American-Spanish Semantics

American-Spanish Semantics

CHARLES E. KANY

American-Spanish Semantics

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS

1960 BERKELEY AND LOS ANGELES

University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles Cambridge University Press, London, England

© 1960 by The Regents of the University of California Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 60-11848 Printed in the United States of America

PREFACE

The purpose of this book is to offer a workable body of classified linguistic material exemplifying semantic tendencies on various levels of American Spanish, with special reference to popular speech. It purports to explain and classify American-Spanish divergencies in meaning from the general Spanish norm of today, and also to present hundreds of new formations that have arisen in the New World and are unfamiliar to the average Spaniard. Every page of typical American-Spanish literature and the speech of any typical American bear witness to a new spirit, new connotations, new attitudes, and new gradations of meaning and feeling that may differ not only from normal peninsular usage but also from region to region according to the shifting local environments and modes of life in the eighteen Spanish-speaking countries in America.

The illustrative material presented in this book derives from several sources: (a) many hundreds of informants whom I consulted on my numerous field trips to Spanish-American countries over a period of twenty-five years, (b) scores of native consultants among students and instructors at the University of California, (c) the lexicographical works and authoritative monographs which I mention in my text, and (d) regional literature that confirms observed oral usage of the terms I discuss. The classification used here has been adapted from recently proposed systems in the comparatively new field of semantics.

Being the first comprehensive volume dealing with American-Spanish semantics, the present work will no doubt be found lacking in many details that must await years of further study. Meanwhile it should prove helpful to students and teachers of Spanish language and literature, to translators and travelers, to folklorists, and to anthropologists, as a reference book for linguistic phenomena not readily available elsewhere.

CONTENTS

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

I SUBSTITUTIONS

MODES OF TRAVEL

SEASONS AND RAINFALL

TEMPORAL SHIFTS

ARTICLES OF DRESS AND EQUIPMENT

MISCELLANEOUS

II NOMINATION

SLANG AND HUMOROUS COLLOQUIALISMS

COMPOUNDS

GROUP AND RACIAL NICKNAMES

III METAPHORS BASED ON SIMILARITY OF APPEARANCE

SIMILARITY OF COLOR

NAMES OF ANIMALS

NAMES OF PLANTS

SIMILARITY OF SHAPE NAMES OF ANIMALS

MULTIPLE NOMINATIONS

IV METAPHORS BASED ON SIMILARITY OF QUALITY, ACTIVITY, OR FUNCTION

NAMES OF ANIMALS

NAMES OF PERSONS

NAMES OF THINGS

NAMES OF ACTIONS

NAMES INDICATING NATIONALITY

PROPER NAMES

V METAPHORS BASED ON SIMILARITY OF PERCEPTUAL AND EMOTIVE EFFECT

SYNAESTHESIA

ABUSIVE WORDS AS TERMS OF ENDEARMENT

WORDS USED IN ADDRESSING CHILDREN

VI COMBINATIVE ANALOGY

PREFIXES

SUFFIXES

DIMINUTIVE SUFFIXES

VII CORRELATIVE ANALOGY

OPPOSITES

SENSE LOANS

VIII PERMUTATIONS

MATERIAL FOR THE OBJECT MADE OF IT

PART FOR THE WHOLE

SYMBOL FOR THE THING SYMBOLIZED

INSTRUMENT FOR PRODUCT

NAME FROM CONCOMITANT CIRCUMSTANCE

ACTION FOR PRODUCT OR RESULT

ACTION FOR INSTRUMENT OR MEANS OF ACTION

ACTION FOR AGENT

ACTION FOR PLACE OF ACTION

ACTION FOR TIME OF ACTION

QUALITY FOR PERSONS OR THINGS POSSESSING IT

NAMES OF PERSONS FOR PRODUCTS

PLACE NAMES FOR ACTIONS OR PRODUCTS

MENTAL STATE FOR OBJECT OR PERSON CAUSING IT

IX PHONETIC ASSOCIATIVE INTERFERENCE

HOMOPHONES

RHYTHMIC COMBINATIONS

SEMANTIC SIMILARITY

X SHORTENING

CLIPPINGS

POSTVERBALS

PROPER NAMES

OMISSIONS

XI COMPOSITE TRANSFERS

EXTENSIONS

RESTRICTIONS

Bibliography

SUBJECT INDEX

WORD INDEX

INTRODUCTION

Taking root in the spoken tongue of sixteenth-century Spain, American Spanish immediately began to evolve in harmony with the totally disparate and constantly shifting environment of the New World, with its new challenges, new needs, and new fears and anxieties. Conquest and colonization were accomplished by groups from divers Spanish regions: Andalusia, Castile, Extremadura, Leon, the Basque provinces, and others in less degree. For more effective communication these heterogeneous groups shunned local words and expressions that might impede mutual understanding, in favor of more general terms known to all and already called by some español rather than castellano. This leveling of regional divergencies probably began in the Spanish ports of embarkation and continued throughout the hazardous Atlantic crossing of forty-odd days and nights. The eager adventurers absorbed a host of nautical terms (such as amarrar, atracar, botar, costa, embarcar, flete, halar, playa) and later extended them to designate land objects and activities, a development which was not in accord with peninsular linguistic usage. The surviving dialectal traits are in the main peculiar to Andalusia and Extremadura, though some are reminiscent of other provinces.

