Being Intense in Portuguese and Spanish: Corpus Approaches to Tracking Language Change

Public lecture given by Dr. Chad Howe, Associate Professor of Spanish Linguistics at the University of Georgia.

This presentation will focus on the use of corpus data in understanding ongoing linguistic change in Spanish and Portuguese intensifiers. Intensifiers are known to be prime candidates for gauging language change and variation (across regions and age groups) due to their versatility and fast-changing replacement by other forms. The research in Spanish draws on social media data, primarily from Twitter, to examine the use of súper as a colloqual modifier, while the Corpus de Referência do Português Contemporâneo is used to observe changes in the use of muito (very) and bem (really) in Portuguese.

Organized by the Spanish section of the Department of Modern Languages & Classics. Co-sponsored by the Department of Modern Languages & Classics, the College of Arts & Sciences, and the Latin American, Caribbean, and Latinx Studies Program.