Showing papers in "Hispania in 1952"

Spanish American Data for the Chronology of Sibilant Changes

Abstract: nologia de la igualacidn g-z en espaiol (HR, 1951, pp. 37-58; 143-164) serves as an illuminating check on the Data for the Chronology of Theta and Jota (HR, 1949, pp. 50-60) of Robert K. Spaulding and Beatrice S. Patt. Suspecting that authors of treatises on pronunciation during the second half of the seventeenth century might have been neglected in the consideration of phonetic values and times of changes, the Spaulding and Patt article had examined statements on the

Evidence on X

Abstract: this group except in well-defined cases of cultured and emphatic diction. In everyday conversation, x before a consonant is pronounced like a simple s." Navarro makes no exceptions to this generalization in the Manual; the examples that he cites (extranio, explicaci6n, exponer, excelente, excepcidn, exclamar, excursi6n, and extensi6n) show no recognizable patterning of stress or phonetic environment other than that of simply being preconsonantal. The reader therefore infers that all examples of x before a consonant are intended to be covered. Hearsay and casual observation suggest that all is not well with Navarro's generalization. This suspicion was followed up in a series of notes in which I participated and which, owing to the sketchiness of the data, has been challenged, in a sense quite justifiably.2 The data seemed sufficient for the aim, which was limited to releasing teachers of English-speaking students from the necessity of teaching a non-English value for x: Spanish Americans of diverse origins were heard to use pre-consonantal [ks] with some regularity; mistakes in spelling, such as ecstraordinario and ecselentisinmo in a document of Governor Jos6 Figueroa,3 indicated that [ks] is and was anything but extinct; friends recently in Madrid indicated their surprise on hearing [ks] in popular speech there; and careful listening on the spot in Costa Rica and Guatemala4 confirmed that in Central America, at any rate, [ks] is often heard. The present study was undertaken to pin the suspicions and hearsay to a somewhat more dependable scientific framework and to answer at least the paramount pedagogical question of whether it is worth while to do more in our elementary textbooks than to say "pronounce x like [ks], as in English." The results achieved do answer that central question, I think conclusively. They also answer, again conclusively I believe, the question of whether any blanket statement can be made covering all instances of pre-consonantal x. The remaining facts that were turned upthe border and ragged edge of any inquiry that must ask more than it needs in order not to prove less-are set down here as markers for further investigation, not as scientific proofs. It is of more than incidental interest if the results extend beyond the primary findings concerning a problem of phonetics. The value of x is a radioactive tracer, as it were, whose adventures reveal currents in the cultural stream not immediately visible of themselves.

La zapatera prodigiosa

Abstract: EL AUTOR. Respetable publico... (Pausa.) No, respetable publico no, publico solamente, y no es que el autor no considere al publico respetable, todo lo contrario, sino que detras de esta palabra hay como un delicado temblor de miedo y una especie de suplica para que el auditorio sea generoso con la mimica de los actores y el artificio del ingenio. El poeta no pide benevolencia, sino atencion, una vez que ha saltado hace mucho tiempo la barra espinosa de miedo que los autores tienen a la sala. Por este miedo absurdo y por ser el teatro en muchas ocasiones una finanza, la poesia se retira de la escena en busca de otros ambientes donde la gente no se asuste de que un arbol, por ejemplo, se convierta en una bola de humo o de que tres peces, por amor de una mano y una palabra, se conviertan en tres millones de peces para calmar el hambre de una multitud. El autor ha preferido poner el ejemplo dramatico en el vivo ritmo de una zapateria popular. En todos los sitios late y anima la criatura poetica que el autor ha vestido de zapatera con aire de refran o simple romancillo y no se extrane el publico si aparece violenta o toma actitudes agrias porque ella lucha siempre, lucha con la

