Cover not available

Article published In: Revue Romane
Vol. 60:2 (2025) ► pp.267–296

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
EPUB logo with download linkDownload EPUB
authorization required
Articles linguistiques

La evolución reciente del intensificador mazo (de) en el lenguaje juvenil madrileño

Gramaticalización y difusión social

ORCiD logo with link | Ghent University

Article language: Spanish

Published online: 20 August 2025
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/rro.23002.roe
Abstract
This article aims to trace the grammaticalization and recent social diffusion of the intensifier mazo (de). Despite its high frequency in the language of Madrilenian teenagers, this linguistic innovation of the late 20th century has not been studied in detail to date. To this end, a real-time analysis is carried out, based on two highly comparable samples of youth speech data, recorded at two different moments in the 21st century: Corpus Oral de Lenguaje Adolescente de Madrid or COLAm (2003–2007) and youth conversations from the Corpus Oral de Madrid or CORMA (2019). The results highlight that mazo (de) passed through a process of grammaticalization from collective noun to multifunctional intensifier, including reanalysis and host class expansion (Traugott, E. C. (2008): Grammaticalization, constructions and the incremental development of language: Suggestions from the development of degree modifiers in English, in Eckardt, R., Jäger, G. & Veenstra, T. (Eds.): Variation, Selection, Development--Probing the Evolutionary Model of Language Change, Mouton de Gruyter, Berlin/New York, pp. 219–250. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar), and bring to light innovative pragmatic uses. The sociolinguistic analysis suggests that the social diffusion of mazo (de) can be understood as a “change from below” ( (2003): Language and adolescent peer groups. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 22, 1, pp. 112–118. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar).
Article outline
  • Introducción
  • 1.Gramaticalización de mazo (de) en el habla madrileña: De nombre colectivo a intensificador multifuncional
  • 2.Datos y metodología
  • 3.Cambios intralingüísticos en el uso de mazo (de) en el lenguaje juvenil madrileño del siglo XXI
    • 3.1Cambios en la productividad
    • 3.2Cambios morfosintácticos
    • 3.3Cambios semántico-pragmáticos
  • 4.Cambios sociolingüísticos en el uso de mazo (de) en el habla de adolescentes madrileños en el siglo XXI
  • 5.Conclusiones
  • Notas
  • Referencias bibliográficas
References (68)
Referencias bibliográficas
Aarts, B., Close, J., Leech, G. N., & Wallis, S. (2013): The Verb Phrase in English. Investigating Recent Language Change with Corpora. Cambridge University Pres, Cambridge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Aijmer, K. (2018): That’s well bad: Some new intensifiers in spoken in British English, in: Brezina, V., Love, R. & Aijmer, K. (Eds): Corpus Approaches to Contemporary British English. Routledge, New York/London, pp. 60–95.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Albelda Marco, M. (2007): La intensificación como categoría pragmática: revisión y propuesta. Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Arce Castillo, A. (1999): Intensificadores en español coloquial. Anuario de estudios filológicos, 221, pp. 37–48.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Athanasiadou, A. (2007): On the subjectivity of intensifiers. Language Sciences, 291, pp. 554–565. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Azofra Sierra, M. E., & Enghels, R. (2017): El proceso de gramaticalización del marcador epistémico deverbal sabes. Iberoromania, 851, pp. 1–25.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Baayen, R. H. (2009): Corpus linguistics in morphology: Morphological productivity, in: Lüdeling, A. & Kytö, M. (Eds.): Corpus linguistics: An international handbook. Mouton de Gruyter, Berlin, pp. 900–919. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bailey, G., Wikle, T., Tillery, J., & Sand, L. (1991): The apparent time construct. Language variation and change, 3, 3, pp. 241–264. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Biber, D., Conrad, S., & Reppen, R. (1998): Corpus linguistics: Investigating language structure and use. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Blanco-Suárez, Z. (2010). On the Origin and Grammaticalisation of the Intensifier Deadly in English. Paper presented at Langwidge Sandwidge, University of Manchester.
