Spanish-Catalan linguistic transfers: A study of lexical availability in Lleida

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to analyze the mutual influences of Spanish and Catalan on the lexicon. Our data come from a study on lexical availability based on 480 surveys conducted on pre-university students in Lleida. Quantitative analysis shows that, with regard to the total number of answers obtained, Catalan contains more elements from Spanish than Spanish does from Catalan. The same phenomenon may be seen in the study of integrated and integrating loans that appear in the lexicons available in both languages.

Keywords: lexical transfer, Spanish-Catalan bilingualism, lexical availability, linguistic contact phenomena.