process.
Aquellos autores que tengan publicaciones con esta revista aceptan los términos siguientes: Los autores garantizarán a la revista el derecho de primera publicación de su obra, el cual estará simultáneamente sujeto a la Licencia de reconocimiento de Creative Commons que permite a terceros compartir la obra bajo los mismos acuerdos en que está formulada la Licencia que se especifica, siempre que se indique su autor y su primera publicación en esta revista. Los autores podrán adoptar otros acuerdos de licencia no exclusiva de distribución de la versión de la obra publicada siempre que se indique la publicación inicial en esta revista. Se permite y recomienda a los autores la difusión de su obra a través de Internet, lo cual podría producir intercambios interesantes y aumentaría las citas de la obra publicada. Los trabajos publicados en Semas. Revista de Lingüística Teórica y Aplicada se publican bajo los términos que se indican en la Licencia de Creative Commons con la Atribución 4.0 Internacional (CC BY 4).
Indefiniteness marking in classical nahuatl
It is well known that unitary cardinals are a common source of grammaticalization for indefinite articles. In this context, the present study analyzes the use of the unitary cardinals se: and sente- as possible markers of indefiniteness in classical nahuatl. For this purpose, we describe the use of these forms in four contexts typically associated with the development of indefinite articles: presentational uses, opaque contexts, generics and predicates. Given that, in classical nahuatl, non-plural bare nouns are documented in these contexts, we also analyze them, in order to contribute to a better understanding of their meaning. Based on the analysis of our data, we propose that in classical nahuatl se: and sente- are, indeed, markers of indefiniteness with an existential meaning, although their grammaticalization has not been completed. As for non-plural bare nominals, we argue that they can be interpreted as existentials, definites, and generics. This wide range of interpretations derives from the fact that non-plural bare nouns in Classical Nahuatl can both be definite and refer directly to classes.
Copyright (c) 2025 Semas http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Franco, E. D. (2024). Juegos verbales de la tradición popular mexicana. El Colegio de México. 424 páginas. ISBN: 978-607-564-617-6
Gómez-Devís, M. B. (2024). Léxico disponible de los escolares valencianos. Alcance, control y evolución en educación primaria. Editorial Octaedro. 175 páginas. ISBN: 978-84-10-79012-4
Baldomero Rivodó and the Dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy
Baldomero Rivodó’s masterpiece, Voces nuevas en la lengua Castellana, published in Paris in 1889, has not been studied from a monographic perspective. As described on the cover page, its discussion centers on lexical issues, particularly neologisms. Its treatment of the topic is in line with other works published on the same subject since the mid-19th century. These reflect the debate between conservatism and innovation, the admission of new words and the acceptance of loanwords in the Spanish language. Based on an examination of this book, this paper will explore the author’s linguistic ideas, his position on the admission of neologisms and loanwords, his assessment of the Real Academia Española and its dictionary, and the proposals that derive from all this to insert words in the academic lexicographical repertoire.
From an analogue semiotics of and for the metaphor and beyond in Mauricio Beuchot
Metaphor is the substance of poetry. Mauricio Beuchot has tested the performance for the analysis of the metaphor of semiotics based on Peirce and his followers. Analogy, or similarity, manages to intertwine literal and metaphorical meanings as well as poetic creativity. But beyond semiotics, metaphor is complemented by metonymy and from both, through analogical hermeneutics, philosophical, metaphysical, and anthropological scope emerges. In this work I have proposed, following the Mexican philosopher, to present, exemplify and show this performance and saying “beyond” a semiotics of metaphor.
Analysis of the decoding of glottalized words in the tseltal language by second and third cycle primary school students
The development of written language in indigenous Mexican has few contributions that offer evidence of the way in which individuals access reading and writing skills, as well as the conceptualizations behind them. The present study aligns with this aspect and examines the effect that exposure to written language in the Tseltal language may have in the context of two experimental tasks that test the decoding of glottalized words is tested. The results show that participants tend to make better conceptualizations when they are exposed to written form of the language they must decode. These findings allow us to rethink the value of effective and functional exposure to indigenous languages, with the goal of establishing better mechanisms for the optimal development of bilingual literacy.
