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Copyright of Cuadernos Europeos de Deusto is the property of Universidad de Deusto and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Punctuation marks have special importance in bringing out the meaning of a text. Nonetheless, they are not normally taken into consideration in text production in foreign languages and therefore constitute a strong source of interference. This article analyses the use of a series of punctuation marks (hyphen, quotation marks, etc.) in French, German and Romanian, highlighting the differences and trying to give explanations for the abuse of several signs in texts in the different languages written by non-native and native authors. Evidence is given that the use of the punctuation marks in a foreign language following the norms of the mother tongue may produce misunderstandings on behalf of native readers. Furthermore, it can be shown that the prescriptive and descriptive grammars of the implied languages do not represent current tendencies of use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Zeitschrift für Katalanistik is the property of Zeitschrift fur Katalanistik and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Generally, there are no doubts felt that the media influence the language and contribute to the expansion of individual linguistic creations, of group-specie linguistic devices or regionalisms. Yet, proof is lacking that the apparently 'obvious' influence of the media does really exist or that it is as strong as commonly maintained; and it is widely admitted that it is almost impossible to gather statistically significant proof of any influence of the media on the language. This contribution gives evidence from Spanish, showing that the regional Spanish words chafardear and chafardero, fromthe Catalan xafardejar, entered the Spanish language via a popular comic strip published in Spain since the 1940s, and that its knowledge and expansion can definitely be related to the success of the comic strip created by a Catalan artist. The study is based upon a total of 60 interviews done both in the bilingual Catalan-Spanish regions and in non-Catalan regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]