Nada by Carmen Laforet: A Venture in Mechanistic Dynamics

Abstract: A prominent aspect of the contemporary Spanish novel is the heavy atmosphere of dispiritment concerning man's place in the world.* Speaking in broad terms, we may say that a favorite subject among the novelists is man's lostness and his separation from the familiar associations and values in which he once had anchorage. In this respect, Spanish writers reflect the dejection in philosophical outlook which characterizes the contemporary novel in general. But they have made less progress than others in developing new techniques with which to interpret the disintegrative influences of the present age. Preoccupied with thoughts of man's unhappy, if not meaningless, role in the total scheme of things, they have allowed the disillusive nature of their subject to overbalance their acquirements in novelistic form. This is a plausible explanation for the poor literary quality of the novel in Spain today. In any event, consciousness of the individual's loneliness and his loose affiliation with his surroundings hangs like a dark cloud over a good number of very ordinary novels which have come from the Spanish press in recent years. Against this background of comparative mediocrity,1 Nada (1945) by Carmen Laforet is currently regarded as being a rather conspicuous exception. Nada is both an exception and an example of a general trend. It is typical in that it pictures lonely individuals estranged from their fellowmen and seemingly moved about by cruel forces beyond their control. It is unique in its decisiveness of technique and its concentration of artistic energy toward a novelistic goal. The individual's hapless drifting, moodily summarized by other writers,2 becomes in this case an accelerated movement coolly and sharply defined. In brief, Carmen Laforet has blended one version of nihilistic outlook with a distinctive literary form. Her accomplishment has the appearance of an enthusiastic experimentation in reproducing a vision of "mechanistic dynamics." By the latter term I mean the motion of human bodies in an area of relationships dominated by physical forces. The word "dynamic" can also aptly be applied to the author's style, but my interpretation is directed primarily to an analysis of structural technique in combination with the predominantly physical reactions of the characters. The narrative is constructed around a central personage, Andrea, an orphan girl eighteen years of age who comes to Barcelona to live with her grandmother while attending the University. As Andrea enters "la casa en la calle de Aribau," she is confronted with a stark picture of ruin in physical objects and of psychological disturbances in her aunt (Angustias) and her two uncles (Juan and RomAn). She finds an avenue of relief from family disharmony by way of friendship with a schoolmate (Ena), who eventually enables her to escape to a new environment by offering her the prospect of a peaceful episode of work and friendship in Madrid. What takes place meanwhile may be described as a nightmare comprising the agitated movement of distressed personalities in continuous collision with each other. It is our task now to examine the texture of the nightmare. * A paper read at the Thirty-Third Annual Meeting of the AATSP, Chicago, December 26-27, 1951.

The Spanish Reflexive and the Verbal Sentence

Abstract: Most grammars assume that since Spanish is a Romance tongue, it should follow the norms of the Latin group of languages. Yet as each of these languages fell away from the parent stock, it was subject to influences which caused radical changes in its structure. The most important of the influences on Spanish has been that of French, and the similarities and differences between them are well-known. Another influence

Subject Position in Contemporary Spanish

Abstract: There are three fundamental questions to be answered in discussing subject position in any language: (1) where may the subject be placed in relation to the other elements of a sentence or utterance? (2) how often is it placed in each of its possible positions? (3) what determines both position and frequency? There is not time, however, at this session to answer any one of these questions completely. This paper, consequently, is concerned with just two points: first, with whether the items which immediately precede or follow the verb influence in any way the position of the subject, and, second, with whether the subject itself, either as an isolated word or as a cluster of words, affects in any way its position in the Spanish sentence.

'The Twelve' Meet a Language Requirement

Abstract: The early Franciscan missionaries to Mexico left a record of energy, courage and devotion that still stirs the imagination.* We see them all in the silhouette of the first nameless friar who came to Jalisco, "a pie y descalzo y levantadas las faldas del hdbito, y con un rosario en la una mano y un borddn en la otra."I "A puro talWn" they climbed mountains wrapped in clouds, descended into frightful abysses, crossed swollen rivers on reed rafts floated with gourds and propelled by Indian swimmers.2 Their food was the