Observations on the reference to digital places with aquí, ahí, allí, acá and allá on Twitter
This article examines the use of the locative demonstrative paradigm in Spanish (aquí, ahí, allí, acá and allá) in a corpus made of Twitter conversations. Namely, it studies locative referent recognition and the types of places that are referred to, including digital places. Since social network conversations are established between participants that don’t share their spatiotemporal coordinates, this paper focuses on the endophoric function of demonstratives (that is, the way the presence of a coreferential expression in the linguistic context aids the interpretation of the demonstrative). Our findings suggest that demonstrative use on Twitter involves a correferential element to achieve the recognition of their referent and whose nature is not always linguistic. Aquí, acá and ahí can be used to make reference to digital places. Finally, a contrast was identified between “closer” and “further” digital places based on their ease of access.
Prosodic realization of quotations in personal experience narratives. Data from Mexico City
This research explores the prosodic realization of quotations or reported speech in personal experience narratives in Spanish spoken in Mexico City. The data is part of the Sociolinguistic Corpus of Mexico City (CSCM), which is integrated into the Project for the Sociolinguistic Study of Spanish from Spain and America (PRESEEA). A total of 52 quotations consisting of 120 utterances produced by 13 interviewees, 9 women and 4 men, are analyzsed. The data were analyzed in the Praat program according to the parameters of the Autosegmental Metric Model. The results demonstrate that quotations exhibit distinctive prosodic characteristics that differentiate them from declarative utterances. Additionally, the segment of the narrative corresponding to the complicating action was found to have the highest number of quotations accompanied by a specific prosodic realization. Furthermore, the data revealed that, in some cases, the evaluative value of the quotation is associated with prosodic particularities.
Subjective “trauma”: grammar and discourse or the split reference as an effect of the dialectical relationship enunciation/statement
The question about the speaking subject and meaning exhibits a kind of “trauma” that the language sciences cannot explain without questioning their own foundation to a certain extent. For this reason, the explanations constructed in this field usually ignore this widely corrosive “traumatic” element that would call into question the conception of language and discourse that they employ. In this paper, we will undertake a symptomatic reading (Althusser, 1983) of linguistics, particularly grammar, taking into account the “traumatic” (intractable) element that it expels from its core, inasmuch as its reception would dismantle it or, at least, make it falter as a disciplinary field of theoretical reflection and analytical exercise on language.
(Socio)linguistic variation in the use of the subjunctive mood in Spanish spoken in Oaxaca de Juárez, Oaxaca, Mexico
This article is about the vitality of the subjunctive mood in the spoken Spanish of Oaxaca de Juarez, Mexico. Based on a corpus of recordings from street use surveys of almost 60 speakers at the Oaxacan zocalo, and considering aspects of migration and multilingualism, sociolinguistic and linguistic-contextual differences in the use of the subjunctive mood in the urban speech community are analyzed for the first time. Despite the existence of relevant work on the speech community in recent years, there have been no studies on morphosyntactic elements of Spanish in the region to this day. The findings of our research show that there is still a lively use of the subjunctive mood in Oaxaca de Juárez, and that its use is generalized in the speech community without the influence of extralinguistic variables.
Variability of relativisers in subject cleft sentences in five varieties of Spanish
This study establishes the range of variation of Spanish relativisers in subject clefts with human referents. Data were obtained from elicitation tasks conducted in Felipe Carrillo Puerto (Quintana Roo, Mexico), Mexico City (Mexico), Asuncion (Paraguay), Cali (Colombia), and Valladolid (Spain). The standardization of DET+que (e.g. la que está empujando el cochecito es Mafalda), facilitates referent retrieval through pronoun-verb agreement (gender and number) displacing the relativiser quien, a minor variant now only characteristic to specific individuals and more formal interactions. Furthermore, while clefts with plain que (e.g. es Cantinflas que está fumando un cigarrillo) were found in all five varieties, it is much more pervasive in Yucatecan Spanish than in the other ones. This usage can be interpreted as an extension of the que galicado structures to the nominal domain.
Liquid sound articulation in Chinese-Mexican Spanish. Acquisition of L2 phonology in a language contact situation
The habla de chino is a literary imitation of the FL Spanish of Chinese origin speakers, where phonological processes reveal simplification and crosslinguistic interference, resulting in relatively homogeneous solutions. In this linguistic stereotype, every rhotic sound systematically undergoes a process of lateralization. A detailed analysis of the liquid production in naturally-occurring data from a corpus of nearly fourteen hours of the FL Spanish of bilingual speakers in a Chinese-Mexican community indicates a much more diverse phonological articulation. The different articulations that comprise the system of liquid production in Chinese-Mexican FL Spanish demonstrate a series of articulations ruled by phonetic, phonotactic, and syllabic factors that influence their production in their FL Spanish.
