Very well y yes very well, dos anglicismos desatendidos

Abstract

This article sheds light on two enduring English loanwords in European Spanish, very well and yes very well, which have thus far evaded scholarly attention. Despite their long-standing presence and widespread use, these Anglicisms have rarely been encountered in written Spanish. This, coupled with their playful and informal nature, may have contributed to their perceived insignificance in academic inquiry. The study scrutinizes nearly a thousand instances of these loanwords from various sources to elucidate their contemporary semantic roles in European Spanish. The analysis reveals that their continued usage over time can be attributed to their versatility and wide-ranging semantic functions. Furthermore, it shows that, precisely because research on English loans has been strongly biased towards the written medium, these are likely to be but two among a number of time-honoured Anglicisms that remain unexplored.

Keywords

• anglicism
• european spanish
• loanword
• polysemy
• pseudo-anglicism