The new travelers, the new words. Approach to the origins of the tourism lexicon in the Spanish language

Authors

  • Carmen Marimón Llorca Universidad de Alicante

Abstract

From the second half of the 19th century, guides and manuals for travelers in any corner of Spain will begin to proliferate. The consolidation of the bourgeoisie and the improvement of transport make possible this new mode of idle and recreational travel that will end up being one of the main sources of communication and wealth throughout the world (Larrinaga, 2002). The earliest modern works recounting travel, advising accommodation, describing landscapes, and detailing itineraries through monumental cities were written in that century. But, as Calvi (2012: 1) points out, “tourism is made with words” and, in effect, the new genre will require new modes of expression that will produce a specific vocabulary and that, little by little, will be incorporated into lexicographical repertoires. The objective of this work is to carry out an approach to the origins of the conformation of the specific lexicon of leisure travel in Spanish, define the semantic fields, identify the first occurrences, check with what vitality they arose, when they were incorporated into the lexicographic repertoires and What this new practice ultimately contributed to the lexical flow of Spanish in the 19th century. For this, seven guides and travel books written by Spanish authors, have been used as a reference corpus where words such as excursion, hotel, railway, tourist, luggage, guide, etc. they appear used naturally. The presence of this lexicon is verified in contemporary lexicographic works –Academic and Non-Academic Dictionaries from the 19th century– and the extent of its use in CORDE is checked. The selection and organization of the lexicon is carried out based on the fields established in the Dictionaries of Alcaraz (2000) and Aragón (2009). This shows the vitality with which the new activity and the new vocabulary took root in society and in the Spanish language of the second half of the 19th century.

Keywords:

Spanish language, Historical lexicography, Tourism, Language, Specialty languages

Author Biography

Carmen Marimón Llorca, Universidad de Alicante

Para correspondencia, dirigirse a: Carmen Marimón Llorca (marimon@ua.es), Universidad de Alicante Departamento de Filología española, Lingüística general y Teoría de la Literatura, Carretera de San Vicente s/n, 03690, San Vicente del Raspeig, Alicante, España. ORCID 0000-0001-6597-1869.