Dime en qué lengua publicas y te diré qué tipo de científico eres. Reflexiones de Pío del Río Hortega sobre la lengua, el patriotismo y las comunicaciones científicas

Abstract

Abstract At least since the first half of the 20th century a quandary confronted different figures of Spanish and Hispano-American science: whether to communicate their findings in foreign journals and languages in order to widen their diffusion, or to resort to Spanish and, even with the limitations that that implied, to take a chance on the transcendence of their investigations in the national tongue. In his essay "La ciencia y el idioma" (1937), the physician Pío del Río Hortega substantiates the patriotic importance of disseminating in Spanish and debates with those that decide to do it in foreign languages, such as the physicians and researchers Santiago Ramón y Cajal and Bernardo Houssay (Nobel Prize in 1906 and 1957 respectively). The present article addresses the considerations of Río Hortega, analyses their foundations and, simultaneously, engages in dialogue with the positions of Cajal and Houssay. From this perspective, texts are analysed as discourse, that is to say, as formulated in historical conditions of production, which means that their inquiry implies a simultaneous and reciprocal study of their verbal and sociohistorical dimensions (Mangueneau 2012).