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This article presents a summary of the Spanish-English language-contact studies done in Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico was ceded to the United States by the Treaty of Paris on December 10, 1898, and the country has had two official languages (Spanish and English) since English was imposed in 1902 äs part of a plan openly dedicated to the creation of a territory loyal to United States interests (Negron de Montilla 1970). From then on the stated goal of government language planning in Puerto Rico has been the bilingualization of the island's population. This goal has had a apparent failure because Puerto Rican society is predominantly monolingual. But Puerto Ricans live in dose social and political relation with the United States, and a substantial number of them — both unskilled laborers and Professionals — work or study in the United States. They then keep dose working and Professional ties there, engaging in an on-going exchange with the mainland. It is even true thatfor some Puerto Ricans born in the United States, English is theirfirst language; others have mastered both languages and, in terms oftheir skills and their communicative performance, they can be considered balanced bilinguals. This dynamic Situation makes SpanishEnglish contact in Puerto Rico a Singular topicfor a study of the processes developed between two languages in contact. We offer here some lexical and syntactic Puerto Rican strategies for communicating certain meanings and some theoretical issues related to this behavior.
