Spanish Grammar Companion for Teachers: Linguistic Insights for Deeper Understanding (Springer Texts in Education) 3030841103, 9783030841102

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Philip W. Klein

Spanish Grammar Companion for Teachers Linguistic Insights for Deeper Understanding

Spanish Grammar Companion for Teachers

Philip W. Klein

Spanish Grammar Companion for Teachers Linguistic Insights for Deeper Understanding

123

Philip W. Klein Department of Spanish and Portuguese University of Iowa Iowa City, IA, USA

ISBN 978-3-030-84110-2 ISBN 978-3-030-84111-9 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-84111-9

(eBook)

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland

About the author Philip W. Klein is Associate Professor Emeritus of Spanish Language & Linguistics at the University of Iowa. He holds a Ph.D. in linguistics from the University of Washington, and has wide experience living and working in the Spanish-speaking world (Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, México, Spain), plus other travel in Latin America (Bolivia, Ecuador, Panamá, Perú, Puerto Rico, Uruguay). He has taught Spanish language (grammar and composition) and Hispanic linguistics (phonology and morphosyntax) at universities in Canada and in the United States for many years. He has authored numerous publications in Spanish linguistics and pedagogy. This book is based on his university studies and on experiences in the Spanish-speaking world, plus more than 30 years of researching and teaching Spanish langauge & linguistics, encompassing many textbooks, reference books, research publications, conferences and conversations. It represents what he has learned about Spanish in that time (“teaching is the best teacher”), what his students have taught him about their most difficult challenges, and the best approaches to clarifying those problems. He dedicates this work to the princess Amy and to his buddy Drew.

Copyright © 2022 by Philip W. Klein

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About the author

Spanish Grammar Companion for Teachers 0 Language Learning ............................................................................................................................... 1 0.1 The nature of language.................................................................................................................. 1 0.1.1 Sense and nonsense ................................................................................................................ 3 0.1.2 Form vs. meaning ................................................................................................................... 4 0.2 Unity in diversity .......................................................................................................................... 6 0.2.1 Settlements and conquests ..................................................................................................... 7 0.2.2 Language evolution and regional variation ............................................................................ 8 0.2.2.1 Spain ............................................................................................................................... 8 0.2.2.2 Americas ......................................................................................................................... 9 0.3 Tips for language learners ............................................................................................................. 11 0.3.1 Meeting the challenge ............................................................................................................ 12 0.3.2 Grammar tells all .................................................................................................................... 13 0.4 This book ...................................................................................................................................... 16 0.4.1 Your kind of grammar............................................................................................................ 17 0.4.2 Keys to fluency ...................................................................................................................... 21 1 Verb forms and functions......................................................................................................................23 1.1 Compound verbs ........................................................................................................................... 23 1.1.1 Auxiliaries, endings and links ................................................................................................ 24 1.2 Tenses: real and apparent ............................................................................................................. 24 1.2.1 Time vs. tense vs. mood ......................................................................................................... 25 1.2.2 Manipulation of tense............................................................................................................. 25 1.2.2.1 Vividness......................................................................................................................... 25 1.2.2.2 Conjecture ....................................................................................................................... 25 1.2.2.3 Options and formulas ...................................................................................................... 26 1.3 Two perspectives on the past ........................................................................................................ 27

