Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: The aim of this study is to explore the possible correlations between vocabulary and certain sociolinguistic variables in the PRESEEA-Santander corpus (Project for the Sociolinguistic Study of Spanish in Spain and America). Our corpus comprises transcripts of 54 semi-structured interviews with informants classified by sex, age, and educational level. The method employed involves analyzing the frequent vocabulary of each group using a quantitative approach and applying various measures of lexical frequency, such as observed frequency, adjusted relative frequency, and proportional frequency, which have not been previously considered in this type of analysis. The results indicate that the lexical features observed in men's vocabulary include, among others, work, transportation, and the suffix '-[csx]ion'. In women's vocabulary, the predominant themes are family, food, and feelings. Regarding the variables of age and education level, a marked use of learned suffixes, '-dad' and '-[csx]ión', is observed, corresponding to the progression of variables such as mobility, fidelity, intimacy, or procession, thus confirming Ávila's (1999) visibility parameter. Finally, the exclusive uses of each lemma in different sociolinguistic groups are not necessarily absolute: they reflect general trends that ensure relative reliability.
Source: Normas
Authors: Inmaculada Martínez, Hiroto Ueda
Institutions: Universidad de Cantabria, The University of Tokyo
Language: English
Subfield: Language and Linguistics
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W7225140408