Chapter Footnotes:
[1] An allusion to the full-rayed sun in the Argentine flag and coat of arms.
VOCABULARY
[(to the vocabulary section)]
NOTE
No modern language text-book vocabulary, no matter how extensive or complete it may be in its application to the text it covers, can take the place of a dictionary, and the vocabulary which follows is no exception to this rule. Each student using this text-book should provide himself with a good Spanish-English English-Spanish dictionary in a not too abridged edition, and should, in addition, have access in the class-room to the latest authorized edition of the “Diccionario de la Lengua Castellana” published by the Royal Academy of Spain.
In preparing this vocabulary the author has kept clearly in mind the previous preparation and equipment in Spanish of the students for whom this book is intended. Such students will be familiar with the rudimentary principles of Spanish grammatical construction before beginning to read this text, and will have acquired a fairly extensive working vocabulary in that language which should include a considerable proportion of the nouns, adjectives, verbs and adverbs most commonly used in simple everyday speech. Such words have, therefore, been excluded from this vocabulary, except in cases where, because of unusual idiomatic construction or other variation from ordinary usage, it has seemed desirable to include them.
As a rule, only one form of a word has been translated in the vocabulary, and this is particularly true of verbs, in which the infinitive has had preferential attention. Throughout the vocabulary, the English translation is the equivalent in each case of the corresponding term in Spanish in the sense in which it is used in the reading text. Particular care has been taken to avoid altogether, where possible, or to give last, those misleading translations which, because of close resemblance or identity in spelling—not in meaning—are eternal stumbling-blocks in the acquirement of a foreign language. Few synonyms in English are given, since exercise in Spanish variants, rather than in English synonyms, is what the student needs.
It should be noted that no attempt has been made to include in the vocabulary words from the idiomatic phrases and expressions explained in the footnotes throughout the reading text, except in the few cases where the meaning cannot be readily gained from the context. Similarly, many Spanish Americanisms are not included because their meaning is either obvious or has been sufficiently explained in the reading text.