Spanish Loan Words in American Indian Languages

Abstract: Ethnic or culture groups as well as individuals learn from their neighbors.* The closer and the more intimate the contacts between peoples the greater and the more profound will be the inter influence of one group upon the other. The exchanges or borrowings made between the groups can involve all aspects of the two cultures, whether they be material, such as tools, plants, and animals, or whether they be non-material in nature, such as customs, religious rites, and superstitions. The spread of these items or culture traits is referred to as cultural diffusion and, by studying this aspect of human activity, we are able to understand not only the origin of common objects and practices but also the culture processes by which these traits have been diffused. In the study of the distribution and diffusion of culture traits, linguistics plays a major role.' When two groups speaking distinct languages make cultural borrowings, they frequently borrow the name of the object or practice from the language of the lending group at the same time as they borrow the culture trait itself. This foreign word now used in a new environment is known as a loan word and the study of loan words in languages enables us to appreciate the development of specific cultures. Cultural borrowing can, of course, take place without linguistic borrowing or loan words but it is safe to assume that a word would not be borrowed in a vacuum, i. e. without the object it represents. Thus the presence of a culture element in a given group and the use of a loan word as its name in the language of that group is the strongest type of proof of the source of the culture element in question.2 The Spanish language offers great possibilities for the study of linguistic and cultural diffusion in the period since the discovery of the New World. The first contacts of the New World with the Old we e brought about by Spaniards and their tongue served as the medium for the communication of culture borrowings between the two Worlds. Spanish acted as the only cultural bridge between Europe and America for about fifty years after the discovery by Columbus and most of the languages of Europe, through terms borrowed from sixteenth-century Spanish, remind us of this important epoch in the history of the Spanish language. Similarly indigenous American languages reveal in the large number of Spanish loan words the profound impact made by European culture on New World groups. This study has as its purpose the description of certain aspects of the study of Spanish loan words in American Indian languages. By means of sample semantic categories and, within these, selected individual words, we shall illustrate how widespread and profound the influence of Spanish has been on certain native languages of America. In carrying out our purpose, we shall illustrate also certain aspects of the process of cultural diffusion or acculturation and, especially, the types of layers of loans that characterize the steps in that process. The illustrative examples that we use have been identified as borrowings from Spanish by capable investigators.3 By comparing these testimonials of Spanish loan words, it is * A paper read at the Thirty-Third Annual Meeting of the AATSP, Chicago, December 2627, 1951.

The Cultural Scene in Ecuador: 1951

Abstract: The difficulties of publishing books in Ecuador, like many other Latin American countries, are an old story that needs no retelling here. Perhaps they account in part for the great number of lectures given in the course of a year in Quito and Guayaquil, not to mention smaller cities, as well as for the scanty number of books actually published during 1951 in the nation. Intellectual activity has been brisk, as the year's calendar of cycles of roundtable discussions and lectures and concerts and art exhibitions can attest. The

Tragedy and Comedy in the Celestina

Abstract: Celestina (Burgos, 1499) refers to the work as a comedy.* There is no prologue, no foreword, not even a title in the one remaining copy of what may be called the first edition. Moreover, since only the title-page seems to be lacking, there was scarcely room for anything except a general argument of the play. There is no word of explanation, then, for the fact that a tragedy bore the title of comedy. Such a discrepancy would not have provoked any comment a hundred years later, for comedia in Lope de Vega's time was the generic term for play and included both comedies and tragedies. But in the early days of the Renaissance the distinction between the two concepts was commonly made. It must be said, as Boccaccio said in the face of so many reasons why Dante's work should not have been called a commedia, that nevertheless it was so entitled, and apparently with every conscious intention of the author to do so. It seems likely that a capable young student in the University of Salamanca who had read the comedies of Terence and Plautus and the tragedies of Seneca, and who had had outstanding scholars of Spain and Italy available as his grammar and rhetoric teachers, and who, furthermore, understood the Latin plays well enough to compose an expert drama modelled upon them, could be trusted to have a reasonably clear vision of his materials and to be familiar with the conventional distinctions between tragedy and comedy. At any rate, the earliest extant version of the Celestina was called a comedy. We may conjecture at least two reasons for which the author gave it that title. The second known edition (Sevilla, 1501), also in sixteen acts and likewise called a comedy, is introduced by the following rubric: "Here follows the comedy of Calisto and Melibea: composed in reprehension of those madly in love, who, overcome by their unrestrained desires, call their mistresses God and consider

Sancho's Zest for the Quest

Abstract: The most significant truism of Cervantine scholarship was aptly phrased some five years ago by Professor Hatzfeld to the effect that "The last and definite word about the meaning of the Don Quijote probably will never be said."' It is inevitable that such an imposing story of human quality and endeavor should lend itself to abundant and varied interpretations. It is equally inevitable that the subtleties of Cervantes' ironic humor2 should occasionally obscure his real meanings and, as a result, involve his readers in the engrossing task of ascertaining exactly what the author may or must have had in mind. Speculation as to the true purpose for which the Quijote was written, for example, is certainly an interesting case in p oint. Taken at literal face-value, Cervantes' frequent and emphatic reiterations that his sole purpose was to ridicule absurd novels of chivalry have led some, readers to believe that such was his real intent. Attempts to resolve the consequent dilemma of having to reconcile the grandeur of the book with the relative pettiness of the author's avowed purpose in writing it have evoked the conclusion that Cer-