From chronological to axiological meaning in Spanish adjectives: any past time was worse (cualquiera tiempo pasado fue peor)

Abstract

This article aims to show how the Spanish adjectives antediluviano, decimonónico, medieval and prehistórico, whose original meaning as relational adjectives was linked to the designation of certain periods in time, have acquired an axiological meaning, specifically a negative and pejorative one. This evaluative nature makes them particularly suited as instruments for argumentative discourse. More specifically, I deal with the pejorative appraisal of these adjectives in a corpus of journalistic language (the Spanish newspapers ABC and El País during 2010). Journalistic language is a discourse type that typically combines evaluation and brevity for its persuasive purpose. The fact that the four listed adjectives, all concerning former times, have acquired a negative connotation – in contrast to, for example, actual, contemporáneo, moderno – reveals a concomitant cultural phenomenon: the predominance of a very widespread mentality in which what belongs to the past lacks value for this simple reason; a mentality that might be called ‘chronocentrist’, for which, to paraphrase Jorge Manrique, any time gone by was worse.