Contact with indigenous languages had a vital influence on the development of American Spanish. However, before the newcomers became familiar with the Indian vocabulary, they adapted their mother tongue to their new environment as best they could. They resorted to Spanish terms for things new to them if they perceived the slightest resemblance between the new things and those they had known at home. Thus, the curious pineapple, resembling a pine cone in shape, was promptly dubbed piña; the ubiquitous turkey buzzard was called gallinaza (‘big hen’); the alligator was named lagarto (‘lizard’); the turkey became pavo (‘peacock’), gallina de la tierra, and the like; the puma appeared to be a león (‘lion’), the jaguar a tigre, the potato a turma (‘testicle’), the llama an oveja (‘sheep’) or carnero (‘ram’), and the Guinea pig a conejillo de Indias (‘little Indian rabbit’). Thus many Spanish words acquired new meanings in the New World.

However, after the Spaniards had repeatedly heard the proper native term, they often adopted it as best they could: conejillo de Indias then became cuy; lagarto became caimán; turma became papa; pimienta de las Indias became ají or chile; trigo con que los indios hacen el pan became maíz, and so on. Unfortunately there were numerous objects that acquired multiple names because of the different local Indian designations. Thus, a turkey buzzard has dozens of appellations, among them zopilote (Mex. CA), zamuro (Ven, Col), urubú (RP), carancho (RP), and jote (Chile). A turkey (std. pavo) has such local names as guajolote (Mex), chompipe or chumpipe and jolote (CA), guanajo (Ant), and pisco (Ven, Col). General maíz ‘com’ is also elote (Mex, CA), choclo (SA), jojoto (Ven), and sara (Peru). Cord or string (std. cuerda, cordel) is cabuya (general), mecate (Mex, CA), pita (widespread, but of uncertain origin), guaral (Col, Ven), chilpe (Ec), chaguar (Bol, Peru), fique (Ec, Col, Ven, Mex), jicamo (SD), and others, the names indicating the various materials from which the cord is made. Sandals (std. sandalias, abarcas, alpargatas), which vary in form or material from region to region, are known as cacles (Mex) and caites (CA), cotaras, cotarras, cutaras, cutarras (Mex, CA, Cuba, Pan), cotizas (Col, Ven), chalailas and chalalas (Chile), chaplas (Peru), chocatos (Santanderes, Col), guaireñas or guarenos (N Col), guaraches or huaraches (Mex), llanques (Peni), macacinas or mocasinas (CA) and macasines (Mex), ojotas or oshotas or oxotas or usutas (NW Arg, Chile, Bol, Peni, Ec), quimbas (Ec, Col, Ven), yanques (Peru). Similar lists of numerous other terms could be drawn up.

The first indigenous language encountered by Columbus in 1492 was that of the gentle Arawaks who, together with the Caribs, supplied the first American loan words: ají, batata, bohío, cabuya, cacique, canoa, ceiba, hamaca, maíz, maní, papaya, sabana, tabaco, and others. All these terms had become firmly entrenched in daily usage before Cortes conquered Mexico (1519-1521), where he found many objects identical or similar to those mentioned above but bearing Aztec names: chile rather than ají, elote rather than maíz, camote rather than batata, cacahuate rather than maní, jacal rather than bohío, mecate rather than cabuya, and so forth. There were also things hitherto unknown to him, among them aguacate, cacao, chicle, chocolate, hule, tamal, and tomate. Similarly, after Pizarro had scaled the Andes and seized Cuzco (1533), the capital of the Inca Empire, new words from Quechua became known to the conquerors: cancha, caucho (see Coraminas; Aztec hule), coca, condor, chácara, charqui, chicha, china, choclo (Aztec elote), choro, cuy, guaca, guano, llama, llapa, mate, ojota, palta (Aztec aguacate), pampa, papa, puna, poroto, soroche, vicuña, among others. In the River Plate zone (from 1535 on) Tupi-Guaraní supplied words like ananas (elsewhere called piña by the Spaniards), ipecacuana, jaguar, ñandú, tapioca, urubú, and yacaré. After Almagro founded Santiago de Chile (1541), Mapuche, the language of the brave Araucanians, contributed boldo, diuca, huata or guata, laucha, maloca and malón, poncho, ruca, and so forth.

