El problema conceptual de la etimología popularestudio cronológico y análisis de diccionarios especializados en lengua inglesa

Abstract

This thesis approaches the term folk etymology and the different conceptual scopes that have been assigned to it, all from a metatheoretical perspective. For this purpose, a typology is proposed of what we call paramorphic interference phenomena (i.e. linguistic phenomena which have been explained through the existence of similar formal segments), since the label folk etymology seems, in principle, to refer to one or several of such. Secondly, a review of the literature is presented; this shows that there is no unanimity on what exactly folk etymology is. Lastly, an analysis is carried out of three dictionaries compiling folk etymologies in English. In conclusion, it is proved that the term folk etymology is inadequate, not only because it does not clearly specify which of the paramorphic phenomena it involves, but also because, as the idea of alternative etymological attribution seems to be implicit in it as well, even non-paramorphic etymological explanations have been included in the concept. All this suggests that the semantic scope which this linguistic label covers is too heterogeneous, there being no scientific justification for such conceptual amplitude.