Aspectos metodológicos en el estudio histórico del léxico americano: conceptos, ejemplificación y tareas para el futuro

Abstract

Although there are many studies that analyse Latin American lexicon from a historical point of view (Hildebrandt 1961, Mejías 1980, Buesa Oliver & Enguita Utrilla 1992, Frago 1999), researchers still need a theoretical frame which defines and justifies what would be the objective of a general history of American Spanish lexicon, as well as the methodology that should be used for this purpose. This paper aims to reflect on this subject: thus, the study of the history of Latin American Spanish lexicon will be defined as the analysis of lexical configuration in different American dialects (Ramírez Luengo 2012), and some of its theoretical and practical aspects will be explored; at the same time, the essential dynamism of americanisms (Company 2007) will be postulated, and some problems for the historical research of American lexicon which are related with this issue will be considered. It is important to say that theoretical reflections will be presented with some examples that appear in two 18th. Century chronicles about Moxos (Eastern Bolivia) (Barnadas & Plaza 2005).