These various substratum languages colored the Spanish spoken in each region and were deciding factors in the division of Spanish America into five linguistic zones: the Caribbean zone with Arawak and Carib; the Mexican zone (including Central America) with Nahuatl and Maya- Quiché; the Andean zone with Quechua and Aymara; the River Plate zone with Tupi-Guaraní; the Chilean zone with Mapuche.

Of greater linguistic interest, however, than the flood of new Indian accretions in American Spanish are the semantic changes that, hastened by the Spaniards’ contact with their new environment, evolved in Spanish words themselves. American Spanish in general and the language of individual regions in particular have acquired special modalities of meaning and overtones that differ in varying degrees from peninsular Spanish, reflecting as they do the new social, economic, and cultural values of each region. Almost any page of typical American-Spanish literature bears witness to a new spirit, new connotations, new moral and intellectual attitudes, and new gradations of sense and feeling-tone.

These intrinsic changes are the natural evolution of a living language: speakers will favor certain terms, neglect others, extend the meaning of one word, restrict that of another, and create neologisms to suit the exigencies of time, place, occasion, and desired feeling-tone. Such processes were particularly rapid where Spain’s hegemony was weak and a speaker relied on his own resources with no check from without or from within. It will be remembered that when America was discovered the Spanish language was still in a state of turmoil, its fluctuating forms were still aggressively combating one another for survival and preferment. Partial stability was attained only a century or two later. That early confusion was America’s immediate heritage. The hegemony of Madrid over Mexico City and Lima, centers of colonial culture, was naturally much greater than over regions like Argentina and Chile, which lay beyond the pale of such cultural influence. These countries, lacking viceroyal courts, experienced a more rapid break in language tradition. The balance of social and linguistic values gradually being established in Spain was not paralleled in America, where the impervious social fabric of the Old World was not maintained by viceroyal courts. When linguistic discipline was relaxed, rural forms became urban and traits considered vulgar or dialectal in Spain were here often raised to the dignity of an approved form. The greater the culture of any group, the closer the adhesion to peninsular standards; but as the oral tradition of cultured speech crumbled, measuring rods were lost. The speech habits of the original settlers generally laid the foundation of a local mode, which was altered in some degree by substratum, by natural evolution, and by later immigrants, such as Italians in Argentina, Negroes in the Caribbean zone, Basques and Catalans in Venezuela, and northern Spaniards in Cuba and Chile.

Colloquial speech on all levels usually favors one form in a group of synonyms at the expense of the others, some of which may then become literary or assume specialized meanings. Many such American-Spanish preferences, while differing from standard peninsular preferences, coincide with those locally current in certain regions of Spain (particularly Andalusia, Extremadura, Asturias, or Catalonia; see Coraminas, India- noromanica, p. 87). Examples of this process follow.

Local preferences in America that differ from region to region are numerous. For instance, standard acera ‘sidewalk’ is alar (std. ‘overhanging roof’), as in "Nos fuimos por el alar por no embarrarnos" (Col: J. J. Bueno, Entretenimientos gramaticales, 3d ed., p. 15); andén (std. ‘platform’ in railway stations, on piers, etc.), as in "la niña salió tímida al andén y aguardó (Salv: Salarme, p. 63) and ¿Uno que no cede a nadie el andén? —Sí, ese que no saluda en la calle, que no cede la banqueta" (Guat: Salome Jil, Cuadros de costumbres, 4th ed., p. 305); banqueta, as in "se acerca al borde de la banqueta y lanza un escupitazo" (Mex: Gómez Palacio, p. 7); calzada (SD), std. ‘paved road, highway’; escarpa (std.

‘slope, bank’), as in "Todas las escarpas de la calle están inservibles" (Mex: Duarte); vereda (std. ‘footpath’), as in "Se abrió la puerta y salió… a la vereda el viejo perro sarnoso" (Arg: Fray Mocho, p. 110), "muerto de hambre … sobre las veredas de las calles de Santiago (Chile: Barros Grez, III, 100), and En los bordes de las veredas se alzaban las mesas de las vendedoras" (Bol: Villamil, p. 7), cf. English ‘footpaths’ and ‘paths.’

Standard autobús ‘bus’ has become bañadera (Arg), camión (Mex), colectivo (Arg), chiva (Pan), góndola (Chile), guagua (Cuba), micro (Chile), etc. Standard colilla, punta, or cabo ‘cigar(ette) butt’ may be bachicha (Mex), cabo de tabaco (Cuba), cachafo (Mex), chenca (Guat), chicote (Arg, Col, Ven, Mex), chinga (CR), magaya (Salv, Hond), pucho (SA), tecolota and vieja (Mex), yegua (CA), etc. Standard gratis, de gorra, de guagua, or de balde ‘gratis, free’ is also de arriba (RP, older std.), de bolsa (Chile), de brocha (Salv), de choña (Nie), de choto (Salv), de golilla (Hond), de guagua (Cuba), de hache (Salv) =D.H. used in telegrams for de honor (Salazar García), de ojito (Arg), de oquis (Mex; std. de oque), de rosa (CA; std. de rositas), de violín (Mex), etc. Telephonic ‘hello’ (diga, Spain) is aló (Peru), a ver (Col), bueno (Mex), hola (RP), etc. General maíz tostado, palomitas, and rositas or rosetas de maíz ‘popcorn’ is also known as alborotos (CA, Col), amea, ancua, and aunca (NW Arg), cabritos (Chile), cacalotes (Mex, CA, Cuba), cancha (Peru), cóvin (Chile), crispetas (Col), flores (Chile), pororó (RP), punches (Hond), etc.

