title: Semantic couplets as an expression of cultural identity.
abstract: Semantic couplets in the Nahuatl language can function as discourse markers that have the pragmatic function of building identities among speech communities. The subsistence of these linguistic structures in present day institutional discourses points to similarities, not only in social, religious but also in linguistic practices of speech communities that are distant in time. Semantic couplets are presented as evidence that links modern speech events with those from pre-Hispanic times.
authors.affiliation: IIFL, National Autonomous University of Mexico, Mexico. mercemo@attglobal.net
authors.forename: Mercedes Montes
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: de Oca Vega
mesh_terms: D000884:Anthropology, Cultural; D002562:Ceremonial Behavior; D006801:Humans; D007197:Indians, Central American; D008800:Mexico; D012067:Religion; D012660:Semantics; D012933:Social Identification