El antropónimo sustitutivo. Ejemplificar, reconstruir, recrear, evocar: Fulano,-a y sus variantes y equivalentes

Abstract

The status of substitute proper names raises various questions regarding their grammatical categorization (they must be separated from indefinite pronouns, personal pronouns, general nouns, forms of address and ways of talking about oneself in the third person) and also in terms of their onomastic typology (they are almost always anthroponyms, but of a unique category). Despite what is argued in many lexicographical works, its main function is to facilitate exemplification (in very different textual genres), since only occasionally they serve to replace anthroponyms which are not remembered or omitted due to discretion or irrelevance. Spanish has a wide range of substitute anthroponyms, which are used more or less frequently, and, despite their considerable formal and etymological heterogeneity, they can alternate and combine with each other.