LEXICAL BORROWINGS IN THE COLOMBIAN ONLINE NEWSPAPER EL TIEMPO FROM 1990 TO 2012 by LORENA GÓMEZ MICHAEL PICONE, COMMITTEE CHAIR ERIN O’ROURKE ALICIA CIPRIA DILIN LIU DOUGLAS LIGHTFOOT A DISSERTATION Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the department of Modern Languages and Classics in the Graduate School of The University of Alabama TUSCALOOSA, ALABAMA 2012 Copyright Lorena Gómez 2012 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ABSTRACT This study examined the introduction, adaptation, usage, and acceptance of lexical borrowings in the Colombian online newspaper El Tiempo from 1990 to 2012. While building on the foundation of prior research of sociolinguistic orientation on languages in contact, this study also included innovative approaches: the texts analyzed incorporate not only articles by El Tiempo journalists, but also the comments of bloggers linked to the newspaper’s site; online interviews were conducted with journalists and bloggers alike in an effort to determine their attitudes and motivations in relation to their vocabulary choices; and pronunciation patterns in relation to borrowed words were analyzed in videos from ET Canal El Tiempo. Contrary to the research questions posited at the outset, differences between the language of professional journalists and the language of the at-large bloggers proved to be minimal. The research found that there was a prescriptive tendency among journalists and bloggers alike to look for linguistic correctness and that their linguistic decisions were highly influenced by the guidelines from the Real Academia de la Lengua (RAE). When tracking and analyzing the different lexical choices and their relative frequencies in the writing of these two groups, no definite pattern surfaced, but only weak tendencies. Moreover, the research concludes that, whether the loanwords were newly introduced or already common, there was a tendency among the two different groups of writers to use the Spanish translation of the loanwords in addition to using the lexical borrowing. Much needed replications of this study involving a larger sampling may reveal, over time, more representative differences between journalists’ and bloggers’ motivations for their lexical choices. ii DEDICATION To all those who have helped me reach this point. To my mom Zoila, who was the happiest and strongest person on earth. To my brother Luis, who was always cheering us up with his coffee. To my sisters Alix, Nayibi, Guiomar, and Stella, who with me, seem to be one. To my nephews Anderson and Cristian and to my brother William, who have learned how to survive in a matriarchal family. To my sister in law Rebeca and to my niece Daniela, who have joined and made stronger this matriarchy. To my female dog, Lunita. Thank you for your time, love, and support. ¡Un mua! iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND SYMBOLS ALEC Atlas Lingüístico y Etnográfico de Colombia CEET Casa Editorial El Tiempo DRAE Diccionario de la Real Academia Española de la Lengua RAE Real Academia Española de la Lengua iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would never have been able to finish my dissertation without the guidance of my committee members and the support of my family and friends. I would like to express my deepest gratitude to the chairman of my dissertation, Dr. Michael Picone, for his positivism, caring, patience, and confidence in me, not only for this current research but also in my professional life. I would like to thank Dr. Douglas Lightfoot, who always offered me support and advice, along with expert critiques of my work. I would also like to thank Dr. Alicia Cipria for sharing with her students her passion for our Hispanic culture; and I also would like to thank the other members of my committee, Dr. Erin O’Rourke and Dr. Dilin Liu. I am grateful for their support, engagement, and substantive criticism. In addition, I would like to thank Dr. Esim Erdim, my former professor from the University of Mississippi, who has always believed in me and whom I consider my friend. The support of the Department of Modern Languages and Classics and Dr. William Worden’s support and advice, especially in my final year, will not be forgotten. Additional thanks also are extended to Luis-Eduardo Parra from the newspaper El Tiempo; to Nancy Rozo Melo from the Instituto Caro y Cuervo; to my external reviewers for the data collected, my sister Guiomar Gómez and my friend Laura Sánchez-Gómez; and to Mary Maxwell whose phenomenal editing and critical analysis skills assisted me in making my dissertation something of which I can be proud. v Last, but by no means least, I would like to thank again all the members of my family, my friends in Colombia, in the USA, and in the world for their invaluable love and support throughout these years. vi CONTENTS ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................................... ii DEDICATION ............................................................................................................................... iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND SYMBOLS .......................................................................... iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ...............................................................................................................v LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................................................ xii LIST OF FIGURES ..................................................................................................................... xiii 1. INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................................1 Colombia’s Linguistic and Geographical Context .....................................................................2 Purpose and Rationale..............................................................................................................10 The Newspaper El Tiempo .................................................................................................11 Blogs and Informal, Spoken, and Nonstandard Language ................................................14 Journalists and Formal, Written, and Standard Language .................................................18 Lexical Borrowing .............................................................................................................19 Research Questions ............................................................................................................20 Definition of Terms..................................................................................................................21 Attitude ..............................................................................................................................21 Linguistic Economy ...........................................................................................................22 Linguistic Correctness .......................................................................................................23 Prestige ...............................................................................................................................25 Other Terminology...................................................................................................................27 vii Newcomer, Contemporary, and Original Borrowings .......................................................27 Translation of the Word .....................................................................................................28 Neologism ..........................................................................................................................28 Brand Name .......................................................................................................................29 Corpus, Database, Sampling of Words, and Word Sampling ............................................29 Significance of the Study .........................................................................................................29 Scope and Limitations..............................................................................................................30 2. REVIEW OF LITERATURE ..................................................................................................34 Language Contact ....................................................................................................................34 Borrowings and Loanwords ...............................................................................................37 Borrowing Hierarchy .........................................................................................................38 Typifying Linguistic Borrowings ............................................................................................40 Formal Borrowings ............................................................................................................41 Preliminary Study in Colombia ...............................................................................................48 Petersen’s (1970) Study .....................................................................................................49 Another Preliminary Study in Latin America ....................................................................51 Colombianisms ..................................................................................................................53 Assimilation Process ...............................................................................................................54