Chapter 7. Bestial and warm addressing forms in Mexican Spanish
-
Ricardo Maldonado
Abstract
This paper explores the evolution of two names for animals, buey ‘ox’ and cabrón ‘mail goat’, that have undergone a set of important semantic and pragmatic changes since the XIXth Century. The change from offensive to warm and friendly addressing forms involved a series of semantic bleaching processes, mostly attested along the XXth Century, that generated two independent, and yet, parallel networks of meanings. The loss of negative features led to the emergence of vocative, anaphoric and discourse marking functions where the original offensive part of both words has become almost imperceivable. It is claimed that cabrón has followed the pragmaticalization path of buey yet in a more conservative manner, since its semantic network of meanings is still active in most Hispanic dialects. Yet the pragmatic evolution of buey might characterize the Mexican dialect. The semantic change of both forms is temporally located in the 1960s and it is seen as a reflex of crucial changes in Mexican contemporary society.
Abstract
This paper explores the evolution of two names for animals, buey ‘ox’ and cabrón ‘mail goat’, that have undergone a set of important semantic and pragmatic changes since the XIXth Century. The change from offensive to warm and friendly addressing forms involved a series of semantic bleaching processes, mostly attested along the XXth Century, that generated two independent, and yet, parallel networks of meanings. The loss of negative features led to the emergence of vocative, anaphoric and discourse marking functions where the original offensive part of both words has become almost imperceivable. It is claimed that cabrón has followed the pragmaticalization path of buey yet in a more conservative manner, since its semantic network of meanings is still active in most Hispanic dialects. Yet the pragmatic evolution of buey might characterize the Mexican dialect. The semantic change of both forms is temporally located in the 1960s and it is seen as a reflex of crucial changes in Mexican contemporary society.
Chapters in this book
- 日本言語政策学会 / Japan Association for Language Policy. 言語政策 / Language Policy 10. 2014 i
- Table of contents v
- From synchrony to diachrony 1
- Chapter 1. Linguistic change in the 20th century 17
- Chapter 2. The apparent-time construct as a proxy to spoken conversational data in the 20th century 63
- Chapter 3. Cultural products, passing fashions, and linguistic changes 95
- Chapter 4. Diatopic variation as evidence for diachronic changes in the 20th and 21st centuries 120
- Chapter 5. Social indexicality and pragmatic change in the late 20th century 158
- Chapter 6. How are linguistic changes in the 20th century to be studied? 188
- Chapter 7. Bestial and warm addressing forms in Mexican Spanish 218
- Chapter 8. French j’imagine , Spanish me imagino 240
- Chapter 9. Constructional changes in Brazilian Portuguese in the 20th century 261
- Index 291
Chapters in this book
- 日本言語政策学会 / Japan Association for Language Policy. 言語政策 / Language Policy 10. 2014 i
- Table of contents v
- From synchrony to diachrony 1
- Chapter 1. Linguistic change in the 20th century 17
- Chapter 2. The apparent-time construct as a proxy to spoken conversational data in the 20th century 63
- Chapter 3. Cultural products, passing fashions, and linguistic changes 95
- Chapter 4. Diatopic variation as evidence for diachronic changes in the 20th and 21st centuries 120
- Chapter 5. Social indexicality and pragmatic change in the late 20th century 158
- Chapter 6. How are linguistic changes in the 20th century to be studied? 188
- Chapter 7. Bestial and warm addressing forms in Mexican Spanish 218
- Chapter 8. French j’imagine , Spanish me imagino 240
- Chapter 9. Constructional changes in Brazilian Portuguese in the 20th century 261
- Index 291