Blas Arroyo, J. L. (2005): Sociolingüística del español. Cátedra, Madrid.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bolinger, D. (1972): Degree Words. Mouton de Gruyter, The Hague/Paris. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Brems, L. (2010): Size noun constructions as collocationally constrained constructions: lexical and grammaticalized uses. English Language and Linguistics, 141, pp. 83–109. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Briz Gómez, A. (1996): Los intensificadores en la conversación coloquial, in: Briz Gómez, A., Gómez Molina, J. R., Martínez Alcalde, M. J. (Eds.): Pragmática y gramática del español hablado, Pórtico, Zaragoza, pp. 13–36.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(1998): El español coloquial en la conversación: esbozo de pragmagramática. Ariel, Barcelona.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2003): La interacción entre jóvenes. Español coloquial, argot y lenguaje juvenil. Lexicografía y Lexicología en Europa y América. Gredos, Madrid, pp. 141–154.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2012): Los déficits de los corpus orales del español (y de algunos análisis), in: Jiménez Juliá, T., Meirama, B. L., Vázquez Rozas, V. & Veiga, A. (Eds.): Cum corde et in nova grammatica. Estudios ofrecidos a Guillermo Rojo, Servizo de Publicacións e Intercambio Científico da Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Santiago de Compostela, pp. 115–137.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cestero Mancera, A. M., Molina Martos, I., & Paredes García, F. (2015): El estudio sociolingüístico de Madrid, in: Cestero Mancera, A. M., Molina Martos, I., & Paredes García, F. (Eds.): Patrones sociolingüísticos de Madrid, Peter Lang, Oxford, pp. 17–55. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cianca Aguilar, E., & Gavilanes Franco, E. (2018): Voces y expresiones del argot juvenil madrileño actual. Círculo de Lingüística Aplicada a la Comunicación, 741, pp. 147–168. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Company Company, C. (2004): ¿Gramaticalización o desgramaticalización? Reanálisis y subjetivización de verbos como marcadores discursivos en la historia del español. Revista de filología española, 841, 11, pp. 29–66. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
De Clerck, B., & Brems, L. (2016): Size nouns matter: a closer look at mass(es) of and extended uses of SNs. Language sciences, 531, pp. 160–176. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Delbecque, N., & Verveckken, K. (2014): Conceptually-driven analogy in the grammaticalization of Spanish binominal quantifiers. Linguistics, 52, 3, pp. 637–684. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Diewald, G. (2011): Pragmaticalization (defined) as grammaticalization of discourse functions. Linguistics, 491, pp. 365–390. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dostie, G. (2004): Pragmaticalisation et marqueurs discursifs. Analyse sémantique et traitement lexicographique. De Boeck, Duculot, Bruxelles. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dressler, W., & Merlini Barbaresi, L. (1994): Morphopragmatics: Diminutives and Intensifiers in Italian, German and Other Languages. Mouton de Gruyter, Berlin. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Eckert, P. (1997): Age as a sociolinguistic variable, in: F. Coulmas (Ed.): The handbook of sociolinguistics, Basil Blackwell, Oxford, pp. 151–167.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2003): Language and adolescent peer groups. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 22, 1, pp. 112–118. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Elvira, J. (2015): Lingüística histórica y cambio gramatical. Síntesis, Madrid.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Enghels, R., De Latte, F., & Roels, L. (2020): El Corpus Oral de Madrid (CORMA): materiales para el estudio (socio)lingüístico del español coloquial actual. ZEISCHRIFT FUR KATALANISTIK, 331, pp. 45–76. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Enghels, R. & Roels, L. (2017): Mazo (de) y otros recursos de intensificación en el lenguaje juvenil madrileño: factores lingüísticos y sociales. Moderna sprak, 111, 2, pp. 45–61. