The Diversity of Spanish Society: Values Through the Prism of Expressive Nomination of Ethnic and Social Groups

Multiculturalism is one of the main features of modern society, which has ethnic, gender, age, professional and other groups, whose values are represented in the language through vocabulary with evaluative semantics. Spanish society is the epitome of a multicultural society, and, like any other, has a complex set of values due to historical, socioeconomic, religious and other factors. The aim of the study is to analyse the formation and use of lexical units with evaluative connotations that represent ethnic, territorial and social groups in Spain through the prism of their correlation with basic (terminal) values. The largest number of evaluative lexemes is present among demonyms denoting the region or province where a person lives. Homeland (mi tierra) is of high value to Spaniards: it is associated with their roots, history, traditions, family and friends. It is important to note that the archetypal opposition of «friend vs. foe» is increasingly present in the regional context, even though the people are from the same country; hence, expressive words need to be differentiated in terms of auto- and heteronomination. While evaluative selfnames usually have positive connotations, glorifying a quality of the inhabitants of a certain area, heteronomination, as a rule, implies negative evaluation, as it names «the other», the people whose values are not shared or are not deemed important. Autonomination based on pride in one’s origin, roots and traditions (maños, gatos, guanches) serves as a tool for strengthening identity, while heteronomination (paleto, charnego, polaco) reveals social contradictions related to ethnic, cultural or class differences. It is particularly interesting to explore the connection between linguistic nomination and football culture, in which fan nicknames (culés, merengues, colchoneros) become symbols of regional pride and continuity of traditions. Thus, expressive nomination not only reflects but also shapes the cultural codes of Spanish society, acting as an important element of its linguistic worldview.

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