Morphological considerations about the demonym. A case study: Chile Consideraciones morfológicas sobre el gentilicio. Un caso: Chile

Abstract

This article analyzes the post-toponymic demonym from a morphological point of view. As is well known, because of its suffixal richness and of its derivational possibilities in Spanish, the morphological level is the most productive domain within the studies of post-toponymic demonyms. For this reason, we take up the taxonomic proposal of Ferreccio and Jocelin and work with an updated corpus (Kordic/Ferreccio), focusing on Chilean Spanish. Hence we present the most characteristic derivational aspects of the genetic process of the demonym, taking as operative unit the word and not the morpheme. We also stress some objections to the derivational mechanics and propose a typology of demonym and a classification of their poly-genesis. The goal of this article is to show the many complexities in the creation of the post-toponymic demonyms, often subject to construction processes which go beyond pre-established rules.