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1.4 Non-verbal functions .................................................................................................................... 29 1.4.1 Nominal: infinitive ................................................................................................................ 29 1.4.2 Adverbial: gerund ................................................................................................................. 30 1.4.3 Adjectival: participle ............................................................................................................. 30 1.5 Government (régimen) .................................................................................................................. 31 1.5.1 Recycling and recombination ................................................................................................ 32 1.5.2 Verbal classification............................................................................................................... 45 1.5.3 Secondary considerations ....................................................................................................... 33 1.6 Impersonal verbal expressions ...................................................................................................... 34 1.7 Summary ....................................................................................................................................... 35 2 Nouns and their modifiers .....................................................................................................................40 2.0 Gender and agreement .................................................................................................................. 40 2.1 Grammar vs. biology .................................................................................................................... 41 2.1.1 Inherent vs. acquired .............................................................................................................. 41 2.1.2 Transparent vs. obscure ......................................................................................................... 42 2.1.3 Human reference .................................................................................................................... 43 2.1.4 Neuter gender in Spanish ....................................................................................................... 44 2.1.4.1 Nominal lo + (non-agreeing) adjective ........................................................................... 45 2.1.4.2 Adverbial lo + (agreeing) adjective ................................................................................ 46 2.2 Agreement quirks .......................................................................................................................... 46 2.3 Noun varieties ............................................................................................................................... 47 2.3.1 Compound nouns ................................................................................................................... 48 2.4. Determiners as pointers................................................................................................................ 50 2.4.1 Article vs absence .................................................................................................................. 50 2.4.2 Nominalization ....................................................................................................................... 52 2.5 Adjectives as descriptors............................................................................................................... 53 2.5.1 Weight and context ................................................................................................................ 53 2.5.2 Distinction vs decoration ....................................................................................................... 53 2.5.3 Total vs partial ....................................................................................................................... 53 2.5.4 Focus vs frill .......................................................................................................................... 54 2.5.5 Objective vs subjective .......................................................................................................... 54 2.5.6 Translation note ..................................................................................................................... 55

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2.5.7 Patterns of modification ......................................................................................................... 55 2.6 Summary ....................................................................................................................................... 56 3 Ways of BEing ......................................................................................................................................59 3.1 Ser vs. estar ................................................................................................................................... 59 3.1.1 Form over content .................................................................................................................. 59 3.1.1.1 Estar before ‒ndo ............................................................................................................ 60 3.1.1.2 Estar before adverbial ..................................................................................................... 60 3.1.1.3 Ser before nominal .......................................................................................................... 60 3.1.1.4 Ser before time & date .................................................................................................... 60 3.1.2 Meaningful contrasts .............................................................................................................. 60 3.1.2 1 Entity vs. event................................................................................................................ 61 3.1.2.2 Action vs. result .............................................................................................................. 61 3.1.2.3 Subjective vs. objective .................................................................................................. 62 3.1.2.4 Meaning shift .................................................................................................................. 63 3.1.2.5 Progressive options ......................................................................................................... 64 3.1.3 Bonus points........................................................................................................................... 64 3.1.3.1 Complement lo ................................................................................................................ 65 3.1.3.2 Questions......................................................................................................................... 65 3.2 Existential haber ........................................................................................................................... 66 3.3 Summary ....................................................................................................................................... 66 4 Personal pronouns .................................................................................................................................68 4.1 Tú vs usted .................................................................................................................................... 68 4.2 Subjects ......................................................................................................................................... 69 4.3 Objects .......................................................................................................................................... 70 4.3.1 Strong vs. weak ...................................................................................................................... 71 4.3.2 Emphasis and repetition ......................................................................................................... 72 4.3.3 Direct object or indirect?........................................................................................................ 74 4.3.4 Leísmo: minority option ........................................................................................................ 76 4.3.5 Ubiquity of indirect object ..................................................................................................... 77 4.4 Reflexives ..................................................................................................................................... 80 4.4.1 Authentic objects ................................................................................................................... 80 4.4.1.1 Reflexive se ..................................................................................................................... 80

