“Spotting” words: spotter in aircraft observation and photography and in motor racing

Abstract

Within the framework of lexical studies that seek to illuminate aspects of social representations about air transport, this work aims to increase knowledge about foreign words employed by Spanish speakers. It proposes an approach to the use of spotter in relation with two activities: observation and photographic record of aircraft, and motor racing. Analysis of spotter in journalistic texts and productions of Spanish speakers on the social network Twitter, shows that this lexical unit has not yet become widespread in the general use of language, although it does signal group identity among those speakers who participate of these activities.