One of the numerous verbs of shifting meaning is rajarse (std. rajar ‘to split, cleave’) ‘to back out, get cold feet’ (Mex, CA, Cuba, Andalusia), as in "Cerramos, pues, el trato antes de que el viejo se rajara" (Guat: Guzmán Riore, p. 26), "¡Jalisco, no te rajes!" (Mex), and "pudo rajarse del negocio (Cuba: C. Suárez); ‘to run away’ (Arg, Bol, Ant), as in Fulano se rajó cuando menos se esperaba" (Cuba: C. Suárez); ‘to be mistaken’ (Arg), as in "rajarse uno medio a medio" (Garzón); ‘to make a great effort, be very liberal, ostentatious, to splurge (with the preposition con), (Chile, Peru, CA, PR), as in "Pasamos a una cantina y se rajó con un litro de vino a la salii del" (Chile: Del Campo, p. 100) and "Se rajó con el baile" (Mex: Santamaria); ‘to get drunk’ (PR); transitive rajar may mean ‘to slander’ and ‘to fail someone (in an examination),’ as in "El profesor rajó a diez alumnos de matemáticas" (Col: Acuña). Random examples like rajarse could be multiplied a hundredfold.

Meanings shift according to the prevailing vital interests of any region. When such interests change, the lexical system is displaced or rearranged to suit the new central points of reference. Economic interests in some places are centered around agriculture (com, sugar, coffee, bananas, etc.), in other places around mining (gold, silver, tin, copper), cattle raising, rubber or tobacco growing, or oil production. Vocabulary and sense shifts become slanted toward these complexes or spheres of interest.

In corn-growing regions, for instance, constant preoccupation with maíz (elote, choclo, cancha, etc.) has given rise to popular expressions like amaizado ‘rich’ (Col), maizudo ‘rich’ (Guat), maiceado ‘drunk’ (Guat), maicerada ‘exaggeration’ (Col), maicero ‘native of Antioquia’ (Col), coger a uno asando maíz ‘to catch someone red-handed’ (Cuba), comer maíz ‘to accept bribes’ (Ant), ser como maíz ‘to be abundant,’ darle a uno su maíz tostado ‘to give someone his deserts’ (Col), estar sin un maíz que asar ‘to be very poor’ (Col, Ven, SD), coger a uno asando elotes ‘to catch someone red-handed’ (CA), estar en su mero elote ‘to be ripe, marriageable’ (Guat), pagar uno los elotes ‘to be the scapegoat’ (Guat), entre camagua y elote ‘between two extremes, vacillating’ (CA), coger a uno asando choclos ‘to catch someone red-handed’ (Col), choclos or choclitos ‘arms, legs (of children)’ (Chile), un choclo de ‘a group of (Peru), ser como cancha ‘to be abundant’ (Peru), choclón ‘bird not fully fledged’ (Col).

How the unitary point of subordination or ‘inner form’ of a language serves to transfigure Spanish in Argentina is exemplified by Amado Alonso (El problema de la lengua en America) in the nomenclature of vegetation on the pampas. The peasant does not use the word hierba to mean ‘grass’ as in standard speech—his hierba mate (‘Paraguay tea’) is a product which he purchases at a pulpería. The vegetation of his fields is reduced chiefly to pasto, paja, cardos, and yuyos: pasto is not only ‘grass for fodder’ (std. usage) but any ‘grass,’ including ‘lawn’ (std. césped); paja ‘straw’ is usually straw for thatching roofs; cardos (‘thistles’) and yuyos (‘weeds’) are carefully differentiated because of their particular importance in colonial Argentina—they were used as firewood and now are usually used as reserve fodder: yuyos, elsewhere meaning ‘edible greens’ (Peru, Ec, Col), are in Argentina ‘useless weeds,’ since the local colonists were not vegetarians and yuyos had come to mean what was useless to them in their cattle economy (everything that was neither pasto, nor cardos, nor paja).

Hence, standard hierba and pasto, though outwardly appearing intact, have shifted their semantic values. Furthermore, to the Gaucho the word planta ‘plant’ means árbol ‘tree’ since the few trees on the pampas were ‘planted’ by him; hacienda ‘estate, property’ means primarily ‘cattle’; bagual ‘untamed colt’ may mean ‘an unsociable person,’ and the like.