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4.4.1.2 Reciprocal se ................................................................................................................... 81 4.4.1.3 Replacement se ............................................................................................................... 81 4.4.2 Dummy objects ...................................................................................................................... 81 4.4.2.1 Inherent se ....................................................................................................................... 82 4.4.2.2 Derivational se ................................................................................................................ 82 4.4.2.3 Compensatory se ............................................................................................................. 83 4.4.2.4 Impersonal se .................................................................................................................. 84 4.4.2.5 Passive se ........................................................................................................................ 85 4.4.3 Sí reflexives ............................................................................................................................ 85 4.4.4 -self confusion ........................................................................................................................ 85 4.5 Summary ....................................................................................................................................... 86 5 Prepositions and adverbs..................................................................................................................... 89 5.1 Simple vs compound prepositions .............................................................................................. 89 5.2 Free vs. fixed ............................................................................................................................... 90 5.2.1 Governed prepositions ......................................................................................................... 90 5.2.2 Object a ................................................................................................................................ 91 5.3 Common pitfalls.......................................................................................................................... 92 5.3.1 Stranding .............................................................................................................................. 92 5.3.2 Pre-subject ............................................................................................................................ 93 5.4 Empty que ................................................................................................................................... 94 5.4.1 Before subordinate clause .................................................................................................... 94 5.4.2 Before relative clause ........................................................................................................... 95 5.4.3 Before infinitive ................................................................................................................... 95 5.5 Adverbs and adverbials ............................................................................................................... 96 5.5.1 Form and placement ............................................................................................................. 96 5.5.2 Structures ............................................................................................................................. 96 5.5.3 Conditional sentences .......................................................................................................... 98 5.6 Summary ..................................................................................................................................... 100 Footnotes ..................................................................................................................................... 101 6 Subjunctive .........................................................................................................................................102 6.1 English clues ............................................................................................................................... 102 6.1.1 Modals.................................................................................................................................. 102

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6.1.2 Complements ....................................................................................................................... 103 6.2 Structures and triggers ................................................................................................................ 105 6.3 Noun clauses ............................................................................................................................... 105 6.3.1 Doubt and denial .................................................................................................................. 106 6.3.2 Reaction and evaluation ....................................................................................................... 107 6.3.3 Desire and influence ............................................................................................................ 108 6.3.4 Infinitive option ................................................................................................................... 109 6.4 Adjective clauses ........................................................................................................................ 112 6.5 Adverb clauses ............................................................................................................................ 113 6.6 Main clauses................................................................................................................................ 115 6.7 Summary ..................................................................................................................................... 116 Footnotes ..................................................................................................................................... 119 7 Relative clauses and relative pronouns ..............................................................................................120 7.1 Restrictive or not? ....................................................................................................................... 120 7.2 Four relative pronouns ................................................................................................................ 121 7.3 Options and alternatives .............................................................................................................. 122 7.4 Contrasts with English ................................................................................................................ 123 7.4.1 Omission .............................................................................................................................. 123 7.4.3 Other relatives ...................................................................................................................... 125 7.5 Compound relatives .................................................................................................................... 126 7.6 Reduced relative clauses ............................................................................................................. 128 7.7 Neuter options ............................................................................................................................. 129 7.8 Summary ..................................................................................................................................... 130 Footnotes ..................................................................................................................................... 131 8 Questions, commands and reported speech .......................................................................................132 8.1 Answers about questions............................................................................................................. 132 8.1.1 Inversion and entonation ...................................................................................................... 132 8.1.2 ¿qué? vs. ¿cuál? .................................................................................................................. 132 8.1.3 A missing interrogative ........................................................................................................ 133 8.1.4 Echo and tag questions......................................................................................................... 133 8.2 Commands and their friends ....................................................................................................... 134 8.2.1 Pseudo-commands ............................................................................................................... 134

