NOTES FOR A HISTORICAL-LINGUISTIC STUDY OF CHILEAN SPANISH

Abstract

This paper describes the current state of documentary sources for the study of Chilean Spanish from a historical perspective, including digital tools and analyzing the heuristic advantages of nineteenth-century Chilean lexicography. Furthermore, it outlines the main explanatory models of historical linguistic change (grammaticalization, constructionalization, lexicalization, pragmatization, and discursive traditions) and shows how they can be applied to the study of lexical units and patrimonial structures of the Chilean variety. Lastly, it reflects about the possibility that the historical study of chilenismos results in a proposal for a Historical Dictionary of Chilean Spanish.