Canon, prerogative and Royalty in Chilean Spanish

Abstract

A confrontation between the Chilean government and the powerful private mining companies that work copper mines ended in 2004. The discussion about a law that wanted to tax them was widely known through the dailies. It in necessary to find a name for the payment made to the government for the exploitation of mines that belong to the whole country. In linguistic terms three possibilities are present: two patrimonial ones, that is to say, canon and prerogative, and one anglicism, royalty. The use of this concepts is present in Chilean Spanish taking into account and original data base: an integral corpus of Chilean Spanish and he records of texts from the Real Academia Española: Crea and Corde.