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8.2.2 Authentic commands ........................................................................................................... 135 8.3 Direct citation vs indirect discourse ............................................................................................ 136 8.3.1 Comparison and conversion ................................................................................................. 137 8.3.2 Additional Spanish parameters ............................................................................................ 137 8.3.3 Intersection of critical factors .............................................................................................. 139 8.3.3.1 Subordination and mood ............................................................................................... 139 8.3.3.2 Verb tense and aspect.................................................................................................... 139 8.3.3.3 Pronoun choice and clitic management ........................................................................ 140 8.3.3.4 Analysis of sample text ................................................................................................. 140 8.4 Summary ..................................................................................................................................... 142 Footnotes ..................................................................................................................................... 143 9 Comparison, negation and coordination ............................................................................................144 9.1 Comparison of inequality (than) ................................................................................................ 144 9.1.1 de lo que before clause ........................................................................................................ 144 9.1.1.1 Matched direct object nouns ......................................................................................... 145 9.1.1.2 Unmatched direct object noun ...................................................................................... 145 9.1.2 de before quantity ............................................................................................................... 145 9.1.2.1 Same entity.................................................................................................................... 145 9.1.2.2 Distinct entities ............................................................................................................. 146 9.1.2.3 Negativity and limitation .............................................................................................. 146 9.1.3 que elsewhere ...................................................................................................................... 146 9.2 Other comparison types .............................................................................................................. 147 9.2.1 Equality ................................................................................................................................ 147 9.2.2 Proportional.......................................................................................................................... 148 9.2.3 Open-ended .......................................................................................................................... 148 9.2.4 Superlative?.......................................................................................................................... 149 9.3 Negation ...................................................................................................................................... 150 9.4 Conjunctions ............................................................................................................................... 151 9.5 Summary ..................................................................................................................................... 152 Footnotes ..................................................................................................................................... 154 10 Passives and impersonal expressions................................................................................................155 10.1 Passive vs. active ...................................................................................................................... 155

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10.1.1 Preferences and restrictions ............................................................................................... 156 10.2 Avoiding the passive ................................................................................................................. 158 10.2.1 Impersonal expressions ...................................................................................................... 159 10.2.1.1 Spanish impersonals.................................................................................................... 159 10.2.1.2 Impersonal se .............................................................................................................. 160 10.3 Recap of passives and their substitutes ..................................................................................... 163 10.4 Resultative estar........................................................................................................................ 164 10.5 Summary ................................................................................................................................... 164 Footnotes ..................................................................................................................................... 166 Appendix A: The Spanish Written Accent ............................................................................................167 A.1 La tilde ....................................................................................................................................... 167 Footnotes ......................................................................................................................................... 169 Appendix B: Verbal irregularity ............................................................................................................170 B.1 Spelling changes ......................................................................................................................... 170 B.2 Irregular vs. subregular .............................................................................................................. 171 B.2.1 Diphthongization ................................................................................................................. 172 B.2.2 Raising ................................................................................................................................. 172 B.2.3 Increments ........................................................................................................................... 173 B.2.4 Strong preterites .................................................................................................................. 173 B.3 Summary .................................................................................................................................... 173 Footnotes ......................................................................................................................................... 174 Appendix C: Sentences and their structures ..........................................................................................175 C.1 Word classes and functions ........................................................................................................ 175 C.2 Well-formedness ........................................................................................................................ 177 C.3 Word order ................................................................................................................................. 179 C.3.1 Syntactic factors .................................................................................................................. 179 C.3.2 Contextual prominence........................................................................................................ 180 C.4 New rules, new distinctions ....................................................................................................... 181 C.5: Summary ................................................................................................................................... 183 Footnotes ......................................................................................................................................... 184 Appendix D: Vocabulary Distinctions ...................................................................................................185 Case studies of words frequently confused with each other. .............................................................. 185

