This anthology of essays dates back to 2007, when I was still studying for my master's degree in translation at the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus, and extends to 2012, just when I was at the halfway point of my master's degree in linguistics at the same university. Although I owe all my mastery of my mother tongue to my career as a translator, these four linguistic fields - semiotics, linguistic variation, morphology and pragmatics - have opened new research horizons for me and have guided my professional performance.