The research Dr. Serigos and I presented at the 64th
Annual International Linguistics Association Conference in Buenos Aires focused
on the opinions in Argentine media towards the use of Anglicisms in Spanish.
Anglicisms are defined as words or expressions that are either directly taken
and used in another language (i.e. software, marketing) or that are derived
into other words or expressions (i.e. políticamente correcto, estrés), and are
commonly read and heard throughout the country. It has been very trendy within
the last decade to use English to advertise a store or product or for people to
use political terms, like “déficit,” when discussing the news. Dr. Serigos and
I examined the country’s two largest newspapers for articles about Anglicisms
and classified the opinion(s) as positive, negative, neutral, divided, complex,
or NA. The NA group, those articles in which “Anglicism” appears as a passing
reference, was the most common. Out of the articles that did express an
opinion, however, most were negative, as they expressed fears that Spanish is
changing for the worst. The research we completed provides quantitative
evidence necessary to understand how changes in language as a result of
globalization are perceived.