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a ~ en (at) .................................................................................................................................... 187 caliente ~ caluroso (hot) .............................................................................................................. 189 conocer ~ encontrar (meet) ......................................................................................................... 190 cuyo ~ de quien (whose) ............................................................................................................. 191 de ~ con (with)............................................................................................................................. 192 dejar ~ salir (leave) ...................................................................................................................... 193 desde que ~ puesto que (since) .................................................................................................... 194 entonces ~ así que (then; so)....................................................................................................... 195 faltar ~ hacer falta (lack; need).................................................................................................... 196 gustar ~ disgustar (like; dislike) ................................................................................................... 197 hace ~ desde hace (for; ago) ........................................................................................................ 198 hacerse ~ ponerse (become) ........................................................................................................ 199 have (tener ~ haber ~ hacer ~ …) ........................................................................................... 200 mientras ~ mientras que (while) .................................................................................................. 201 mitad ~ medio (half) .................................................................................................................... 202 mover ~ mudar (move) ................................................................................................................ 203 ojalá (hope ~ wish) ...................................................................................................................... 204 olvidar ~ olvidársele (forget) ...................................................................................................... 205 parecer ~ parecerse a (look like) .................................................................................................. 206 pedir ~ preguntar (ask) ................................................................................................................ 207 pensar de ~ pensar en ~ pensar INF (opinion, consideration, intent) ....................................... 208 pero ~ sino (but) .......................................................................................................................... 209 poco ~ un poco de (little)............................................................................................................. 210 poder ~ subjuntivo (may)............................................................................................................. 211 por ~ para (for) ............................................................................................................................ 213 sentir(se) ~ opinar (feel) .............................................................................................................. 218 solo ~ único (only) ....................................................................................................................... 219 sustituir ~ reemplazar (replace)................................................................................................... 220 Works Cited or Recommended .............................................................................................................222 Glossary of Grammatical Terms ...........................................................................................................223 Topical Index ..........................................................................................................................................230

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0 Language Learning

0.1 The nature of language Were we to explore an iceberg, we would find just a small portion visible above the water line, with the great bulk obscured beneath the surface. Our perception of language, which we effortlessly pick up as children and thereafter rely on every day in work and at play, while thinking and communicating, is likewise superficial and fragmentary. This book explores some hidden whys and wherefores of how Spanish works. Consider what is involved when we communicate verbally with another person. We take it for granted that our interlocutor will decode a meaningful message from the string of sounds we utter, and that we, in turn, can extract information from the series of noises emanating from that person’s mouth. But we remain clueless as to how this all comes about. Of course, such communication happens only if the persons involved are members of the same speech community. If a speaker of Egyptian Arabic and a speaker of Nahuatl (an UtoAztecan language of central Mexico) try to converse without knowing the other’s language, they will get nowhere. This is because language is essentially a code which relates meanings (messages) to speech sounds. It mediates between hearing and understanding, pairing talk with thoughts. You know that code for your native language, and partially at least for a second one, if you are motivated to read this book. Only if one knows the code can one cipher and decipher messages with it. The mechanism underlying this link between specific sounds and their associated meanings constitutes a speaker’s unconscious knowledge of his language ‒ what linguists call the speaker’s “grammar.” This term is also applied to the linguist’s description and representation of that knowledge.

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 P. W. Klein, Spanish Grammar Companion for Teachers, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-84111-9_0

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Anyone who has heard a sample of an unknown foreign language will recall having experienced it as pure gibberish, senseless cacophony. But someone who knows the language can instantly parse the sounds into words and then into structured phrases, thus deriv ing meaning from it. The linguists who study this intricate ability, the everyday miracle of our use of language, to systematically reconstruct meaning from vocalization (and vice-versa: to code a thought into speech) usually start by distinguishing five components of our linguistic competence (Fig. 0-1). sounds



(phonology)



SENTENCE CONSTRUCTION

(syntax) 



meaning



(semantics)

  

word structure (morphology)

vocabulary (lexicon)

Fig. 0-1: the main components of language The WORD-STRUCTURE portion of speakers’ tacit linguistic knowledge keeps track of variations in the form of words (e.g. sets of verb conjugations (e.g. quiero, quieres, queremos); and combinations of prefixes and suffixes with noun and adjective roots (e.g. pos+gradu+a+d+o, semi+circul+ar; families of words derived from a common base: cocina, cocinar, cocinero…). The VOCABULARY contains words known to the speaker, together with all pertinent information about each one. So, for example, besar is listed as a verb, its phonological content /bes/, belonging to the first conjugation (-a-), regular, an action not a state, normally performed with lips, transmits affection, is cyclic (repeatable), requires subject (typically human) and object (usually concrete rather than abstract), becomes a masculine noun (beso) by adding -o to the root, etc. Less well-understood by language students is SYNTAX, which sees a sentence as not merely words placed one after another, but as a structured hierarchy of lexical elements (words and their parts) grouped into constituents (parts of speech and the phrases they form). This book deals mostly with Spanish sentence structure (syntax); also partly with vocabulary (lexicology) and word structure (morphology). The simplified diagram Fig. 0-2 below shows how the pieces of a simple sentence might fit together and relate to each other. Tip  Think of the language as a code, shared by members of a speech-community, which enables them to encode (send) & decode (receive) messages to each other. To understand how the language works, one must delve into the details of the code. Tip 

