Policy, ideologies and linguistic attitudes in 18th- and 19th-century Spain and Hispanic America: an approach from the press and grammatical texts

The project aims to investigate the connection between linguistic change and the ideological component of speaking and writing. To this end, it will use journalistic texts to trace this set of external variables, which contributed to the creation of a universe of opinions about language. This combination of little known documentary sources with the different socio-cultural and political variables that would influence the consideration of the object "language" (official language planning and policy; introduction of the printing press; processes of independence; contact of Spanish in monolingual and bilingual territories; exposure of the language to different types of speakers [indigenous; Creoles; natives of Spain...]; teachers vs. grammarians; grammarians vs. Real Academia; grammar and the State; social prestige, etc.) will result in the unification of criteria and methods in sociolinguistic research in the 18th and 19th centuries and the building of bridges towards disciplines such as the history of language.
The project, funded by the Spanish Ministerio de Cienca e Innovación and directed by Prof. Manuel Rivas Zancarrón, includes a research team from the Universities of Cádiz and Valladolid and an international working team. At the IAI, Ulrike Mühlschlegel will investigate the paratexts of 18th century Mesoamerican grammatical texts with a focus on the relationship between spoken and written language. An electronic corpus will be created and studied with Digital Humanities tools.