Paving the road to hell: The Spanish word menas as a case study

David Bordonaba Plou; José Ramón Torices Vidal

doi:10.6018/daimon.482011

Autores

David Bordonaba Plou Universidad de Valparaiso
José Ramón Torices Vidal Universidad de Granada

DOI: https://doi.org/10.6018/daimon.482011

Palavras-chave: menas, slurs, ESTIs, corpus linguistics, collocations, concordance

Resumo

“Menas” is a term that has attracted a great deal of attention on the political scene in Spain at present. Although the term had a neutral usage originally, being an acronym for unaccompanied foreign minors, it has recently evolved into a term with clear negative connotations. This article explores what kind of term menas is today. Specifically, we will examine whether “menas” is a slur or an ESTI, an ethnic/social term used as an insult. First, we point out the most defining characteristics of both types of terms. Then, using analyses on linguistic corpora, we show that “menas” exhibits the most defining characteristics of TESNI. We end by discussing the possible evolution of the term, pointing out that, although the term presents the features related to ESTIs, there are two possible scenarios. On the one hand, the term may retain its neutral uses and thus remain an ESTI. On the other hand, the neutral uses may disappear, and thus the term may become a slur.

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Biografia Autor

David Bordonaba Plou, Universidad de Valparaiso

Contratado post-doctoral en el Departamento de Filosofía I de la Universidad de Granada, adscrito a la beca Leonardo Desacuerdos y Polarización de Actitudes.

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