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S NP Art | los

VP N | niños

Pro V | | te vieron

Fig. 0-2: a simplified sentence diagram

PP P | en

NP Art | el

Adv | ayer

N | parque

Key to Fig. 0-2 abbreviations: S=sentence, NP=Noun Phrase, VP=Verb Phrase, Art=Article, N=Noun, Pro =Pronoun, V=Verb, PP=Prepositional Phrase, Adv=Adverb, P=Preposition

0.1.1 Sense and nonsense If someone tells you that Mother Theresa was just elected secretary-general of the United Nations. or Chicago is the capital of the United States. you might be tempted to say “That makes no sense,” by which you would mean that the statement does not agree with your factual knowledge of the world. But, of course, both of these sentences deliver a perfectly understandable message; otherwise, you would not be able to judge their (lack of) veracity. They are structurally well-formed, both syntactically and semantically. Linguists understand “making sense” as “having a meaning; conveying a message”, regardless of its truthfulness or congruence with reality. Another candidate for “making no sense” might be Lumberjack chop tree axe or Bear chop tree axe. Although we can certainly glimpse partial and vague meanings here (enough to realize that the former version is more plausible than the latter), certain essential function words and sentence trappings are missing. We do not know if the intended full message is (in the first case) A lumberjack was chopping down those trees with his axe. or These lumberjacks will chop up my tree with their axes ‒ or perhaps something else. Such a “telegraphic” phrase makes only vague sense (if any), and fails to convey a specific message. It is deficient both syntactically and semantically. Compare these cases with renown contemporary linguist Noam Chomsky’s intentionally bizarre example Colorless green ideas sleep furiously. where colorless and green contradict each other, and furiously, implying agitation, is incompatible with a static state like sleep). Although internal conflicts between meanings of words here render the sentence unintelligible, its structure is unproblematic (parallel to Daring new ideas appear infrequently.).

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Another example can be found in Lewis Carroll’s Jabberwocky poem: ‘Twas brillig, and the slithy toves | Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;…, has perfectly-constructed sentences populated with made-up words. Such phrases as these convey no clear message (make no sense); so we classify them as semantically (though not syntactically) ill-formed. Finally, notice that both *Our young people is hopeful for the future. and *Conozco tu hermana Teresa. are perfectly understandable, each delivering a clear message. But they are also ungrammatical (syntactically ill-formed, as indicated by the prefaced asterisk), since people in English takes plural verb agreement (people are hopeful) and Spanish expects to see “personal a” before a direct object with specific reference (Conozco a tu hermana Teresa). These examples show that a sentence can be defective either in meaning (semantically) or in form (syntactically), or both, or neither. A sentence is non-defective, on the other hand, if it accords with the grammatical principles which define all (and only) the well-formed sentences of the language, independently of the real-world veracity of what it asserts. So a more fitting description of our Mother Theresa and Chicago examples would be “untrue” rather than “senseless.” The “Lumberjack chop tree axe” case should be classed as “ungrammatical” and the Jabberwocky excerpt must be called “meaningless” (though likely “clever” and “artful”).

