A unique book that reveals the hip talk and occasionally lewd eloquence of the Spanish commonly used in Mexico and Latin America. Also includes examples of slang commonly found in graffiti on buildings, bridges and fences.
A unique book that reveals the hip talk and occasionally lewd eloquence of the Spanish commonly used in Mexico and Latin America. Also includes examples of slang commonly found in graffiti on buildings, bridges and fences.
What do 'bimbo,' 'glitch,' 'savvy,' and 'shtick' all have in common? They are all expressions used in informal American English that have been taken from other languages. This pioneering book provides a comprehensive description of borrowings in informal American English, based on a large database of citations from thousands of contemporary sources, including the press, film, and TV. It presents the United States as a linguistic 'melting pot,' with words from a diverse range of languages now frequently appearing in the lexicon. It examines these borrowings from various perspectives, including discussions of terms, donors, types, changes, functions, and themes. It also features an alphabetical glossary of 1,200 representative expressions, defined and illustrated by 5,500 usage examples, providing an insightful and practical resource for readers. Combining scholarship with readability, this book is a fascinating storehouse of information for students and researchers in linguistics as well as anyone interested in lexical variation in contemporary English.
This volume--along with its companion Ethnolinguistic Chicago: Language and Literacy in the City's Neighborhoods--fills an important gap in research on Chicago and, more generally, on language use in globalized metropolitan areas. Often cited as a quintessential American city, Chicago is, and always has been, a city of immigrants. It is one of the most linguistically diverse cities in the United States and home to one of the largest and most diverse Latino communities. Although language is unquestionably central to social identity, and Chicago has been well studied by scholars interested in ethnicity, until now no one has focused--as do the contributors to these volumes--on the related issues of language and ethnicity. Latino Language and Literacy in Ethnolinguistic Chicago includes: *ethnographic studies based in home settings that focus on ways of speaking and literacy practices; *studies that explore oral language use and literacy practices in school contexts; and *studies based in community spaces in various neighborhoods. It offers a rich set of portraits emphasizing language use as centrally related to ethnic, class, or gender identities. As such, it is relevant for anthropologists, sociologists, linguists, historians, educators and educational researchers, and others whose concerns require an understanding of "ground-level" phenomena relevant to contemporary social issues, and as a text for courses in these areas.
This volume explores various hitherto under-researched relationships between languages and their discourse-cultural settings. The first two sections analyze the complex interplay between lexico-grammatical organization and communicative contexts. Part I focuses on structural options in syntax, deepening the analysis of information-packaging strategies. Part II turns to lexical studies, covering such matters as human perception and emotion, the psychological understanding of ‘home’ and ‘abroad’, the development of children’s emotional life and the relation between lexical choice and sexual orientation. The final chapters consider how new techniques of contrastive linguistics and pragmatics are contributing to the primary field of application for contrastive analysis, language teaching and learning. The book will be of special interest to scholars and students of linguistics, discourse analysis and cultural studies and to those entrusted with teaching European languages and cultures. The major languages covered are Akan, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, Spanish and Swedish.
The story of Indians in San Diego County from 1850 through the 1930s. This analysis provides a glimpse into the cultural history of the native peoples of the region, including the Kumeyaay (Ipai/Tipai), Luiseno, Cupeno, and Cahuilla.
Focusing on the Spanish that is spoken in Mexico, and most frequently in the United States, this book teaches the language and provides insights into Mexican culture and its customs.