Apuntes jurídicos sobre el paisaje lingüístico en Euskal Herria

This paper is a study of place-names and signs in the Basque Country from the point of view of language law. These are matters that relate to both the status and corpus of language and contribute to the formation of the language landscape,» After a brief historical introduction, the author focuses on the factors that bear on signs and the language 1andscape: the cornpetence factor and the language factor. The description of the latter leads the author to a discussion of the existing language system, in which the Spanish and Basque sharing official status does not necessarily entail the obligation to use both languages at the same time. Using this discussion as a frame of reference, the au- thor analyses place-names, traffic signals and signs. As for place-names, the existing rules are deemed rigid and lacking in ambition, in that they do not pursue the dissemination of official Basque forms. In traffic signaIs, Basque has to appear alongside Spanish, which is required by Spanish legislation, although this bilingualism excludes place-names that have an official Basque form only. With regard to signs, the author analyses public premises, companies licensed to provide public services and the private sector. For public premises there is no specific regulation, but the status of Basque as an autochthonous language, together with the identification and informatíon purposes of signs, could support the exclusive use of this language, According to the author , companies licensed to provide public services should observe the same language system as the goverment and therefore promote the use of Basque. Finally, in the private sector, the author upholds the legitimacy of measures to promote Basque language use such as tax allowances and exemptions in advertising and commercial signs.

Augusto, Nerón y el puer de la cuarta égloga

[ES] El objeto principal del artículo es exponer un argumento novedoso en favor de una de las interpretaciones antiguas de la cuarta égloga de Virgilio: se trata de demostrar que el uso que de estos versos hicieron los autores de la poesía bucólica de época de Nerón induce a una lectura de la égloga en la que el puer debe identificarse con Augusto. En el artículo se sostiene que Calpurnio Sículo y el autor de las églogas de Einsiedeln (y, de otra manera, Séneca en la Apocolocyntosis) parten de la égloga virgiliana para saludar a Nerón como artífice de una nueva aetas aurea, como un nuevo Apolo, etc. Esta hipótesis viene apoyada también por una revisión de los escolios antiguos, por la lectura de ciertos versos del Culex y por algunas reflexiones sobre lo que sabemos acerca de la primera fortuna de las Bucólicas virgilianas. Desde esta perspectiva se propone una lectura del conjunto de la égloga.

Should EFL Teachers Present Vocabulary in Semantically Related Sets?

[EN] Teaching vocabulary in semantically related sets is common practice among EFL teachers. The present study tests the effectiveness of this method by comparing it to the alternative technique: presenting vocabulary in an unrelated way. In the study two intact classes of Spanish learners of English in high-school were presented with a set of unrelated and related words and were then asked to complete a post-test to measure the impact of both techniques on learning. The results indicate that, while both techniques successfully help the learners to acquire new words, presenting words in unrelated sets seems to be more effective.