Volume 12, Issue 2 -

In many languages, vowel duration is modulated by syllable structure — a phenomenon known as vowel compression — so that vowels are shorter in syllables with more segments than in syllables with fewer segments. Most instrumental evidence to date has reported an effect, in many languages, of the presence (and complexity) of a coda, and some studies have also documented effects of the presence (and complexity) of an onset. However, no prior studies on Spanish vowel duration have captured any effects of syllable structure. Using data from nine speakers and controlled speech materials, the present study addresses the following research question: Does syllable structure modulate vowel duration? The findings are as follows: (a) Relative to simplex onsets (those with a singleton consonant), complex onsets (those with a consonant cluster) trigger vowel compression; and (b) neither simplex nor complex codas consistently drive vowel compression — i.e. codas do not systematically affect vowel duration. Together with the facts for other languages, our findings support a view according to which syllable structure — in particular, onset complexity — modulates acoustic vowel duration. The study discusses the theoretical implications of this finding, which are argued to be in line with some of the principles of the Articulatory Phonology framework or, alternatively, suggest that codas should not be considered part of the articulatory syllable.

This study probed the relationship between productive phonotactic repair and speech production, by asking whether the natural variability found in speech, through phonetic reduction, may include apparent illicit sequences requiring repair, even though the target words are licit. Spanish productively repairs word-initial /s/-consonant clusters (#sC) with a prothetic [e] in both production and perception. We asked whether the initial vowel in Spanish #VsC words like espalda ‘back’ is prone to reduction, and whether or not /e/, which matches the default repair vowel, is more susceptible to reduction than other vowels (e.g. in aspirina ‘aspirin’) due to its predictability. We explore these hypotheses in the speech of 11 speakers of Andalusian Spanish who produced #VsC words in isolation. Initial vowels showed lower intensity, greater devoicing, and less modal voicing compared to control #pVs-initial words, and initial /e, i, o/ were occasionally deleted, leading to the occurrence of apparently illicit sequences in actual speech, e.g. espalda produced as [spalda]. However, evidence that the default vowel, [e], was reduced more than other vowels was weak. These results suggest that variation in speech may contribute to the well-known illusory vowel effects, where listeners perceive illicit sequences as though the repair vowel had been present.

This paper analyzes Junot Díaz’s most recent works The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (2007. The brief wondrous life of Oscar Wao . New York: Riverhead) and This is How You Lose Her (2012. This is how you lose her . New York: Riverhead) by using Muysken’s (2000. Bilingual speech. A typology of code-mixing . Cambridge: CUP) typology of code-switching to illustrate the types of language mixing devices present in these two texts. I point out that Díaz’s innovative use of radical bilingualism is not due to the quantity of sentences including Spanish, rather to the quality of mixing and switching in his works. Further, I elaborate on Casielles-Suárez, Eugenia. (2013. Radical code-switching in the Brief wondrous life of Oscar Wao. Bulletin of Hispanic Studies 90. 475–487) study using Torres’ (2007. In the contact zone: Code-switching strategies by Latino/a writers. MELUS 32(1). 75–96) categorization of code-switching strategies utilized by U.S. Hispanic authors. I find that instead of Díaz’s texts gratifying the bilingual reader (Torres. 2007. In the contact zone: Code-switching strategies by Latino/a writers. MELUS 32(1). 75–96) or creating radical hybridism (Casielles-Suárez. 2013. Radical code-switching in the Brief wondrous life of Oscar Wao. Bulletin of Hispanic Studies 90. 475–487), that these two works illustrate radical bilingualism. In contrast to the majority of U.S. Spanish-English bilingual texts, which incorporate Spanish by using simple insertions, translations, bold font and italics, Díaz creates radically bilingual works by using a variety of Spanish and English varieties, the indirect influence of Spanish in monolingual English sentences, intra-word insertions, a diversity of insertion types and hybrid noun-phrases.

Resumen Las cláusulas seudohendidas (SH) y con ser como focalizador (SF) se han estudiado en el español de Colombia, Venezuela, la República Dominicana y Puerto Rico, desde perspectivas dialectales, sociolingüísticas y formalistas. A pesar de que el español de Colombia y de Venezuela son referentes obligatorios en los trabajos sobre el SF, son escasas las investigaciones en torno al Caribe colombiano. Este estudio investiga y analiza patrones de variación sintáctica, pragmática, semántica y social que condicionan el uso de las SF y las SH en el español de Barranquilla, Colombia, mediante datos semi-naturales de PRESEEA-Barranquilla y experimentales, basados en juicios de aceptabilidad perceptiva. Los hallazgos evidencian una aceptabilidad y uso predominante de SF frente a SH. Las SF, contrario a las propuestas previas, son favorecidas en contextos sin contraste explícito. El alto predominio de las SF frente las SH está restringido en algún grado por factores sintácticos [tipos de constituyentes], pragmáticos [-contrastivo /+contrastivo] y semánticos [clase semántica de los verbos], pero con escasa influencia social. El SF se ha ido generalizando en el español de Barranquilla a través de restricciones poco aceptadas en otras variedades colombianas, y con muy poco condicionamiento o estigma social.

Resumen Este artículo describe el desarrollo histórico de las construcciones lograr/conseguir + inf (p. ej., Pedro ha logrado ganar el premio ). Basándonos en el análisis de casi 3000 ocurrencias fechadas entre 1700 y 2005, mostramos que lograr / conseguir + inf han experimentado un proceso de construccionalización, por el cual, desde significados de consecución o logro, adquirieron lecturas modales de capacidad (‘ser capaz de hacer X’) y contraexpectación (‘es difícil que suceda X’). Utilizando la herramienta de la regresión logística, comprobamos que el aspecto y la polaridad oracional fueron de importancia crucial para este proceso debido a la estructura presuposicional del concepto de ‘consecución’. El análisis, además, arroja luz sobre la cuestión de la alternancia entre los auxiliares cuasi sinónimos lograr y conseguir , demostrando (a) que la construccionalización se implementó más para conseguir + inf que para lograr + inf y (b) que la alternancia está en parte gobernada por la variación diatópica y diafásica. Finalmente, discutimos la relación entre la construccionalización y el concepto de perífrasis que se maneja en la gramática hispánica tradicional y proponemos que la construccionalización es un mejor indicador del estatus categorial de las construcciones verbales.

This paper examines the language ideologies among parents of Mexican family origin from Garden City, Kansas, and considers the ways in which Latinxs from different sociolinguistic generations have responded to an evolving societal context when making decisions about language use within the family. The analysis is based on 24 video-recorded interviews with parents of Mexican family background who reside in Garden City, a rural town in western Kansas where the majority of the population is of Hispanic origin. Drawing from the linguistic anthropological notion of ‘language ideologies’ and the framework of family langauge policy, the study examines (a) the ideologies that the participants express about the value of Spanish and particular varieties of Spanish in Kansas and (b) how they make reference to local language policies and personal beliefs and attitudes when describing their home language policies. The analysis reveals that local language policies and the availability of resources can dramatically influence the ways in which participants’ linguistic policies and practices reflect their ideological positionings. Findings suggest that there is a need to expand resources for emergent bilinguals and multilingual families in the region.