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ghezzi, C. (2014): The Development of Discourse and Pragmatic Markers, in: Ghezzi, C., & Molinelli, P. (Eds.): Discourse and Pragmatic Markers from Latin to the Romance Languages, Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 10–20. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Grandi, N. (2017): Intensification processes in Italian, in: Napoli, M., & Ravetto, M. (Eds.): Exploring Intensification: Synchronic, Diachronic & Cross-Linguistic Perspectives, John Benjamins, Amsterdam/Philadelphia, pp. 55–77. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Himmelmann, N. P. (2004): Lexicalization and grammaticalization: Opposite or orthogonal?, in: Bisang, W., Himmelmann, N. P., & Wiemer, B. (Eds.): What makes grammaticalization? Mouton de Gruyter, Berlin/New York, pp. 21–42. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hopper, P. J. (1991): On some principles of grammaticalization, in: Traugott, E. C., & Heine, B. (Eds.): Approaches to grammaticalization. John Benjamins, Amsterdam, pp. 17–36. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jørgensen, A. M. (2007): COLA: Un corpus oral de lenguaje adolescente. Oralia, 3, 1, pp. 225–234.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2013): Spanish teenage language and the COLAm corpus. Bergen Language and Linguistics Studies, 3, 1, pp. 151–166. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
König, E. (2017): The comparative basis of intensification, in: Napoli, M., & Ravetto, M. (Eds.): Exploring Intensification: Synchronic, Diachronic & Cross-Linguistic Perspectives. John Benjamins, Amsterdam/Philadelphia, pp. 15–32. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Langacker, R. W. (1991): Foundations of cognitive grammar (Vol. 2): Descriptive application. Stanford University Press, Stanford.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lehmann, C. (1982): Thoughts on Grammaticalization: A Programmatic Sketch (Vol 11). Arbeiten des Kölner Universalien-Projekts. Universität Köln, Köln.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lorenz, G. (2002): Really worthwhile or not really significant? A corpus-based approach to the delexicalization and grammaticalization of intensifiers in Modern English, in: Wischer, I., & Diewald, G. (Eds.): New reflections on grammaticalization. John Benjamins, Amsterdam, pp.143–161. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Martínez López, J. A. (2009): Lexical innovations in Madrid’s teenage talk: some intensifiers. Pragmatics & beyond. New series, 1841, pp. 81–93. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Napoli, M., & Ravetto, M. (2017): Ways to intensify: Types of intensified meanings in Italian and German, in: Napoli, M., & Ravetto, M. (Eds): Exploring Intensification: Synchronic, Diachronic & Cross-Linguistic Perspectives. John Benjamins, Amsterdam/Philadelphia: pp. 327–52. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nevalainen, T., & Raumolin-Brunberg, H. (2003): Historical sociolinguistics: Language change in Tudor and Stuart England. Longman, London.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Norde, M., De Clerck, B., & Colleman, T. (2014): The emergence of non-canonical degree modifiers in non-standard varieties of Dutch: a constructionalization account, in: Boogaert, R., Colleman, T., & Rutten, G. (Eds.): Extending the scope of Construction Grammar. Mouton de Gruyter, Berlin/Boston, pp. 209–250. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Octavio de Toledo y Huerta, A. & Sánchez López, C. (2009): Cuantificadores II. Los cuantificadores interrogativos y exclamativos, in: Company Company, C. (Ed.): Sintáxis histórica de la lengua española. Segunda parte: La frase nominal, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México/Fondo de Cultura Económica, México, pp. 961–1072.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Oliván, F. (2015): Barrio rico, barrio pobre: un análisis del 24M en Madrid por distritos, 〈[URL]〉 [25/10/2022]
