Taxonomy of Sixteenth-Century Documents: Geographical Relations of the Indies for a Corpus on Lexical Americanisms

Abstract

This article examines the Geographical Relations of the Indies (RGI) through four classification criteria used for other discursive traditions: non - fragmented texts, with diachronic, diatopic, diaphasic and diastrática references that inform orality. The final objective is to demonstrate by means of a case study that the RGIs provide a novelty as an administrative and descriptive text drafted collectively, and as material for a corpus on lexical Americanisms, shows an abundance of examples of its heterogeneity and diffusion since the century XVI. Through a qualitative and quantitative methodology, these criteria are applied to twenty RGI (1546-1597). The result obtained shows the partial fulfillment of the criteria of classification, and the possibility of differentiating by linguistic areas the use of Americanisms. This work is a contribution to the theoretical framework in which a possible taxonomy of the colonial texts is based.