La introducción del anglicismo berry/berries en el español de Chile: historia, proceso integrativo y consecuencias semánticas

Abstract

Lexical innovation is a continuous creative phenomenon which evinces language vitality. In today’s Spanish, borrowing words from other languages is a fruitful innovation mechanism. In Chilean Spanish, a significant portion of lexical neology comes from English loanwords, a fact that may be attributed in part to the global, open-market model upon which the country bases its economy. In this context and because of its linguistic and cultural relevance, we established the development process of the English loanword berry/berries in Chilean Spanish. To this end, this paper presents an analysis of the sociohistorical background that gave rise to the introduction of this Anglicism in Chile. This mixed-methods research includes the analysis of texts, interviews, surveys and field study. A contrastive lexicographic description of berry and its equivalents in Spanish is provided, the role of different types of speakers —from experts to laypeople— is analyzed in relation to the incorporation of this neologism in Chilean Spanish, the occurrence of different existing denominations is examined, some neologicity indicators are analyzed, possible combinations of berry/berries with other elements are classified, and the evolution of this Anglicism in Chilean Spanish use is confirmed.