580 California St., Suite 400
San Francisco, CA, 94104
Key research themes
1. How does Mock Spanish function as a covert form of racialized discourse perpetuating negative stereotypes about Hispanic culture?
This research area probes how Mock Spanish, used primarily by monolingual English speakers, covertly encodes racist and pejorative meanings that demean Hispanic language and identity. It examines linguistic strategies that transform neutral or positive Spanish terms into disparaging ones and analyzes the sociolinguistic dynamics through which Mock Spanish reinforces stereotypes and racial hierarchies while eliding conscious racist intent. Understanding these mechanisms is crucial for comprehending language-based covert racism and its implications for ethnic relations in the United States.
Key finding: The paper identifies four recurrent linguistic strategies in Mock Spanish—semantic derogation, euphemization, affixation, and hyperanglicization—that monolingual white American English speakers use unintentionally but which... Read more
Key finding: Using a large corpus (COCA), this study quantitatively demonstrates Mock Spanish’s sustained presence and distribution within elite American discourse between 1990 and 2012. It further confirms Jane Hill’s thesis that Mock... Read more
Key finding: This article underscores how Mock Spanish lexicalizations employ semantic pejoration of originally neutral Spanish words like 'amigo,' transforming them into derogatory insults that indirectly mock the Spanish-speaking... Read more
Key finding: Focusing on the term 'macho,' this study finds that its semantic pejoration—originally neutral in Spanish to a negative association with aggressive masculinity—did not originate solely from monolingual American English... Read more
2. What are the linguistic strategies and manifestations that characterize Mock Spanish as a distinct sociolect and how do they cognitively and pragmatically encode humor and ideology?
This theme investigates the formal linguistic features—such as semantic shift, grammatical distortion, affixation, and accent exaggeration—that constitute the Mock Spanish sociolect. It focuses on how these linguistic manipulations function as indirect markers of identity and ideological stances, embedding humor and sarcasm in ways that also perpetuate subtle exclusion and stereotyping. The research emphasizes cognitive and pragmatic frameworks that explain how Mock Spanish speakers negotiate meaning and stance through these complex linguistic phenomena.
Key finding: The paper articulates four core linguistic strategies—semantic derogation (neutral Spanish terms gaining negative English connotations), euphemization (using Spanish negative terms as softer English substitutes), affixation... Read more
Key finding: The study elaborates on how Mock Spanish differs from related contact varieties such as Spanglish, emphasizing its limited linguistic creativity and strong reliance on mispronunciation and semantic derogation. It... Read more
3. How do analogous linguistic mockery practices manifest across minority and indigenous languages, and what are their sociopolitical implications for marginalized communities?
Beyond Mock Spanish, this research domain explores comparable phenomena wherein dominant groups imitating or parodying minority languages and dialects reinforces marginalization through stereotyped linguistic performance. Studies span indigenous Spanish varieties, Basque, and other contexts, highlighting how such mock registers perpetuate social hierarchies, resistance, and identity negotiations by deploying racialized and linguistic caricatures in public discourse and media.
Key finding: This paper documents how Mexican public officials mock indigenous Spanish varieties by mimicking disfluent and ungrammatical speech, thereby reproducing and reinforcing racialized stereotypes of indigenous Mexicans as... Read more
Key finding: Analyzing a radio parody character, Jon Gotzon, this research reveals how playful, syncretic bilingual stylisations challenge fixed ideological boundaries of 'authentic' Basque identity. It highlights how parody functions as... Read more