Asterisco: Revista de lingüística española

On the conceptualization of the Spanish language as everyone's Spanish

Ángel López García-Molins — 2025-05-30

This article develops an idea by Luis Santos: the Spanish of all. Although at first sight it may seem obvious, the suggestion that Spanish is an instrument of communication that belongs equally to all its users is tremendously revolutionary. On the one hand, it raises the question of Spanish as a transnational language; on the other, it questions the historical origin of this very particular characteristic. Methodologically, the article goes from the general to the particular, from the language-nation dimension to its negation through the equation language=transnation.

Object-denoting nouns recategorized as event nouns in the construction dársele a alguien {bien/mal} algo

Elena De Miguel — 2025-05-30

This work examines the semantic process of reinterpretation undergone by object-denoting nouns when functioning as the subjects of the construction dársele a alguien {bien/mal} algo, where they systematically trigger an event reading. The predicates analyzed consist of the light verb darse and the adverb {bien/mal}, which constitutes the main predication. The construction requires two arguments: a subject (something), which denotes a durative or an iterative event, and a prepositional complement (to someone). Given this characterization, the noun occupying the position of the subject must be eventive; in fact, if there is an object-denoting noun instead, this must be reinterpreted as eventive. Specifically, the proposed analysis argues that this lexical recategorization takes place by means of a mechanism of coercion by introduction (in the terms of Pustejovsky 1995) and that this mechanism only operates when the object-denoting noun encodes in its lexical entry a sublexical feature with information about the events in which the denoted object participates prototypically.

Layers of Lexical Distancing in Spanish. Dialectometric Analysis

Francisco Moreno Fenández — 2025-05-30

This article analyzes lexical variation in Spanish-speaking countries using dialectometric techniques, based on data from the Varilex-R project. Patterns of lexical distancing between regions and countries are identified, employing quantitative approaches to determine linguistic similarities and differences. Through methods such as cluster analysis and multidimensional scaling, six major lexical areas are detected: Spain-Equatorial Guinea, Mexico-Caribbean, Central America, Andes, Río de la Plata, and Chile. A more detailed analysis of 12 clusters later reveals greater complexity in Central America and specific differences in Venezuela and Ecuador. Reference studies show that countries such as Spain, Chile, Argentina, Costa Rica, and Mexico exhibit varying lexical distances from the rest of the Hispanic world. The relationship between geographical and lexical distance stands out, although with exceptions such as the lexical affinity between Spain and Equatorial Guinea and Mexico’s proximity to the Caribbean. The findings demonstrate that Spanish lexical diversity is influenced not only by geography but also by historical and sociocultural factors. The dialectometric methodology provides an objective perspective on these variations, paving the way for future studies with greater depth at regional levels and in other linguistic aspects.

Third Stage in Colloquial Spanish Studies: Goals and Requirements for Future Research

Salvador Pons Bordería — 2025-05-30

This article proposes a classification of studies on colloquial Spanish into three phases: two retrospective and one prospective. It establishes a series of criteria that any explanation of the structure of colloquial Spanish must meet to be considered for inclusion in this third phase. These criteria include work on a corpus of conversations, a theory of discourse segmentation, corpus annotation, statistical data processing, and, finally, testable hypotheses—both low-level and high-level—regarding the structure of language. In light of these parameters, the article evaluates the model developed by the Val.Es.Co. group and concludes that it meets all the specified criterio.

The Alleged Modal Adjectives

Antonio Fábregas — 2025-05-30

This paper aims to address the issue of whether modal adjectives truly exist in Spanish. I will propose that most adjectives informally referred to as ‘modals’ are not, and that there is doubt as to whether formations in –ble are modal. The list of adjectives with modal behavior in Spanish is very limited and may be reduced to infinitive-selecting predicates such as capaz (‘capable’), susceptible, and the adjectives posible (‘possible’) and necesario (‘necessary’) in certain constructions.

Borrego Nieto, J., Domínguez García, L., Recio Diego, Á. y Tomé Cornejo, C. (2024). Claves para el análisis sintáctico. 80 dudas, 80 respuestas sobre la oración subordinada. Arco Libros

Irene García López — 2025-06-05

Santiago Guervós, F. J. (2024). Discurso y persuasión. Arco Libros

Enrique Balmaseda Maestu — 2025-06-05

Serrano, M. J., Aijón Oliva, M. Á. (Eds.) (2024). Form and Meaning: Studies of Grammatical Variation and Communicative Choice in Spanish. Peter Lang

Eva López Hernández — 2025-06-05