The Syntax Of Spanish

A clear and well-organised introduction to Spanish syntax, assuming no prior knowledge of current theory.

This book offers an original account of the dynamics of syntactic change and the evolving structure of Old Spanish that combines rigorous manuscript-based investigation, quantitative analysis and a syntactic approach grounded in Minimalist thinking. Its analysis of both successful and failed changes demonstrates the degree of unpredictability caused by the interaction of competing factors and will shed fresh light on the assumed unidirectionality of linguistic change. Importantly, it reveals that Old Spanish and modern Spanish are more similar to one another than is usually supposed and demonstrates that many of the differences between the two varieties are quantitative rather than qualitative. This theoretically sophisticated examination of historical corpora will provide an invaluable resource for students and scholars of Old and modern Spanish, historical linguistics, sociolinguistics and syntax.

This book is a compilation of articles on different aspects of Spanish grammar in the areas of current theoretical syntax and semantics. The issue brings together scholars working on some formal aspects of Spanish predicative complementation (e.g., dequeísmo), neuter demonstrative pronouns, the subject of Psych verbs, the nature of non-verbal predication, and the internal structure of the Determiner Phrase (DP), cf. gender variation, among other topics. Linguists and philologists with interests in Spanish and/or in other Romance languages are the main target audience. The book will appeal also to researchers and students specializing in generative grammar, semantics and in the syntax/semantics interface. It will also be of interest to historical linguists and dialectologists addressing theoretical/formal issues (cf. Afro-Bolivian Spanish). The research in this book points to a cohesiveness in Spanish linguistics that lies in the integration of up-to-date empirically-based linguistic research with current theoretical assumptions on the nature of syntax and semantics.

The architecture of the human language faculty has been one of the main foci of the linguistic research of the last half century. This branch of linguistics, broadly known as Generative Grammar, is concerned with the formulation of explanatory formal accounts of linguistic phenomena with the ulterior goal of gaining insight into the properties of the 'language organ'. The series comprises high quality monographs and collected volumes that address such issues. The topics in this series range from phonology to semantics, from syntax to information structure, from mathematical linguistics to studies of the lexicon.

This comparative analysis of the inter-lingual differences between English and Spanish allows instructors to comprehend and analyze the linguistic behaviors of their students and thereby help them achieve bilingualism. Intended for advanced upper-division and graduate students intending to teach Spanish-to-English speakers, English-to- Spanish speakers, and translators of both languages. Plastic comb binding. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR.

This study provides a consistent description and explanation of the syntax, the semantics and the pragmatics of Spanish mood. A major focus of attention is the central role of the truthfunctional categories of realis, potentialis and irrealis as parameters relevant to mood selection in both subordinate and non-subordinate clauses. Furthermore, a proposal is offered for a new typology of clause-embedding predicates. The framework chosen stems from the insight that complement-taking predicates share the property of providing information on the set of mental processes which characterize intentional human behavior. At the level of pragmatic analysis, mood selection is examined from a variety of angles. Thus, specific research is conducted within the framework of speech act theory, relevance theory, politeness theory and the theory of Gricean maxims.