Grammatical thinking and journalism: the “notes” by two educated Hispanic Americans in the first revolutionary decade in Buenos Aires.

Abstract

In 1817 Antonio José Valdés, Cuban, and Felipe Senillosa, Spanish, publish their grammars for schools in Buenos Aires. The first author takes the Royal Spanish Academy grammar as a starting point and the other one approaches the tradition of general grammars. Both of them run, in addition, a newspaper each, in which there is a grammar note that will be analyzed in the present article. We will consider how the regulation observations depend on the grammar trend followed by the authors, which authority is recognized by them and their political stand. Likewise, we will see how, in spite of their differences, they share the concern to discipline the society regulating the language.