Linguistic Variations in Early Ladino Translations

The differences between early Ladino liturgical translations andhalakhictranslations, both of which were based on Hebrew sources, are analyzed in this study. The liturgical translations include the Bible, Pirke Avot, the Passover Haggadah, and the Siddur as well as biblical citations in these sources. The halakhic translations includeMesa de el alma(Shulḥan Hapanimin Hebrew) which is a translation ofShulḥan Arukh, the translations ofḤovat Halevavot, and the halakhic instructions in the prayer books. While there are no significant variations in orthography between the two kinds of translations and morphology demonstrates few differences, syntax, discourse analysis, and lexicon reveal great variability. The halakhic translations demonstrate simplification, explicitation, normalization, and a small amount of interference, whereas the liturgical translations adhere to very strict norms of word-for-word translation. It was also found in both kinds of texts that the western translations from Italy and the Netherlands done by former converted Jews (anusim) follow Spanish norms more than the eastern Ladino conventions of the Jews in the Balkans and Asia Minor.

First-order politeness in rapprochement and distancing cultures

The close link between politeness and culture has often been highlighted, with some scholars having proposed taxonomies of cultures based on the diverse uses and conceptions of politeness. Generally, research (Hickey 2005; Ardila 2005) places Spanish-speaking cultures in the group of rapprochement cultures, which relate politeness to positively assessing the addressee and creating bonds of friendship and cooperation; and English-speaking cultures in the group of distancing cultures, which primarily use politeness to generate respect and social differentiation. This means that English politeness is not only supposed to be different from Spanish politeness, but diametrically opposed to it. The main goal of this study is to check these predictions against the understandings and use of politeness by native speakers of Spanish from Spain and nonnative speakers of Spanish from the U.S. Thus, this research is grounded in first-order politeness norms, which are then correlated with the informants’ behavior as reported in written questionnaires. The results confirmed these predictions and further showed that the more advanced learners were able to align themselves better with Spanish norms. Nevertheless, even they found some aspects of Spanish politeness –– such as the turn-taking system –– harder to adapt to, suggesting that certain aspects of native norms may be more difficult to abandon. We propose that firstorder notions of politeness may be prototypically structured, with some aspects being more central to its definition and therefore less easily foregone than others.

Quality of life and disability in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder

SummaryThe aim of this study is to describe the situation of Spanish obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) patients and compare it to that of the general population and other patient groups.MethodsThirty-six OCD patients on maintenance treatment were evaluated using the Y-BOCS, SF-36, and DAS-S. Their SF-36 scores were compared to Spanish norms and to those obtained from U.S. OCD patients, schizophrenic outpatients, depressed outpatients, heroin dependents, patients on hemodialysis, and kidney transplant recipients.ResultsSixty-one percent ofthe patients had severe or extremely severe symptoms. Their quality oflif e was worse when compared with the Spanish norms in all SF-36 areas, but especially with respect to mental health. In contrast to U.S. OCD patients, social functioning is more impaired in the Spanish OCD patients. OCD patients reported the same quality oflif e as schizophrenics in the areas ofmental health, but better in the areas ofphysical health. Compared with heroin dependents and depressed patients, their quality oflif e was worse. On mental health scales, OCD patients scored worse than somatic patients.ConclusionsOCD in the Spanish population was shown to be associated with worse quality of life than for any other patient group (including physical groups), except schizophrenics.