Salgado López, M. (2023). La constitución del corpus. Algunas reflexiones teórico-prácticas con análisis de contenido o de corpus. México: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. 84 páginas. ISBN: 9786073085434
Copyright (c) 2024 Semas http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
The functions of ka in Yaqui, o’dam and wixárika
In a grammatical description of Uto-Aztecan languages, Langacker (1997) identifies various functions of *ka, ranging from the copulative verb ‘to be’, a stative marker, a tense-aspect affix, a participle, a subordinating marker, to a possessive morpheme. The purpose of this study is to explore the verbal functions of ka in three languages not mentioned by Langacker: Yaqui, O’dam, and Wixárika. Uses as a stative marker, participial, and subordinating marker are identified in all three languages. In Yaqui and Wixárika, it appears as a postural verb ‘sit’ and a verbal possession morpheme. In Wixárika, a locative morpheme ka is observed, a function not mentioned by Langacker. The most stable function is as a tense-aspect marker, although the values tend to vary between the languages. These initial observations lay the foundation for future comparative studies on ka, its allomorphs, and derived forms, as well as the potential grammaticalization paths.
Norris. S. (2020). Multimodal Theory and Methodology: for the Analysisof Inter(action) and Identity. New York: Routledge. 240 páginas. ISBN 978103233694
¿Cómo visualizan la retroalimentación escrita los aprendices de español como lengua extranjera? Un panorama actual de las experiencias, percepciones y preferencias de los estudiantes como escritores
Identificar las preferencias y percepciones de los estudiantes de español como lengua extranjera con respecto a la retroalimentación escrita es esencial para empoderar a nuestros estudiantes como escritores. Los estudios enfocados en percepciones muestran incongruencias entre las prácticas pedagógicas y las perspectivas de los estudiantes respecto a ellas. Esta inconsistencia puede entorpecer el proceso de revisiones además de limitar el desarrollo de la escritura. Por lo tanto, este estudio ofrece un panorama actual sobre este asunto al explorar las opiniones y preferencias de 21 estudiantes intermedios de español como lengua extranjera respecto a la retroalimentación escrita. También se presenta un perfil detallado de los participantes como escritores basado en las estrategias de redacción que reportaron implementar y en sus experiencias con la enseñanza de alfabetización. Se observó una perspectiva positiva creciente respecto a la retroalimentación, pues los participantes consideraron que les ayudó a mejorar sus habilidades como escritores. A su vez, los participantes prefirieron los comentarios indirectos que (a) captaran su atención por su prominencia y (b) proveyeran información metalingüística. En este estudio la audiencia también tendrá acceso a recomendaciones pedagógicas para promover las aptitudes de sus estudiantes como escritores.
Language attitudes and ideologies in recovered texts and historical newspapers published in the American Southwest in the early 20th century
The concepts of linguistic ideologies and attitudes have been crucial for explaining the linguistic behaviors of individuals and social groups. This study will analyze the role of language in power relations and the importance of ideologies on discourse, focusing on two novels about Mexican immigration and three Spanish-language newspapers published in Texas during the first half of the 20th century. Through these printed publications, I will examine how the linguistic ideologies that emerged in southwestern communities at the beginning of the last century are reflected in the literary and journalistic production of the time. The analysis reveals that bilingual speech is depicted negatively in the printed discourse and evokes, since the early 20th century, ideas about “what is correct” and “what is pure”, alongside notions concerning the role of language in shaping national, cultural and linguistic identities.
