Advanced

Prior to enrolling in courses at this language level, students must have completed or tested out of a minimum of four semesters (or six quarters) of college-level Spanish at their home university in the U.S.

Topics in Advanced Spanish Grammar I (Introduction to Hispanic Linguistics) â€" only Fall Semester

Language requirement: The student must be registered for Spanish III or have an equivalent level of Spanish.

DESCRIPTION AND GOALS
The course is aimed at students with a high level of Spanish. The goal is to provide students with a basic knowledge of linguistics. The course consists of a general introduction to Spanish linguistics, the nature of language, and linguistic analysis. It will survey some of the major areas of linguistics, such as Phonetics and Phonology, Morphology, and Syntax. The syllabus will cover both theoretical and practical issues, and will focus on the development of the students’ analytical skills. In order to achieve this goal, all theoretical classes will be implemented with practical (individual) exercises which will challenge the students’ understanding of the main linguistic notions.

SYLLABUS

Language and linguistic knowledge
What is language? What is linguistic knowledge?
Competence versus Performance.
The creativity of language.
Universal grammar and the innatist hypothesis.

An introduction to Phonetics and Phonology
Definition of basic concepts: phoneme, allophone, free variation and complementary distribution.
Classification of consonants according to articulation point, articulation mode and activity of vocal chords.
Classificacion of vowels.
Spanish vowels and main allophones.
Vowels and semi-vowels.
Syllabification.
Stress and intonation.

Spanish Morphology
Definition of basic concepts: word, morpheme, affix and allomorph.
Inflection morphology: nouns and verbs.
Derivational morphology: nominalization, adjectivization, verbalization, adverbialization and prefixation.
Compound words.

Syntax
What is syntax?
Grammaticality and ungrammaticality.
Sentence structure: syntactical categories and phrases.
Phrasal writing rules and phrasal diagrams.
Lexis and subcategorization.
Projection principle.
Thematic theory and Case theory.
Movement: traces, NP and Wh- movement and restrictions.
Null subject in Spanish: Pro-drop.
Sentence classification: simple and complex sentences.

ASSESSMENT

The final grade will be calculated according to the following percentages:

Attendance and Participation: 30%
Assignments: 35%
Final exam: 35%

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Akmajian, A., R. Demers, A.K. Farmer, R.M. Harnish. 1993. Linguistics. An Introduction to Language and Communication, MIT Press, Cambridge (Mass.).
Fromkin, V. and R. Rodman. 1974. An Introduction to Language, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York.
Haegeman, L .1991. Introduction to Government and Binding Theory, Blackwell Publishers, Cambridge (Mass.)/Oxford.
Hualde, José Ignacio, Antxon Olarrea y Anna María Escobar. 2001. Introducción a la lingüística hispánica. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Ladefoged, P. 1975. A Course in Phonetics. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. New York.
Quilis, A. 1993. Tratado de fonética y fonología españolas, Editorial Gredos, Madrid.
Santiago, M., R. Estapa, E. Montolío, C. Figueras. 2000. Sintaxis española I, Publicaciones de la Universitat de Barcelona.