Abstract

This study analyzes part of the lexicon of «Book Sixteen» and «Book Seventeen» of the Comentarios de Erudición by Bartolomé Jiménez Patón, in light of the discovery, a decade ago, of volume four of this great work that constitutes a compendium of the writings of the prolific Manchegan author. The data gathered indicate that our author’s lexicon is characterized by a curious duality: it is at the same time conservative, to the extent that it continues to resort to words and acceptations that doubtless were considered to be archaic in standard Spanish; and it is innovative as well, incorporating established Golden Age neologisms and occasionally introducing new meanings for extant words, as well as inventing new words of his own.

Abstract

Mid vowels in stressed position are either closed ore open in Central Catalan, depending on a number of factors. In this paper we examine and discuss several of the proposals in the literature (general tendency towards lowering, influence of the immediate right consonantal context, lowering effect by the presence of a high front vocoid in the following syllable(s), analogical effects stemming from the existence of phonologically similar elements in the lexicon, and metapaphonic effects caused by a following unstressed mid closed vowel. These independent factors cause a certain predominance of mid open vowels in cases of indeterminacy, but a general tendency toward open mid vowels based on a tendency to increase sonority is shown to be unjustified.

Abstract

Abstract: In his literary works, Hernández Casajuana used an interesting popular vocabulary, which in part connects with the linguistic tradition of 19th century Valencian playwrights, and in part represents an innovation, as it takes into account the social change and new customs arising in the 20th century, and which were reflected in the language. The article deals with Hernández Casajuana’s more innovative lexicon, though it also considers the work of other contemporary and earlier authors. It provides new ideas in relation to historical and etymological dictionaries and explains the motivation and origin of certain words and meanings; it also shows the presence of several neologisms at the time when they were being introduced into the Catalan language. Some of these new words have disappeared in today’s language, while others continue, but at the beginning of the 20th century, when they were as yet unconsolidated, they sometimes had different forms from those that have eventually prevail.Key words: history of the lexicon, 19th and 20th century literary language, popular vocabulary, neologisms, Hernández Casajuana.

Abstract

Abstract: The position of the appreciative derivation within morphology is exceptional, because, although the limited information that grammars and dictionaries reveal as for its formation and use, speakers freely use appreciative forms in familiar and informal contexts and often create new words without the restraints traditionally imposed by grammatical norms. As we will see, although the shape of these forms presents some variation, it complies with some well-defined constraints. Th is paper presents new data in this fi eld collected through traditional corpora and internet, with a two-fold aim. The first purpose is to thoroughly examine the morphological characteristics of the appreciative suffixation in Catalan, with special reference to the categories usually ignored in the literature (i.e., appreciative forms derived from categories other than nouns, adjectives and verbs). The second purpose has to do with the distributional restrictions that traditional words and new creations show with respect to the endings they allow, in order to identify the true nominal inflectional marks of Catalan.Key words: appreciative derivation, neologisms, nominal inflection, inflectional marks, gender, Catalan.