DICTIONARY OF AMERICANISMS AS A REFLECTION OF THE SPANISH-SPEAKING WORLD LANGUAGE PICTURE IN LATIN AMERICA

Abstract

One of the urgent tasks for the Spanish studies modern development stage is a systematic study of the variability of the Spanish language. Linguistic variability refers to the use of language in various geographical, sociocultural, contextual or historical conditions. At present, the concept of “Spanish language” acts as a kind of abstraction, as a set of national options, the formation of which is determined, first of all, by various extralinguistic factors: historical, geographical, social, cultural, economic, etc. They, in turn, will inevitably affect the identity of the national version of each individual Latin American country. This work was carried out within the framework of the concept concerning national variants of the Spanish language the author of which is the domestic scientist and academician G.V. Stepanova. Linguistic features and the national-cultural identity of Latin American Spanish are revealed at the level of vocabulary, namely, on the material of Americanisms - a complex concept that has not yet received an exact definition among domestic and foreign Hispanists. The authors describe the evolution of this concept in linguistics, describe the approaches and views of various scholars on the definition of the term “Americanism”, analyse the criteria used in compiling the “Dictionary of Americanisms”, the publication of which in 2010 changed the angle of view on the design and compilation of academic dictionaries, and also meant the end of a multi-year project that became a natural reaction to the establishment of Latin American Spanish academies in the 19th century. The theoretical provisions of the study are accompanied by relevant examples and linguistic commentary of the authors.