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Exploring the Spanish Language
Christopher Pountain

Paperback
RRP: £19.99
ISBN: 9780340719466
ISBN-10: 034071946X

Published: 26/12/2003
Extent: 256 pages

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Summary:
Spanish is, with English, one of the most widely spoken languages in the world. It is as a result also one of the most complex and fascinating, with its many geographical and social varieties. This book offers an introduction to the structures and varieties of Spanish, covering all the major levels of linguistic forecasting; considerable attention is also paid to Judeo-Spanish and creoles. No previous knowledge of linguistics is assumed and a glossary of technical terms, in conjunction with exercises and activities, helps to reinforce key points. The book is written specifically with English-speaking learners of Spanish in mind, and readers will find a good deal of practical help in developing skills such as pronunciation and the appropriate use of register.

  • An up-to-date non-technical introduction to Spanish linguistics
  • Relates theoretical information to the practical requirements of modern language students
  • Assumes no prior knowledge of linguistics

Table of Contents:
Foreword
Contents
Chapter 1
1.1 Prescription and description
1.2 Pedagogical rules
1.3 Standard language and prestige norms
1.4 Variation
1.5 The organisation of this book
Chapter 2: The Sounds of Spanish
2.1 How to describe and represent sounds
2.1.1 Vowels, consonants, semivowels and liquids
2.1.2 Describing consonants
2.1.3 Describing vowels
2.1.4 Diphthongs and triphthongs
2.2 A comparison of features of English and Spanish pronunciation
2.2.1 Vowels
2.2.2 Consonants
2.3 Sounds and Phonemes
2.3.1 Phonemes and allophones
2.3.2 Phonemic status of the semivowels
2.3.3 Contextual neutralisations
2.3.4 Phonetic and phonemic changes in progress in varieties of modern Spanish
2.4 The relation between pronunciation and spelling
2.4.1 Spelling systems
2.4.2 Text messaging
2.5 Spanish syllable structure and the phenomenon of sinalefa
2.5.1 Syllables
2.5.2 Hiatus
2.5.3 Sinalefa
2.6 Stress: the issue of ‘predictability’ of word stress in Spanish
2.7 Some intonation patterns in Spanish
2.7.1 Stress
2.7.1.1 Contrastive stress
2.7.1.2 English stress and Spanish adjective position
2.7.1.3 Stressed and unstressed pronouns in Spanish and English
2.7.2 Pitch contours
2.7.2.1 Intonation and word order
2.7.2.2 Some differences between Spanish and English
2.7.2.3 Regional variation
Exercises
Chapter 3: Spanish Words and their Structure
3.0 Spanish as an inflectional language
3.1 Criteria for morphological analysis
3.2 Some patterns in derivational morphology
3.3 Spanish affective suffixes
3.4 Word meaning
3.5 Semantic fields and their structure
Exercises
Chapter 4: Spanish Sentences and their Structure
4.1 What is a sentence?
4.1.1 Spanish as a ‘pro-drop’ language
4.1.2 Impersonal verbs
4.2 ‘Sentences’ in the spoken language
4.3 The constituent elements of a sentence: the valency of verbs6
4.3.1 Syntactic relations
4.3.2 Semantic relations
4.3.3 Syntactic category
4.3.4 The interplay of syntax and semantics in the valencies of verbs
4.3.4.1 Active and passive
4.3.4.2 Reflexive
4.3.5 Differing valencies in English and Spanish
4.3.5.1 General
4.3.5.2 A case study
4.4 Other simple sentence types
4.4.1 Interrogative sentences
4.4.2 Imperative sentences
4.4.3 Word order in simple sentences
4.5 Complex sentence types
4.5.1 Complementation
4.5.2 Adjectival clause functions
4.5.2.1 Full clauses
4.5.2.2 The infinitive
4.5.2.3 The gerund
4.5.3 Adverbial clause functions
Exercises
Chapter 5: Themes in Form and Meaning: the ‘Genius’ of Spanish:
5.1 Gender
5.2 The ‘personal’ a
5.3 Modality and the subjunctive
5.3.1 Subjunctive use determined by context
5.3.2 The subjunctive associated with particular contexts
5.3.2.1 Conditional sentences
5.3.2.2 The subjunctive in temporal clauses
5.3.2.3 Other idiosyncrasies of Spanish
5.3.3 Meaningful uses of the subjunctive
5.3.3.1 Possibility
5.3.3.2 Relative clauses
5.3.3.3 Extending the rules
5.4 The reflexive
5.4.1 The versatility of the Spanish reflexive
5.4.1.1 Pragmatic considerations
5.4.1.2 Valency of verbs
5.4.1.3 Overlap of functions
5.4.2 Further exploitation of the reflexive in Spanish
