The gender of the anglicisms in current spanish. Panorama and critical review

Abstract

This study examines a great number of variations found in the gender of Spanish anglicisms in contemporary Spanish, and their various formal and semantic conditioning factors, a subject which has received little attention. The main focus is placed on the role played by semantic associations on the mind of the user of the language when assigning gender, as it is reflected in the form of the adjuncts, usually articles. To this end, a double empirical methodology has been used: first, an extensive corpus of written language drawn from the Gran diccionario de anglicismos, by the author (2017), which includes quotations with numerous oscillations; and secondly, a questionnaire distributed among informants from Spain and Argentina. It also reviews the lexicographic treatment followed with regard to gender variation in the main dictionaries of usage of the Spanish language.