Similarly, hundreds of good old Spanish proverbs have been adapted to the new environment. For instance:

Al mejor cazador se le va la liebre has become al mejor mono (or mico) se le cae el zapote (CA, Mex) and a la mejor cocinera se le va un tornate entero (Mex).

Cada mochuelo a su olivo has become cada carancho a su rancho (RP), cada chancho a su estaca (RP, Bol, Peru), cada mico en su cajón (CA), and cada chango a su mecate (Mex); cada hormiga tiene su ira (= no hay enemigo pequeño) and cada pajarito tiene su higadito have become cada chucho tiene su tramojo (CA), cada guaraguao [a kind of hawk] tiene su pitirre [a small fearless bird] and cada pitirre tiene su zumbador [‘hummingbird’] (PR), no hay gavilán (or águila) que no tenga su drift [a small, annoying bird], and cada uno tiene su siriri (Col).

De tal palo tal astilla has become de tal jarro tal tepalcate (Mex); dijo la sartén al cazo ‘quítate allá, que me tiznas* has become el comal le dijo a la olla "¡qué tiznada estasi* (Mex); dinero llama dinero has become pisto llama pisto (Guat); donde hubo fuego hay cenizas has become donde camotes quemaron (or asaron) cenizas quedaron (Bol, Peni); donde menos se piensa salta la liebre has become de cualquier maya [a kind of plant] salta un ratón (PR).

Más es el ruido que las nueces has become más es la bulla que la cabuya (Ven), es más la bulla que las mazorcas (Col), más espuma que chocolate (Ant), más son las hojas que los tamales, or son más hojas que almuerzo (Peni, Col, CA); más vale pan con amor que gallina con dolor and contigo pan y cebolla have become más vale atole con risas que chocolate con lágrimas and contigo la milpa es rancho y el atole champurrao [drink made of atole, chocolate, and sugar] (Mex); mientras el gato no está, los ratones bailan has become mientras los gatos duermen, los pericotes [= ratones] se pasean (Arg, Peru).

No se hizo la miei para la boca del asno has become no se hizo la miel para el pico del zope (Guat); no se puede a la par sorber y soplar or soplar y sorber no puede junto ser has become no se puede chiflar y comer pinole (Mex); no tiene ni en que caerse muerto has become no tiene ni petate (en que caerse muerto) (Mex, CA); no todo el monte es orégano has become no todo ha de ser chayotes ni vainicas (CA), todos los cocos no dan agua dulce (SD).

Padre mercador, hijo caballero, nieto pordiosero has become padre pulpero [owner of a pulpería], hijo caballero, nieto pordiosero (Peru); por buen día que haga, no dejes la capa en casa has become no hay que dejar el sarape en casa, aunque esté el sol como brasa (Mex); por el hilo se saca el ovillo has become por el bejuco se conoce el ñame (PR), por el tule se conoce el petate (Mex); por la boca muere el pez has become si el juil [a variety of fish] no abriera la boca, nunca lo pescarían (Mex); por dinero baila el perro has become por plata bailan los monos (Chile).

Quien nace para ochavo, no llega a cuarto or quien nació para pobre, jamás llegará a ser rico has become el que nace tepalcate, ni a comal tiznado llega and el que nació para tlaco [a small coin], aunque se halle entre tostones [tostón ‘half a peso’] and el que nace para bule [a small gourd], hasta jicara [bowl-shaped vessel made of a gourd] no para and el que desde chico es guaje [small gourd > ‘fool’], hasta acocote [a long gourd used for sucking sap from the maguey] no para (Mex), and el que desciende de coco, hasta piñonate no para (SD).

Ver la paja en el ojo ajeno y no la viga en el nuestro has become comerse los bagres [a large fish] y atorársele los juiles [a small fish] and a quien se come las vigas, se le atoran los popotes [popote ‘straw’] (Mex).

Uno carga la lana y otro cobra la fama has become uno calienta agua para que otro tome mate (RP, Chile).

Ya pasaron los tiempos en que se ataban los perros con longaniza has become ya se acabaron los indios que tiraban con tamales.

Among other locutions that have undergone similar changes are:

Dar calabazas >[= becomes] dar ayotes (Guat); dormir a campo raso > dormir a la pampa (generai).

Este huevo pide sal > esta yuca pide sal (Bol); estar con el pelo de la dehesa > estar con el pelo del potrero (general); estar en su elemento > estar en su cancha (RP, Chile), estar en su mole (Mex); estar entre Pinto y Valdemoro > entre San Juan y Mendoza (RP); (estar) entre verde y maduro > entre camagua y elote (CA).

Hacer uno su agosto > hacer su guaca (Chile, Ant).