Palacios Martínez, I. M., & Núñez Pertejo, P. (2014): Strategies used by English and Spanish teenagers to intensify language: A contrastive corpus-based study. Spanish in Context, 11, 2, pp. 175–201. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pichler, H. (2010): Methods in discourse variation analysis: Reflections on the way forward. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 141, pp. 581–608. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pons Bordería, S. (2014): El siglo XX como diacronía: Intuición y compobación en el caso de ‘o sea’. RILCE: Revista de Filología Hispánica, 30, 3, pp. 985–1016. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2022): Creación y análisis de corpus orales: saberes prácticos y reflexiones teóricas. Peter Lang, Berlin. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pons Rodríguez, L. (2017): Esta expresión se ha puesto de moda no, lo siguiente, 〈[URL]〉 [25/10/2022]
Roels, L., De Latte, F., & Enghels, R. (2021): Monitoring 21st-century real-time language change in Spanish youth speech. LANGUAGES, 6, 4, Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Roels, L., & Enghels, R. (2020): Age-based variation and patterns of recent language change: a case-study of morphological and lexical intensifiers in Spanish. Journal of Pragmatics, 1701, pp. 125–138. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ruiz Chasco, S. (2017): Madrid, de norte a sur: análisis sociológico de las desigualdades sociales y la inseguridad ciudadana en los barrios de Lavapiés y Salamanca. Tesis doctoral, Universidad Complutense de Madrid. Repositorio Institucional de la UCM. [en línea] 〈[URL].〉
Sanmartín Sáez, J. (2006): Diccionario de argot. Espasa, Madrid.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Serradilla Castaño, A. (2018): De «asaz fermoso» a «mazo guapo»: La evolución de las fórmulas superlativas en español, in: Actas del X Congreso Internacional de Historia de la Lengua Española: Zaragoza, 7–11 de septiembre de 2015. Institución Fernando el Católico, Zaragoza, pp. 913–929.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stenström, A.-B. (1999): He was really gormless / she’s bloody crap. Girls, boys and intensifiers, in: Hasselgard, H., & Oksefjell, S. (Eds.): Out of Corpora: Studies in Honour of Stig Johansson. Rodopi, Amsterdam, pp. 69–78. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2005). He’s well nice — Es mazo majo: London and Madrid Teenage Girls’ Use of Intensifiers, in: Granath, S., Millander, J. & Wennö, E. (Eds.): The Power of Words: Studies in Honour of Moira Linnarud. Karlstad University, Karlstad, pp. 205–214.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2008): Algunos rasgos característicos del habla de contacto en el lenguaje de adolescentes en Madrid. Oralia, 111, pp. 207–226. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2014): Teenage Talk: From general characteristics to the use of pragmatic markers in a contrastive perspective. Palgrave Macmillan, London. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tagliamonte, S. A. (2008): So different and pretty cool! Recycling intensifiers in Toronto, Canada. English Language & Linguistics, 12, 2, pp. 361–394. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Traugott, E. C. (2008): Grammaticalization, constructions and the incremental development of language: Suggestions from the development of degree modifiers in English, in Eckardt, R., Jäger, G. & Veenstra, T. (Eds.): Variation, Selection, Development--Probing the Evolutionary Model of Language Change, Mouton de Gruyter, Berlin/New York, pp. 219–250. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Verveckken, K., & Delbecque, N. (2015): On the development of binominal quantifiers in Spanish: the notion of lexical persistence revisited. Revue de l’Association française de linguistique cognitive, 131, pp. 1–37.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Vigara Tauste, A. M. (2002): Cultura y estilo de los niños bien: radiografía del lenguaje pijo, in: Rodríguez González, F. (Ed.): El lenguaje de los jóvenes. Ariel, Barcelona, pp. 195–242.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Vilanova, N., & Ortega, I. (2017): Generación Z: Todo lo que necesitas saber sobre los jóvenes que han dejado viejos a los millennials. Plataforma, Barcelona.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wilson, D., & Sperber, D. (1993). Linguistic form and relevance. Lingua, 901, pp. 1–25. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zimmermann, K. (2002): La variedad juvenil y la interacción verbal entre jóvenes, in: Rodríguez, F. (ed.): El lenguaje de los jóvenes. Ariel, Barcelona, pp. 17–26.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue