Americanisms in L. Padura's novel "Goodbye, Hemingway!"

The subject of this study is the diatopic and diastratic characteristics of lexical Americanisms functioning in the contemporary Cuban variant of the Spanish language. The object of analysis is the Americanisms documented in the novel by the contemporary Cuban writer L. Padura. The aim of the work is to identify the diatopic and diastratic characteristics of lexical Americanisms to determine their significance for the variability of the Spanish language. The detective novel "Goodbye, Hemingway" has received numerous awards, has been reissued several times, and has been selected for reading and study by students of Spanish at the University of Salamanca, as well as by the Edinumen publishing house and the Cervantes Institute as a benchmark of contemporary Latin American literature. Comments prepared by a group of specialists from the University of Salamanca provide information for a better understanding of the semantics and style of a number of Americanisms. To achieve this goal, an analysis of L. Padura's novel "Goodbye, Hemingway" was conducted using a continuous sampling method, as well as descriptive and classificatory methods. As a result, a corpus of Americanisms used in the novel was compiled, which were then analyzed. An important aspect was the analysis of selected Americanisms using the Dictionary of Americanisms to identify diatopic characteristics. The following conclusions were drawn from the conducted research. The concept of ‘Americanism’ represents an important part of the theory of variability, which currently distinguishes different types, the most important of which are diatopic and diastratic. L. Padura achieves the inclusion of his novel in the general Latin American context by using the entire palette of lexical Americanisms, ranging from vocabulary typical for most countries to Americanisms characteristic of specific regions, and ending with vocabulary that functions only in Cuba. The diatopic characteristics of Americanisms allow for an understanding of the intensity of the spread of lexical Americanisms. The diastratic variability of Americanisms reflects the main themes of the novel at different stylistic levels: from neutral, related to the description of the city and sports facilities, to the lowest levels, allowing readers to imagine the speech of marginal elements connected with the detective's main mystery. To date, no studies have been conducted on the linguistic features of L. Padura's novels. Verbs such as botar, agarrar unas curdas, estar salao allow for a glimpse into the differing functionalities of Americanisms in Cuba. Diatopic characteristics provide a new perspective on the contradictions of the zonal division of Latin America.

Americanism, lexical Americanism, variability of the Spanish language, diatopic variability, diastratic variability, L. Padura, Cuban dysphemism, Cuban detective, Spanish language, national variant