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UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL

SEDE REGION BRUNCA

Campus Prez Zeledn

Bachillerato en la Enseanza del Ingls

Course: General Linguistics

Response Paper

Topic: Crisis del Idioma

Student: Melissa Mora Quirs

Prof. Sandra Palacios Palacios

San Isidro de El General

Marzo, 2011

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Crisis del Idioma

Response Paper

Conference given by: Dr. Fernando Durn Ayanegui

The topic discussed was about the changes on the Spanish language

throughout the times and generations. The visiting lecturer said that Spanish is rich

and complex, so it is productive to know which the standards are and how to speak

appropriately is without forgetting ancestors linguistic features. However, rules and

restricted utterances of Spanish were not specified during the conference. Now, this

conference was interesting because of the topic, for what is happening nowadays

with this language is extreme sometimes. Besides, there are many flexibilities and

changes on the ways to express ourselves and this is one of the main characteristic

of this language. Despite that fact, people should have some limitations when

speaking or writing. Generally, it is important to take into account that Spanish is

composed by different dialects for not to be confused with the terms Spanish and

Castilian, there has been a huge flexibility in standard Spanish but there are limits,

and people should speak as clear as possible their native language.

There are permanent varieties among Spanish-speaking people because of

the Spanish dialects, country and culture. For me it is curious when linguistic aspects

vary because of the country. For example, a specific word may not have the same

meaning in Argentina and Costa Rica. So, I think this aspect is important to know due

to the fact that we might have contact with international Spanish -speaking people, so

people will misinterpret when referring to a specific term. Besides, as Spanish can be

spoken everywhere it is the native language of the place; we have the right of

expressing in any dialect we want. However, this is a pedantic act because people

will misunderstand, there will not be an appropr iate communication and it is impolite .

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Thus, it is important to have knowledge about semantic peculiarities among Spanish

dialects and people whose Spanish is their native language have different ways to

express themselves.

The flexibility in the mandatory rules and structures in the standard Spanish is

a relevant feature that makes the complexity this language nowadays. Nevertheless,

there are restrictions that people should consider . In fact, this is necessary to have

boundaries to avoid informality and misunderstanding. Besides, for me this is more

negative than positive due to the nonsense expressions or words. Different from that,

the flexibility also happens in writing because there are abbreviations used by young

people that affect a lot the orthography. Now, I have my own experiences when I

communicate with adolescents on the internet, they write very weird for me that I

barely can understand the message. Thus, Spanish has had such a huge flexibility

throughout the times and this causes that many times there are silly extremes when

expressing.

Another important aspect in this conference was the appropriate use of our

native language. This aspect is the most interesting for me because sometimes we

think that we should speak with uncommon words to speak better and in a formal

way. However, the importance is to express ourselves as clear as possible. I think

that Hispanic people can be creative with their way to communicate and at the same

time be careful for they to speak correctly according to the standard rules. Also, we

must avoid giving unclear messages because our language is very complex and it

allows creativity. Moreover, we as Costa Ricans must know that speaking creatively

is not to speak confusing. Accordingly, it is interesting to pay attention how creative

we can be when speaking in Spanish without losing the sense and originality of the

language itself.

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As a conclusion, the Spanish language is so varied that in the last centuries

people have done mistakes when speaking and writing. In fact, there are not only

mistakes but also wrong use of orthography and speech utterances. In addition,

Hispanics can be very creative when speaking or writing even though it is necessary

to be careful for not to lose the clarity in the messages given. Moreover, the flexibility

in the standard Spanish has taken many changes in the rules and this is not positive

enough because people are expressing themselves with nonsense phrases. Now,

this society should persuade not to forget totally our ancestors use of the Spanish.

Since, some of the American countries share the same language; they must know

deeply the perception of some words and expressions. Besides, there are dialects

that characterized some nations and unfortunately people confuse the name of their

language. In other words, Castilian is not a language but a dialect from Spanish

which is the official mother tongue of Costa Rica, Spain, Chile, Argentina, Guatemala

and so on. Finally, the correct use of language is to speak clearly through following

standards and to accept differences among dialects.

References

Duran A. F., (2011). Crisis del IdiomaConference. Municipalidad de Perez

Zeledon.