(Mandar a uno) a freír espárragos > a freír chongos (Mex), a freír monos or micos (general), a freír tusas (Ant); matar el gusanillo > matar el pirgüín (Chile); (más conocido que) la ruda > el atole blanco (Mex), el palqui (Chile).

Ni fumo ni bebo > ni pito ni tomo mate (Chile); (no tragar a uno) ni en pintura > ni con bombilla de plata (RP); (no valer) un comino or un pepino > un cacahuate (Mex), un cacao (CA), una guayaba podrida (SD), un palo de tabaco (Col), una papa (general), una tusa (CA).

Pedir peras al olmo > auyama no pare calabaza (SD), pedir cocos a la guásima (PR), al maguey que no da pulque no hay que llevar acocote (Mex).

(Quedarse) a la luna de Valencia > ala luna de Paita (Peru, Ec, Chile) and a la luna de Paita y al sol de Colán (Peru).

Sudar la gota gorda > sudar petróleo (Col).

Tener malas pulgas > tener malos totolates (CR); (tener sangre) de horchata > de atole (Mex), de tayote (PR).

Las uvas están agrias > la piña está agria (SD).

Most of the foregoing examples were selected at random from a very large collection of forms showing semantic changes that have taken place in American Spanish. There now arises the intricate problem of classifying and presenting this vast assortment of collected forms. Collections of material at our present stage of semantic studies are more important than a haphazard classification, yet some framework is needed for a methodical survey of the body of words under discussion.

Semantic classification had its beginnings in antiquity, when Aristotle, Cicero, and Quintilian devised the logico-rhetorical method, concerned only with the results of meaning change. This method was adopted in varying combinations by early modern semanticists. Although the technique was easy and clear, it disregarded the vital aspects of historical, psychological, and social causes of semantic change. Later semanticists attempt to place all aspects of meaning change against a more comprehensive background, recording not only the results of change but attempting to determine origin, dissemination, function, and so forth, through consociation, affective influence, analogy, and parallel developments on a functional or structural basis (the so-called field theory).

More recently, Stephen Ullmann (The Principles of Semantics, 2d ed., 1958) has offered an appealing classification in which he combines the good in earlier methods with a modern functionality. His eclectic program, with a fundamentum of his own, combines the traditional approach, especially as enlightened by the psychological interpretations of Gustaf Stem (Meaning and Change of Meaning, 1931), with the contemporary structuralist orientation (Weisgerber, Jost, Trier). Originally I had intended to follow Stem’s framework. Now it seems advisable to rearrange it in the light of the greater unity and homogeneity of Ullmann’s classification. The framework employed in the present work, then, leans heavily on both Stem and Ullmann, but with some modifications and innovations necessitated by the nature of certain sections of my collected material.

Stem’s clear and simple classification is concerned mainly with psychological processes. He believed that meaning is determined by three factors: the objective reference, the subjective apprehension, and the traditional range; that is, by its relation to the referent, the subject (speaker or hearer), and the word. Any sense change was to be traced to one of these three, the ultimate cause being a more adequate fulfilment of the functions of speech (with a division into intentional and unintentional processes). Briefly his classification is as follows:

I. External causes. Substitution

II. Linguistic causes

A. Shift of verbal relation

1. Analogy 2. Shortening

B. Shift of referential relation

1. Nomination 2. Transfer

C. Shift of subjective relation

1. Permutation 2. Adequation

The following outline shows Ullmann’s functional classification with its embodiment of Stem’s plan.

ULLMANN

I. Changes due to linguistic conservatism II. Changes due to linguistic innovation

A. Transfer of names

1. Through similarity of senses

I. External causes

II. Linguistic causes

B, 1. Nomination

A, 1. Analogy (combinative, correlative)

B, 2. Transfer

C, 1. Permutation

2. Through contiguity of senses

B. Transfer of senses

1. Through similarity of names

2. Through contiguity of names

C. Composite changes (borderline cases)

A, 1. Analogy (phonetic associative interference)

A, 2. Shortening

C, 2. Adequation (treated also in other places)

How the chapter division in the present work is related to Ullmann’s scheme is indicated in the following outline.

1. Changes due to linguistic conservatism

Chapter i—Substitutions

II. Changes due to linguistic innovation

A. Transfer of names

1. Through similarity of senses

Chapter ii—Nomination

Chapter iii—Metaphors Based on Similarity of Appearance

Chapter iv—Metaphors Based on Similarity of Quality, Activity, or Function

Chapter v—Metaphors Based on Similarity of Perceptual or Emotive Effect

Chapter vi—Combinative Analogy

Chapter vii—Correlative Analogy

2. Through contiguity of senses

Chapter viii—Permutations

B. Transfer of senses

1. Through similarity of names

Chapter ix—Phonetic Associative Interference

2. Through contiguity of names

Chapter x—Shortening

C. Composite Transfers

Chapter xi—Composite Transfers

The social level and the geographical limits of each word or expression are indicated as far as present knowledge permits. The term standard (or its abbreviation std.) is used here to mean the general Spanish norm of today (formerly often inaccurately referred to as Castilian)-, that is, Spanish of a high and rather uniform level as found in literary style and as used by cultured speakers in formal or careful discourse, without reference to geographical background. The term familiar standard (fam, std.) applies to a freer, quite informal level of speech, still rather homogeneous, used by educated persons in unconstrained daily conversation, particularly in Spain (peninsular Spanish). Below these two levels are the substandard modes known as popular, vulgar, rustic, and cant (convicts’ and thieves’ jargon).

