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A semantic analysis of the Spanglish verbs wachar and puchar

Author

  • Petra Van Veen

Summary, in English

more and more people being bilingual. Two languages that are often mixed
in the United States are English and Spanish. Due to the high population of
Spanish speaking immigrants, new words are being formed by mixing the
two languages. This can be heard in the areas near the border between the
USA and Mexico among other areas. The verb watch in English, which in
Spanish would be mirar, becomes wachar, for example. In this case, they
have taken the English verb with a Spanish ending which is then used and
conjugated in Spanish. Another example would be puchar which comes
from the English verb push, in Spanish empujar, and then the Spanish verb
suffix –ar has been added. This essay will look at how these two verbs are
translated into American English and Mexican Spanish and to see if the
verbs follow English or Spanish semantics pattern of usage. Are they
translated into more words than only watch or push and if they are, what
are they? Do the Spanglish verbs follow the semantic meaning as their
cognates watch and push?

Department/s

Publishing year

2011

Language

English

Document type

Student publication for Bachelor's degree

Topic

  • Languages and Literatures

Supervisor

  • Dylan Glynn