Paralell concordance in the translation of gerund verbs (-ing) in an ad hoc corpus of technical pet health marketing texts
This research takes into consideration the linguistic phenomena of ambiguity in the translation of -ing verbs that appear in technical pet health marketing texts from English to Spanish through an bilingual parallel ad hoc corpora, which could be a sample of a bigger corpora, through the Sketch Engine tool and by using the parallel concordance function, and to prove the main objective that is to contrast by using such function that the translation of -ing verbs from English to Spanish. Because of that the research question is the following: is it possible to contrast aspects that tend to be mistaken during the process of translating technical texts of pet health from English to Spanish to verify the quality in such translations? This research is mixed, firstly, it is qualitative, because there is a contrast of translation of -ing verbs from English to Spanish in an ad hoc corpus, which was done exclusively to verify the quality of translation of such type of texts, and at the same time, it is also quantitative, because the number of mistakes are also given, as well as the percentage of the quality range that was found in the ad hoc corpus. Due to that, corpus linguistics could be seen as a methodology that can be applied to analyze linguistic phenomena, in this case, to postedit translated texts. Thanks to this analysis the conclusion is that the range of quality can be verified through the construction of an ad hoc corpus, and this can be a way to verify many aspects that tend to be mistaken in the translation of technical texts from English to Spanish.
translation of technical texts from English to Spanish
Jieun Kiaer (2023). Multimodal Communication in Young Multilingual Children: Learning Beyond Words. Bristol: Multilingual Matters. 192 pages. ISBN: 9781800413337
Reflections on the impact of artificial intelligence on language teaching. The ChatGPT revolution
This article presents initial reflections on the educational implications of chatbot technologies, made available partially free by the end of 2022. These artificial intelligences in chat format, but also image generators or audio transcribers, will suppose a revolution in basic educational concepts such as cognitive development in childhood and the notion of original writing. In particular, chatbot technologies, and other artificial intelligence resources such as image generators, offer tools for language learning dynamics and the development of multilingual awareness that are the prelude to a radical change in technological learning tools. Moreover, AI chats open up a new and promising terrain for interaction from what could be called techno-socio-constructivism.
Suspension points: retrieval of elided information with Greimas’ isotopies and Mark Johnson’s image schemas
Ellipsis, or suspension points, are linguistic signs commonly used to omit information in texts. The research on the possibility of retrieving such information through linguistic theories is uncommon. Therefore, this article proposes, on the one hand, a double analysis, from structural and cognitive semantics, of two poems by Barba Jacob that contain ellipses, in order to explain how omitted information can be recovered; and, on the other hand, to provide an effective criterion to distinguish the uses in which there is elision from those that do not have it. I draw from these two perspectives the following analytic devices: isotopies, devised by Greimas (1966) and later developed by François Rastier (1976); and the image-schemas, devised by Mark Johnson and later expanded upon by various researchers. As will be seen, both perspectives allow for systematic and effective retrieval.
ellipsis, image-schemas, isotopies, linguistics, punctuation
Tiempos del pasado en producciones narrativas. Comparación entre hablantes avanzados de español como segunda lengua y hablantes nativos
La adquisición de los tiempos verbales del pasado en español como segunda lengua (L2) presenta desafíos. Las investigaciones previas se han centrado en las relaciones paradigmáticas entre los tiempos simples, donde el cambio de forma implica un cambio de significado. Se ha prestado menos atención a las relaciones paradigmáticas entre diferentes tiempos para expresar el mismo significado y a la polisemia de los tiempos. Para abordar estas lagunas, presentamos el modelo Función-Significado-Forma y lo aplicamos a un corpus de narrciones escritas producidas por hablantes nativos (L1) y hablantes avanzados de L2, basado en un fragmento de película. Exploramos la polisemia temporal e investigamos las diferencias entre los grupos en el manejo de este fenómeno. Nuestros hallazgos revelan diferencias significativas entre los hablantes L1 y L2 en el enfoque de la polisemia de los tiempos.
The use of inclusive language in formal and informal texts
Inclusive language has been widely discussed and approached from several perspectives both in linguistics and social sciences. This research contributes to such discussion through an analysis that compares the recommendations found in some manuals about the use of the various linguistic forms to produce inclusive language to the occurrence of such forms in a real sample of formal and informal texts. The results of informal texts show the appearance of the forms @, x, e, which use is unadvised in the manuals. Conversely, in formal texts, the manuals’ suggestions are more likely to be followed despite the wide variation of linguistic forms that was found due to the lack of a clear standardization. Considering that language and society constantly evolve, we suggest a similar analysis in the near future to identify if the results obtained in this research remain constant or take another course.
