FORMAL ANALYSIS OF SPANISH

The course aims at providing students with the basic formal tools for understanding Spanish syntax, with the ultimate aim of improving their competence of Spanish as a foreign language.

1. Knowledge and understanding:
The students know and understand the relevant parametric variations between Spanish and Italian syntax.
The students know the basic properties of the different types of Spanish sentence, according to the following traditional criteria: the modality, the structure of the predicate, and the relation between subject and predicate.
The students know and understand the recent theorethical hipothesis about the internal structure of nominal expressions and the internal structure of the different types of Spanish sentence.
The students know the "neutral" and the "marked" word order of the sentence in Spanish.

2. Applying knowledge and understanding:
The students are able to use the linguistic terminology correctly, at all stages of application of the acquired knowledge.
The students are able to identify and reflect on the relevant interlinguistic variations between Spanish and Italian syntax.
The students are able to apply their knowledge and understanding while formulating a hypothesis, collecting data, and presenting an argument in an effective way.

3. Making judgments:
The students will be able to formulate hypotheses, and to argument their judgement with empirical evidence.

4. Communication:
The students are able to transfer their reflection capacity on a number of linguistic phenomena with appropiate terminology.
The studens are able to to argument critically and respectfully with the peers and with the teacher.

5. Learning skills:
The students are able to perform adequate bibliographic research, motivate the adoption of a framework, and express constructive criticism about the literature consulted.

General Linguistics1 and preferably Generale Linguistics 2.
A basic capacity of reflecting on the Spanish language, with attendance of the two modules of language 1 and 2.

Class lectures will be held in Spanish.

1. The syntax oh accusative "a" and the interpretive properties of definite and indefinite nominal expressions.
2. The properties of determiners in Spanish. The contribution of the definite article to the meaning of the noun phrase. Nominal ellipsis. The properties of "lo" with emphatic and non-emphatic value.
3. The syntax of pronominal pronouns. Strong and clitic pronouns. Cltic clusters and clitic doubling.
4. The syntax of unaccusative verbs.
5. Types of sentences according to the criterion of the structure of the predicate. Copular sentences and the syntax of "ser" and "estar".
6. Types of sentences according to the criterion of predicate subject relationship. The syntax oh "haber".
7. The different values of the clitic "se" (reflexive, reciprocal, unaccusative and passive).
8. Types of sentences according to the modality criterion. Declarative sentences and non-declarative sentences. Partial and total interrogatives and partial and total exclamations.
9. The internal structure of the left periphery of the sentence.
10. Sentences with clitic left dislocation and contrastive left dislocation.

Brugè, Laura y Gerhard Brugger. "Restricciones sintácticas y semánticas: la "a" de acusativo en español", en N. Català y M. Bargallò (coord.), Proccedings of the IV Colloquium of Generative Grammar, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Tarragona, 1997, pags. 112-137.

Di Tullio, Angela. Manual de gramática del español, Edicial, Buenos Aires, 1997, caps. X (pags. 171-181), XV (pags. 265-277) y XVII (pags. 297-309).

Fernández Leboranz, M. Jesús. "La predicación: las oraciones copulativas". En I. Bosque y V. Demonte (coord.) Gramática descriptiva de la lengua española, vol.2, cap.37, Espasa Calpe, Madrid, 1999, pags. 2357-2369; 2421-2428.

Fernandez Soriano, Olga. "El pronombre personal. Formas y distribuciones". En I. Bosque y V. Demonte (coord.) Gramática descriptiva de la lengua española, vol.1, cap.19, Espasa Calpe, Madrid, 1999, pags. 1211-1228; 1246-1251; 1253-1268.

Hernanz, M. LLuïsa y José M. Brucart. La sintaxis, Editorial Crítica, Barcelona, 1987, cap. 3, pags. 70-99.

Mendikoetxea, Amaya. "Construcciones inacusativas y pasivas". En I. Bosque y V. Demonte (coord.) Gramática descriptiva de la lengua española, vol.2, cap. 25, Espasa Calpe, Madrid, 1999, pags. 1577-1588.

Leonetti, Manuel. "El artículo". En I. Bosque y V. Demonte (coord.) Gramática descriptiva de la lengua española, vol.1, cap.12, Espasa Calpe, Madrid, 1999, pags. 789-798; 814-823; 829-844.

Rodríguez Ramalle, Teresa María. Manual de sintaxis del español, Editorial Castalia Universitaria, Madrid, 2005, caps. 4.5.3 (pags. 396-402) y 5.1 (pags. 417-428).

Torrego, Esther. "Algunas observaciones sobre las oraciones existenciales con "haber" en español", en AAVV, Estudis gramaticals, 1984, vol.1, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, pags. 329-339.

The exam will consist of a written test with 8 open questions. The aim is to ascertain the degree of knowledge and problem solving ability attained on the linguistics aspects discussed during the course.
The exam will be held in Spanish.
Approx. length: 2 hours.

The written test verifies:
knowledge and understanding of the principal concepts of formal and descriptive syntax of Spanish language studied during the course;
the knowledge acquired through even complex grammatical analysis to the Spanish language;
to propose original hypotheses for the solution of a specific linguistic problem of the Spanish language and ability to verifying them;
capacity of proposing original hypotheses for the solution of a specific linguistic problem of the Spanish language and capacity of verifying them;
capacity of arguing in Spanish using correct linguistic terminology.

Class lectures in Spanish. Exercises in the Moodle space of the course.

Regular attendance is recommended.

written