Contemporary Trends in Spanish Language and Social Changes in the Spanish-habitat Society

• Main Author: Guido Tejerina
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia (RUDN University) 2019-12-01
• Series: RUDN Journal of Language Studies, Semiotics and Semantics
• Subjects: lenguaje español; cambios sociales; sociedad; spanish language; social changes; society
• Online Access: http://journals.rudn.ru/semiotics-semantics/article/viewFile/22784/17749

Language is the first social science that man possesses. Languages change, usually very slowly, sometimes very quickly. There are many reasons why a language can change. An obvious reason is the connection between language and social consciousness. Then, the author is dedicated to the investigation of changes in the Spanish language that reflect those of society. The relevance of the subject is even more evident if we remember the speed with which social relations are changing in our time, new technologies are born, new media appear. The language accepted, adopted and sheltered new definitions of activities that are direct daughters of modern communication technologies. Its power of sociabilization and viralization impacted the anatomy of a language that lives in constant transformation. Language is a living entity, it grows, it transforms, adopts new terms. If it were not, we would continue speaking in Latin. To achieve the objective of identifying the connection between language changes and those of society, the author uses the following methods. On the one hand, he observes the changes in the meaning of words imposed by politicians to achieve a kind of nebula that we call politically correct. On the other hand, he comments on the new words that appear in the language thanks to technological development, through social networks and youth jargon. The last part is about language discrimination. To identify and describe the changes in language, the author analyzes from the linguistic point of view the speeches of modern political figures, newspaper texts and publications in social networks. As a result, the author clearly shows the connection of modern trends in the Spanish language with changes in society.