The so-called standard is often associated with peninsular academic usage. However, forms so indicated may be current not only in Spain but also in much of America. Difficulties in classification and nomenclature arise from the fact that each Spanish-American country may have its own high-level norms used by the local cultured residents and hence considered correct there. However, above such regional norms most natives of Spanish America recognize an ideal norm valid for all America as well as for all Spain. This ideal norm (for the most part the peninsular academic standard) is regarded by most Spanish Americans as a unifying force, a model of common reference for all Spanish-speaking persons, although for most purposes they may prefer their local norm. The influence of the ideal norm is felt in varying degrees, depending on place, time, and social level. Spanish- American writers favor the ideal norm when they aim at a wider circle of readers. Popular local terms should be studied in relation to local norms rather than to the academic or general norm. Nevertheless, the ideal norm (the so-called standard) is often indicated in the text beside the local word not necessarily as a reference to a linguistic process or as a measuring rod but merely to remind the student what the corresponding ideal norm is generally considered to be.

As for geographical limits, a word that is known to be current in more than four or five countries may for our purposes be called rather general. The important aspect of the present work is not a record of minutely exact socioeconomic levels or geographic limits but rather a workable classification of a large body of examples of semantic change. As will be seen, many of the words are used only in a single country or by a certain class within that country or subdivision of it, but many of them cross a political boundary and may be known in some region of Spain. Words discussed are not ipso jacto to be regarded as local standard usage. Many of them are alternates, or merely the least common of such alternates. They find a place here because they embody some semantic change.

I

SUBSTITUTIONS

Semantic changes called substitutions are due not to linguistic causes but to the mere substitution of new referents as a result of a constant succession of new materials and changing intellectual and moral aspects of civilization. Though the referent is something new, if its function is the same as something that already has a name, the old name will suffice for the new form. A classical example of such a change is pluma ‘quill’: the word has been applied to pens of all varieties as they have developed through the centuries (those of wood, metal, or plastic, fountain pens, ball-point pens), the uniting factor being the function.

MODES OF TRAVEL

Examples abound in words indicating successive modes of travel. Early voyages to the New World were by sailing vessel; the verb embarcarse ‘to embark’ or ‘to board a ship’ was retained in subsequent means of transportation (cf. English ‘to board’), such as steamers, trains, streetcars, automobiles, buses, and airplanes, since the function of each successive vehicle remained that of carrying a traveler from one place to another. For example: "Cuando nosotros nos embarcábamos en nuestro tren, pasaron los convoyes del general (Mex: Urquizo, p. 164), Blanca se embarcó en el tren" (Chile: Guerrero, p. 86), and "Nos embarcamos en el autobús" (Ec: García Muñoz, p. 292). Similarly, desembarcar (se) is used with reference to trains, airplanes, automobiles, and streetcars: "Me desembarqué del ferrocarril (Mex: Duarte), tomó el tranvía, desembarcó junto al chalet" (Ec: Humberto Salvador, Noviembre, 1939, p. 133), and "Cuando Jaime… desembarcó y dio al chofer la orden de esperar, ella añadió—Despida al carro. Puede regresar en tranvía" (ibid., p. 126). Similarly, embarcadero is not only a ‘loading dock’ but also a railway ‘freight station,’ ‘platform,’ or ‘loading enclosure’ for animals (Arg). Standard varar ‘to be stranded’ (of a ship) may be applied to any vehicle, and even to a jobless person (Col, Chile), as in "Dos semanas duré varado en Bogota sin oficio ni beneficio, como dicen comúnmente" (Acuña). Standard flota, ‘fleet’ of ships, is applied to interurban buses (Col), as in "A las ocho de la mañana sale la flota de Bogotá para Tunja" (Acuña); flete ‘freightage’ on ships and fletar ‘to charter a ship’ are now applied to carriage charges on any vehicle; fletar may mean also ‘to hire any kind of vehicle or beast of burden to transport persons or cargo,’ as in "He fletado una bicicleta" (Peru: Ugarte), with derivatives fletero ‘collector of transportation charges’ and ‘porter’ (Ec, Guat), flete ‘race horse’ (RP, Col) and ‘nag* (Chile).

