Textos jurídicos y contexto social

Abstract

One of the main purposes of this note is to examine two recent publications by J. M. del Estal (1984a, 1985a). The starting point for medieval linguistic studies is the wide collections of notarial documents of the kingdoms of Castile and Aragon. Within the latter, in its Aragonese- speaking area, the most characteristic terms are «uso», «costumbre» and «fuero», together with their respective Latin forms, «usum», «consuetudo » and «forum», to which should be added the specific form, «observancia». Sociolinguistic variables are shaped within the social and stylistic continuum of the speech community. A frame which specifies this overlap may provide a method forfinding the social context in historical documents. A statistical handling of style may allow us to observe the social dimension of stylistic variation, insofar as some features show movement on a continuum from informal to formal as well as on a social continuum from lower to higher groups. To this effect, we analyse the contributions of S. Romaine (1982) and F. Gimeno (1985), among others.