5.5 Being and becoming
5.5.1 Ser and estar
5.5.1.1 Ser and estar with adjectives
5.5.1.2 Ser with nouns
5.5.1.3 Ser and estar with locative complements
5.5.1.4 Ser and estar with past participles
5.5.2 Becoming
Exercises
Chapter 6: Regional and social variation
6.1 Standard written language
6.1.1 Standardisation
6.1.2 The spoken language
6.2 Regional variation
6.2.1 Linguistic atlases
6.2.2 ‘Dialects’
6.2.3 Spain
6.2.3.1 The characteristics of Castilian
6.2.3.1.1 Castilian in contrast with other Peninsular Romance varieties
6.2.3.1.2 ‘Innovating’ and ‘conservative’ varieties
6.2.3.1.3 Differences between the modern standard and the speech of Old and N
6.2.3.2 Further variation in spoken Peninsular Castilian: Andalusia
6.2.3.2.1 Phonetic features
6.2.3.2.2 Phonemic consequences of Andalusian phonetic changes
6.2.3.2.3 Morphological and syntactic features
6.2.3.2.4 Lexis
6.2.3.2.5 An example of Andalusian speech
6.2.3.2.6 The ‘Andalusianisation’ of Castilian
6.2.3.3 The Spanish of the Canary Islands
6.2.3.4 The Castilian of non-Castilian regions
6.2.3.5 Stereotypes
6.2.4 Latin America
6.2.4.1 Isogloss patterning
6.2.4.2 The formation of the Latin-American varieties
6.2.4.2.1 The Andalusian base
6.2.4.2.2 Correlation with external factors
6.2.4.2.3 Levelling
6.2.4.2.4 Substrate influence
6.2.4.2.5 Regional norms
6.3 Sociolinguistic variation
6.3.1 Social class
6.3.2 Age
6.3.3 Sex
6.3.4 Other factors
6.3.5 Covariation
Exercises
Chapter 7: Register
7.1 Register variation in the spoken language
7.1.1 Politeness
7.1.1.1 Second person pronouns
7.1.1.2 Imperatives
7.1.2 Conventionalised and real spoken language
7.1.2.1 Spoken language transcribed from a recording
7.1.2.2 Spoken language based on a written text
7.1.3 Jargon and slang, special language and cryptolects
7.2 Register variation in the written language
7.2.1 Journalism
7.2.1.2 Headlines
7.2.1.3 News reports
7.2.1.4 Sports reports
7.2.2 Legal and administrative language
7.2.3 The language of advertising
7.2.3.1 Personal advertisements
Chapter 8: Style
8.1 ‘Good’ style
8.2 Rhetorical style and figures of speech
8.3 Literary style — some examples
8.4 Statistics and the use of concordances
Exercises
Chapter 9: Spanish or not?
9.1 Judeo-Spanish
9.1.1 The relation of Judeo-Spanish to Castilian
9.1.2 Judeo-Spanish communities
9.1.3 Judeo-Spanish today
9.1.4 The linguistic characteristics of Judeo-Spanish
9.1.4.1 Phonology
9.1.4.2 Morphology
9.1.4.3 Lexis
9.1.4.4 An example of Judeo-Spanish
9.2 Vestigial Spanish varieties
9.2.1 Isleño
9.3 Afro-Hispanic varieties
9.4 Spanish creoles
9.4.1 The historical background to the formation and present-day use of the Spanish creoles
9.4.2 Linguistic characteristics of the Spanish creoles
9.4.2.1 Phonology
9.4.2.2 Morphology
9.4.2.2.1 Nouns
9.4.2.2.2 Verbs
9.4.2.2.3 Suffixation
9.4.2.2.4 Personal pronouns
9.4.2.2.5 Demonstratives
9.4.2.2.6 The articles
9.4.2.3 Syntax
9.4.2.3.1 Word order and basic constituent functions
9.4.2.3.2 Questions
9.4.2.3.3 Negation
9.4.2.3.4 Reflexive
9.4.2.3.5 Complex sentences
9.4.2.4 Other features
9.4.2.4.1 Copulas
9.4.3 A written creole text
9.5 Code-switching
9.5.1 Spanglish: Spanish-English code-switching in the US
9.5.2 Fronteiriço: Spanish-Portuguese code-switching in Uruguay
Exercises
Chapter 10: Towards the future
10.1 Linguistic forecasting
10.2 Internal forecasting
10.2.1 Forecasting on the basis of structure
10.2.2 Forecasting on the basis of variation
10.3 External forecasting
10.3.1 Spanish as a native language
10.3.2 Spanish as an international language
10.3.3 Will the unity of Spanish be preserved?
10.4 What will the impact of English on Spanish be?
10.4.1 External factors
10.4.2 Internal factors
10.4.3 Assessment of the status quo
10.4.3.1 Lexis
10.4.3.2 Phonetics
10.4.3.3 Morphology and syntax
Key to the Exercises
Index

About the Author(s):
Christopher Pountain is Professor of Spanish Linguistics at Queen Mary College, University of London.

Readership:
Undergraduate students of Spanish.

Reviews:

" this is an extremely succinct and readble account of the structures and varieties of Spanish and should quickly become essential reading for introductory undergraduate courses in Hispanic linguistics."
Forum for Modern Language Studies Vol: 43 No. 1

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