López Franco, S. I. (2021). Discurso y control. Análisis de seis organizaciones antioqueñas. Medellín: Editorial EAFIT. 228 páginas. ISBN: 978-958-720-708-8
Intonational configurations of yes-no questions in the Spanish of Tuxtla Gutierrez, Chiapas
This paper describes the nuclear and prenuclear configurations of the yes-no questions in the Spanish of Tuxtla Gutierrez, Chiapas. We carried out an analysis of data obtained in discourse completion tasks. The findings show the nuclear pitch configuration L* (¡)H% y L+(¡)H* (¡)H% in neutral and no-neutral interrogatives, differentiated by the average rise in the boundary tone. These configurations are similar those that have been reported in Mexico City and Oaxaca. The characteristic of the Tuxtla variety is: i) the early peak alignment of pitch accents in prenuclear position, ii) the nuclear pitch configurations with falling boundary tones L* L%, L+>¡H* L%, L+¡H* HL% in non-neutral questions; iii) the production of the complex boundary tone H!H%. Thus, we suggested that the boundary tone H!H% could be an indicator (index) feature in this variety of Mexican Spanish.
Oral corpus of Spanish speakers learning English as L2 forced alignment
The compilation of L2 learner oral corpora entails a series of methodological challenges regarding both their design and annotation. Researchers argue that automatic phonetic segmentation is a necessary step in their creation, since manual segmentation can be time consuming, expensive, and inconsistent. Furthermore, previous results have shown that forced alignment algorithms can be valuable tools for the corpus-based study of interlanguage. This article describes the use of forced alignment software for the characterization of the formant structure of epenthetic vowels in Mexican learners of English as L2. The collected oral data, and its subsequent analysis, constitutes the first acoustic characterization of epenthetic vowels in the population of interest. The obtained results constitute a starting point for further inquiry considering a higher number of speakers, other L2 proficiency levels, and different speech styles. Results show that epenthetic vowel is closer than the Spanish allophone.
Habitual and characterizing interpretations. Formal or contextual differences?
Habitual characterizing sentences are described in present day studies on genericity, and sentences which express a habitual content are presented in Spanish general grammars. Nevertheless, it is not the same habituality which is considered in each of these studies. We show that we can systematically distinguish between habitual sentences in traditional Spanish grammars and habitual sentences in studies of genericity, by applying a test we present. We discovered some grammatical factors that distinguish between them and determine if the distinction is a formal one, even when sentences exist in which their ambiguity is solved only by context.
Copyright (c) 2023 Semas http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Return migrant youth’s translanguaging practices on social media: a case study
This article observes how a young return migrant enrolled in a cross-border university participates in social networks, in order to learn about his translingual practices (García and Wei, 2014) and understand the meanings behind them. A contextualization of the phenomenon of return migration between the United States and Mexico is provided, as well as the social and political conditions that contribute to the return of migrants. The relationship between social networks, return migrant youth, and the use of language to build identities as translingual youth is explored. A Discourse-Centered Online Ethnography (Androutsopoulos, 2008) is used to observe the online practices of this participant, and it is found that through his translingual practices he expresses his emotions; shows empathy and activism towards certain social causes; he selects the elements of his repertoire according to his audience; he practices economy of language and shows his familiar and unique repertoire.
Perafán Liévano, B. (Ed.) (2021). 'Por el derecho a comprender. Lenguaje claro'. Universidad de Los Andes / Siglo del Hombre Editores. 474 páginas. ISBN: 978-958-665-663-4
Adjetivos escalares, modalidad y contexto: evidencia de un estudio experimental sobre la derivación de lecturas acotadas superior e inferiormente
La implicatura escalar ha sido un tema de investigación muy estudiado en la pragmática anglosajona por largo tiempo. Se han realizado muchos estudios experimentales sobre la interpretación y el procesamiento de cuantificadores débiles en inglés y en otras lenguas. Recientemente, estos estudios se han llevado a cabo para explorar un conjunto mayor de escalas de Horn, específicamente adjetivos. Dichos estudios han mostrado que una implicatura escalar no siempre se deriva a partir del uso de adjetivos débiles. Aquí presento evidencia experimental sobre la interpretación de adjetivos escalares en español, la cual muestra que un contexto pragmático elaborado, en conjunto con proposiciones modalizadas, potencializan lecturas acotadas inferiormente. Los datos también muestran que los hablantes casi no derivan lecturas acotadas superiormente, de donde puede concluirse que las implicaturas escalares son inferencias pragmáticas que surgen a partir de un puñado de elementos léxicos y no de la vasta familia de elementos escalares.