The distribution of words and the argument over grammar in latin america

Abstract

The paper aims at examining some of the parameters considered in the political-literary discussion about the conversion of the Castilian Spanish into a Hispanic-American Spanish, occurring during the first half of the nineteenth century. The conversion of the conqueror’s language into a modern, republican language was intended in order to create a textual relationship at a continental level. Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, Andres Bello, Felix Varela and Simon Rodriguez are some of the essayists who discuss their viewpoints about the good use of the language. The arguments which supported this project came from the Port Royal grammarians, combined –in an eclectic way– with Romantic theory, Neoclassical theory and the positions of the Anglo-French sensualists and ideologues.