Anglicisms and calques in upper social class in pre-revolutionary Cuba (1930–1959): A sociolinguistic analysis

Authors

  • Jose Antonio Sánchez University of Alicante
DOI: https://doi.org/10.6018/ijes/2016/1/238751
Keywords: anglicism, sociolinguistics, corpus analysis, high sociolect, historical linguistics, Cuban Spanish

Supporting Agencies

  • Cuban Heritage Collection (CHC)
  • University of Miami.

Abstract

The geographical proximity and socioeconomic dependence on the United States brought about a deep rooted anglicization of the Cuban Spanish lexis and social strata, especially throughout the Neocolonial period (1902–1959). This study is based on the revision of a renowned newspaper of that time, Diario de la Marina, and the corresponding elaboration of a corpus of English-induced loanwords. Diario de la Marina particularly targeted upper social class, and only crónicas sociales (society pages’ columns) and print advertising were revised because of their fully descriptive texts, which encoded the ruling class ideology and consumerism. The findings show that there existed a high number of lexical and cultural anglicisms in the sociolect in question, and that the sociolinguistic anglicization was openly embraced by the upper socioeconomic stratum, entailing a differentiating sign of sophistication and social stratification. Likewise, a number of the anglicisms collected, particularly those related with social events, are unused in contemporary Cuban Spanish, which suggests a major semantic shifting in this sociolect after 1959.

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Author Biography

Jose Antonio Sánchez, University of Alicante

José A. Sánchez Fajardo graduated in Translation and Interpreting from the University of Havana (2005), where he studied a post-graduate course on Lexical Semantics. He is currently doing his postdoctoral studies at the University of Alicante, in which he is working on a dia-synchronic study of the influence of American English on Cuban Spanish. He is a member of the Research Group of Lexicology and Lexicography (Alicante). He is currently working as an associate professor at the University of Alicante, and as an EFL teacher at the University Miguel Hernández (Elche)

Published
28-06-2016
How to Cite
Sánchez, J. A. (2016). Anglicisms and calques in upper social class in pre-revolutionary Cuba (1930–1959): A sociolinguistic analysis. International Journal of English Studies, 16(1), 33–55. https://doi.org/10.6018/ijes/2016/1/238751
Issue
Vol. 16 No. 1 (2016): Open issue
Section
Articles

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