Los adverbios en -mente en los registros formal e informal del Español hablado peninsular y Mexicano

Abstract

The paper analyzes adverbs in -mente used in spoken Peninsular Spanish, according to criteria such as formality and educational level of respondents. The data shows that their frequency is three times higher in formal registers and three times higher at high educational levels. The results are compared to Mexican Spanish data (habla culta and popular), where the frequency is again three times higher at high educational levels. The paper suggests that the parallelism between these results is due to the impact of the written tradition on formal register and on educated speech. D.R.