En torno al pseudoanglicismo acuñado por traducción

Abstract

The study of pseudo-English words arising as translations of Spanish lexemes and expressions has been largely overlooked, if not deliberately ignored, by scholars working in the field of Anglicisms. There are several reasons for this, but the most important is surely that the type of translation involved in the coinage of these words goes right against the grain of what is deemed conventional, common-or-garden calquing. A lexical or phrasal unit coined as a calque of a Spanish word or phrase may look English, but is actually Spanish. On occasion, a Spanish word or word element may also be jocularly interpreted as if it were English, thus lending itself to playful calquing into Spanish. Drawing on a corpus of over 2,000 citations from the microblogging site Twitter, this article provides a detailed analysis of the processes used to create Spanish-based false Anglicisms, usually for playful or humorous effect. The bottom line of this analysis is that these calqued formations are generally motivated by a desire to undermine the sophistication and prestige associated with the use of English loanwords in Spanish.