Periphrastic constructions as a stylistic resource in the Spanish of Equatorial Guinea: a study based on the literary work of Juan Tomás Ávila Laurel

Abstract

The Spanish language in Africa in general and its characterization constitutes the essence of our concerns. This article aims to demonstrate, based on a literary corpus, that one of the relevant features of Equatoguinean Spanish are periphrastic constructions as a stylistic resource, to overcome both qualitative and quantitative limitations at the lexical level. We start, by induction, from three novels by the Guinean author Juan Tomás Ávila Laurel to extend our conclusions to a large majority of Equatorial Guineans that we have observed both in Guinea and in Spain. The taste for circumlocutions and periphrases seems to reveal a situation of cultural hybridism and heterolinguism on the one hand; and a lexical insecurity on the other hand. The result can be seen in a hundred illustrations that we have cataloged using stylistic and grammatical criteria.