Francisco José Rodríguez Muñoz

ESTUDIO SOBRE LAS FUNCIONES PRAGMADISCURSIVAS DE ¿NO? Y ¿EH? EN EL ESPAÑOL HABLADO

Este estudio compara las funciones pragmaticas de las particulas discursivas de ?no? y ?eh? que muestran algunas semejanzas en el espanol hablado, como el caracter deictico de apelacion al interlocutor que ambas incluyen. El analisis se sirve de un corpus heterogeneo formado por dos onversaciones espontaneas, tres entrevistas y otros ejemplos de generos discursivos extraidos del CREA. Los datos linguisticos revelan ciertas diferencias acerca de los usos semanticos, comunicativos y entonativos de estos marcadores del discurso.

Pilot assessment of nonverbal pragmatic ability in people with asperger syndrome

behaviors of people with Asperger syndrome, with the intent to give an account of the severity of symptoms in the area of nonverbal interaction, as well as providing a profile of nonverbal behaviors that may be targeted for intervention. Through this communication profile, overall nonverbal ability is calculated in a group of 20 subjects with Asperger syndrome. The proposed scale also includes the measurement of the following nonverbal dimensions: (1) eye gaze, (2) facial expression, (3) body language and posture, (4) proxemics, (5) gestures, and (6) paralanguage. The results of this assessment suggest low nonverbal pragmatic ability in these subjects, show specific deficits in nonverbal communication, and capture variability in nonverbal behavior in individuals with AS.

CLASSROOM COMMUNICATION SKILLS: THE NEED TO FILL A GAP IN THE TRAINING OF TEACHERS OF SPANISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE

This paper sets out the necessity of examining the communication skills of teachers of Spanish as a foreign language as conducted in other socio-educative contexts. According to this objective, the paper begins with a review of theoretical efforts that have been made during recent years referring to research methodology (such as instruments), and to their main results. This leads to a discussion of the training needs that teachers of Spanish as a foreign language presently face for the development of their communication skills in the classroom and, in general terms, the paper discusses the different types of ideas and strategies that must be considered during teachers’ instruction. Finally, this brief proposal expects to be the seed of future research projects that impact positively on the improvement of teachers’ communication competence, whereby the ideas discussed here are taken as a nuclear component in the frame of future teaching competence.

Evolución léxico-terminológica de las enfermedades raras: revisión de los diccionarios de la real academia española

This paper focuses on the terminological development of fifty-four rare diseases. It analyzes the degree of lexical acceptance that these terms have and have had –over time– in their treatment and inclusion in academic dictionaries of Spanish language. Until now, only twenty of the selected terms have been included in DRAE, accounting for 37.03 %. This situation shows the lack of solid criteria in incorporating new terms about rare diseases in this general dictionary. The most noticeable case is fibromyalgia, a pathology that has recently ceased to be considered a rare disease, which, however, does not appear in DRAE. If, on the one hand, it must be assumed that the DRAE is not a specialized medical dictionary; on the other, it must assess the degree of incorporation of these voices in social life.

DISCOURSE MARKERS AND MODAL EXPRESSIONS IN SPEAKERS WITH AND WITHOUT ASPERGER SYNDROME: A PRAGMATIC-PERCEPTIVE APPROACH

Abstract From a theoretical point of view, this paper offers a new framework for the analysis of discourse markers: a pragmatic-perceptive model that emphasizes the point of the communication process in which such particles become more relevant. Furthermore, this approach tries to give an account of the modal expressions (attenuators and intensifiers) that speakers use in oral speech. The quotients of absolute and relative frequency with regard to the use of textual, interactive and enunciative markers - focused on the message, the addressee and the addresser respectively - are compared in two samples of 20 subjects with typical development and other 20 with Asperger syndrome. The general results of this research suggest that these latter speakers display a suitable command of textual markers, whereas they overexploit the enunciative ones in conversation.

Los signos de puntuación en español: cuestiones de uso y errores frecuentes

The current paper aims to analyze how first year university students ofthe Spanish Language and Literature Degree use punctuation marks.For this purpose, a sample of 128 interventions was collected. Thediscursive frame where participations took place was the academicvirtual forum; particularly, two thematic forums were provided.Results show that comma and full stop are the most usual punctuationmarks; it is also significant the high frequency with which Englishinverted commas appear in the written texts, as well as the incorrectand widespread use of dashes with explanatory function.