What Does loísmo Mean
The idea of loísmo is used in grammar to name the use of the forms “los” and “lo” of the unstressed pronoun instead of “les” and “le” for the indirect masculine complement of thing or person. This characteristic appears in certain variants of Spanish.
"Le" (and the plural "les" ) are personal pronouns that usually represent the indirect object, while "lo" (and "los" ) are generally used for the direct object when there is no loism.
Loism arises from an anti-etymological use of the unstressed pronouns corresponding to the third person . In this framework, it constitutes a defect similar to leism and laism .
Of course, we must differentiate Loism from Leism and Laism. Thus, leism consists of misusing “them” and “le” instead of “lo, los, la, las”. In this way, whoever falls into that one would say "He loves my wife very much", when the correct thing would be to say "I love my wife very much".
Laism, on the other hand, consists of making an inappropriate use of “the” and “the” instead of “le” and “les”. Thus, whoever carries it out would say “I gave her a motorcycle”, when the correct thing to say is “I gave her a motorcycle”.
Let's look at an example . According to grammar rules, the expression “I asked them to be silent” is incorrect, since the appropriate thing would be “I asked them to remain silent” . However, in some Latin American areas it is common for loísmo to be incurred and the first form used.
The phrase "When they found the documents, they set them on fire" can be found as "When they found the documents, they set them on fire . " In any case, the correct thing to do from a grammatical point of view is to write or pronounce "they set them on fire" and not "they set them on fire," which is another case of Loism.
Other examples of loísmo are the following:
- "I have finished writing the text you asked me, take a look when possible." The correct thing would be to say: "I have finished writing the text you asked me, take a look when possible."
- "The students in the 4th grade class froze when the teacher told them they had a pop quiz." This phrase is clearly a loísmo and it is that the correct thing would be to say: “The students of the class of 4º were petrified when the teacher told them that they had a pop quiz”.
"Manuel did not like the plan that his girl proposed for the weekend." Without loísmo, the correct thing would be: "Manuel did not like the plan that his girl proposed for the weekend."
Sometimes Loísmo is a consequence of difficulties in adopting Spanish. In the Andean region, the Spanish language maintains a close link with languages such as Aymara and Quechua , which do not distinguish gender and mark numbers differently. So it is normal to hear comments like "I don't know his parents . "