EXPRESSIVE ETHNONYMS AS A MEANS OF HETERONOMINATION IN LATIN AMERICA

Abstract. Today, globalization and the development of digital mass media produce a huge impact on the forms of communication, as well as on the language. In the lexical system, a number of units previously used within a narrow circle of native speakers started to extend at a mass level due to the Internet. One of such groups are expressive ethnonyms, whose features we consider in our investigation with reference to Latin American Spanish-speaking countries. Having selected items from the national variations of Spanish in Argentina, Mexico, Colombia and Venezuela for semantic, etymological and linguoculturological analysis, we take into account historical, social and economic factors affecting the areas of residence of the corresponding communities. We have selected ethnonyms used in heteronomination, which means that such designations contain information of emotional and evaluative nature about characteristics typical of representatives of one group from the point of view of another. The items name residents of either different Latin American countries, or regions of the same country. Heteroethnonyms as a rule have negative connotations and function as ethnophaulisms. However, some of such units have undergone a semantic shift from negative to neutral (such as gallego which now means any Spaniard in the Argentinian colloquial speech without any insulting intention), and others – from neutral or even positive to humiliating (such as venexicans, veneguayos or venecos which denote Venezuelan immigrants to other Latin American countries). Some expressive ethnonyms reflect positive or negative evaluation dependently of who uses them (porteño used by the capital inhabitant of by the one who lives in the south of Argentina; cachacos and costeños in Colombia, etc.). We conclude that the group under analysis undergo constant changes due to the influence both of the language lexical system and extralinguistic factors.

Keywords: expressive ethnonyms, heteronomination, semantic shift, extralinguistic factors