Standard arrear ‘to drive mules’ is applied to driving an automobile (Tex). Words formerly relating to horses and horse-drawn coaches now relate to trains and automobiles: estribo ‘stirrup’ and ‘running board’; coche ‘coach’ and carro ‘cart’; freno ‘bit’ and ‘brake’; berlina ‘berline’ (originally a four-wheeled covered carriage, with suspended body, seating two persons, and having a seat behind covered with a hood, first made about 1670 in Berlin) is applied to a closed automobile for two persons (a coupé) and also to a forward railway-coach compartment having only one row of seats; breque ‘break’ (formerly a four-wheeled carriage with a covered body, driver’s seat in front, and place for a footman behind) now refers to a railway ‘baggage car’ (RP, Peru, Ec); timón ‘rudder’ of a ship, became the ‘pole of a coach,’ and is now the ‘rudder’ of airplanes and the ‘steering wheel’ of automobiles, all having the function of a steering appliance. The noun fogonero (‘stoker’), meaning a person who supplied the steamer or locomotive furnace with coal, now denotes a ‘chauffeur’s assistant’ (Col: Tobón). The noun bicicleta (dim. of biciclo ‘bicycle’), that is, a ‘twowheeled vehicle,’ is often applied to a similar vehicle having three wheels (CR), though standard triciclo ‘tricycle’ exists. The force of the prefix bihas in this word lost its primitive significance, the function of the new vehicle being the determining factor.

SEASONS AND RAINFALL

A radical change of referent, like a musical transcription into another key, takes place in the names of the seasons of the year. The vernal and autumnal equinoxes (about March 21 and September 22, when days and nights are equal in length) and the summer and winter solstices (about June 21 and December 21, the longest and shortest days of the year) refer to the Northern Hemisphere, where astronomy and the language of astronomy originated. There, primavera ‘spring’ refers to the months of March, April, and May; verano or estío ‘summer’ to June, July, and August; otoño ‘autumn’ to September, October, and November; and invierno ‘winter’ to December, January, and February. This division is reversed in the Southern Hemisphere, in which about half of Spanish America is situated, where primavera comprises September, October, and November (northern otoño); verano or estío comprise December, January, and February (northern invierno); otoño comprises March, April, and May (northern primavera) and invierno comprises June, July, and August (northern verano).

Northern Hemisphere references like the following would be erroneous in the Southern Hemisphere: April is the month in which vegetation begins to put forth, Spring ends with the summer solstice, about June 21, The north wind doth blow and we shall have snow. Nor can Northern Hemisphere proverbs such as the following be applied to Southern Hemisphere climates: Marzo ventoso y abril lluvioso sacan a mayo florido y hermoso, that is, ‘April showers bring May flowers’; Are quien aró, que ya mayo entró. Ñor are figurative meanings of the names of months applicable: abril ‘early youth’ (Eng. ‘the May of youth’), as in "el abril de la vida"; agosto ‘harvest time’ and ‘reaping,’ a permutation of action for the time of action; "hacer uno su agosto," meaning ‘to feather one’s nest’ or ‘to make hay while the sun shines’; agostar ‘to graze cattle during the dry season in special pastures where there is grass,’ but in Mexico el ganado agosta ‘cattle grazes’ in winter and the beginning of spring, since that is the local dry season and August is the month of greatest rainfall.

The following examples will show the seasonal progression in the temperate zone of the Southern Hemisphere, beginning with the advent of spring: "Era una hermosa mañana de sol de fines de agosto… viene llegando la primavera… ya algunos manzanos y durazneros se veían florecidos (Chile: Durand, p. 72); Eran los comienzos de septiembre y por encima del cerco… asomaba la sonrisa de un duraznero en flor" (ibid., p. 122); "Así pasó septiembre en estas faenas preliminares, se anunció la tibia primavera y vino octubre, el mes de las siembras" (Bol: A. Arguedas, Raza de bronce, 1919, p. 5); "Juntamente con el hermoso mes de octubre, que puebla de trinos los aires, tapiza de verdura los campos (Chile: Guzman Maturana, p. 263); Comienza noviembre y todos los rosales están floridos" (Chile: Pedro Prado, Alsino, 1928, p. 186); "Estaban en diciembre y el calor sobre la piel era un beso de 48 grados de fiebre (Bol: Céspedes, p. 129); Las noches de abril son frías y bien helao el relente mañanero (Chile: Guzmán Maturana, p. 65; Era en mayo. Los andenes estaban húmedos, al mediodía, bajo el ligero sol invernar (Arg: Eduardo Mallea, La ciudad junto al río inmóvil, 1938, p. 85); "De mañanita, en los fríos meses de junio y julio, aferrado a su ponchito … corría los dos o más kilómetros que distaban de su rancho al colegio (Chile: Guerrero, p. 131); A los fríos de agosto sucedieron los soles de septiembre" (Chile: Azocar, p. 45).

In the torrid zone, however, the difference in the obliquity of the sun’s rays is never