0.1.2 Form vs. meaning Bare and bear sound the same, but they have different meanings, hence are distinct words. Furthermore, bare can be a verb (bare one’s soul) or an adjective (bare facts), and bear can be a verb (bear a burden) or a noun (black bear), both cases of two meanings in one form. A Spanish example is the word cojo, with its multiple interpretations. Adjectivally, it means lame (mi primo cojo); the associated noun cojo/a, means lame person (ese cojo es mi primo). Used as a verb, it can mean grab, pick up (cojo el teléfono), or discover, catch (los cogí fumando), or board (coja Ud. el próximo tren a Zaragoza) and others. Lexical homophones1 like this are quite common in both languages, but this “split personality” phenomenon is even more interesting in the area of structured phrases. Consider the expressions (Camilo estudia) latín y diseño moderno and (Probamos) tequilas y rones añejos. Notice that the two bold, nonparenthesized phrases share the same structure, i.e. two nouns linked by a conjunction, with the second noun then followed by an adjective. But while the former expression has just one interpretation (moderno goes only with diseño, since “modern Latin” is an oxymoron), the latter offers two meaningful options, depending on whether or not añejos is taken to modify tequilas as well as rones. These two interpretations may be represented by distinct bracketings:

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[(tequilas) y (rones añejos)] where añejos is associated only with rones, vs [(tequilas y rones) añejos], where añejos is paired with the entire phrase tequilas y rones so as to clarify their distinct internal structures, which differ according to the functional scope of the adjective. This is a situation of a single phrase with two meanings, what linguists call “ambiguity”2, this time of the “structural” type, since the meaning difference lies not in the word itself (as in cojo, linguistic homophony, or “lexical” ambiguity), but in the distinct relationships of some words with others, within the phrase. We can take structural ambiguity to a more interesting level, where the meaning difference between two interpretations of an ambiguous sentence is not resolveable via a simple rebracketing of the words, but is rather due to distinct grammatical relations between sentence elements ‒ some of which may not even be present! Such is the case with: ¿Oíste cantar a Luisa? Did you hear Luisa singing?

Did you hear them singing to Luisa?

Mi papá vio matar al ladrón. My dad saw the thief kill.

My dad saw the thief killed.

No dejan comer a las vacas. They don’t allow cows to eat.

They don’t allow cows to be eaten.

The ambiguity in Spanish lies in who or what is understood as the subject or object of the infinitive verb. Did the thief kill someone or did someone kill the thief? Was Luisa subject or object of the singing? Are the cows the eaters or the eaten? What’s clear in these sentences is the subject of the finite verb (tú, mi papá, anonymous 3PP). And that the final noun (Luisa, ladrón, vacas) is construed as object (and thus marked with a). If it is understood as object of the finite verb, in one interpretation, then it is “available” to have a different relation to the infinitive: that of subject, in the other. That is, on one reading, someone is hearing Luisa, Luisa is singing; my dad saw the thief, the thief killed someone; cows eating (X) is not allowed. On the other reading, Luisa is being sung to, the thief is getting killed, and the cows are being starved. But this kind of analysis invites us to recognize more than one level of sentence structure, a linguistic model where a word might be subject on one level (“deep structure”) and object on another (“surface structure”) . The linguist might then clarify the grammatical relations which obtain on the deep level by sketching two configurations for each sentence; e.g. Oiste [Luisa cantar a X] y Oiste [X cantar a Luisa], showing X as object in one case, subject in another (a way to have our cake and eat it, too). This example shows us that the interplay between linguistic form and meaning can involve abstract structures and intricate interrelations not immediately apparent.

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Finally, we note that the counterpart of “ambiguity” (two messages in one package) is “paraphrase” (separately-phrased versions of the same message), as seen in cases like 3 Fue Almodóvar quien hizo esa película. Quien hizo esa película fue Almodóvar. It was Almodóvar who made that film. Ese concepto es difícil de comprender. Es difícil comprender ese concepto. It is hard to understand that concept. EE.UU. atacó a Iraq en marzo del ‘03. A Iraq lo atacó EE.UU. en marzo del ’03. The U.S. attacked Iraq in March 2003. Returning momentarily to our iceberg example: the “above the water” portion of language is its sounds and meanings, while the essential STRUCTURES of the language and the grammatical PROCESSES which affect them are hidden from view. The child internalizes such matters quite methodically during its period of language acquisition. The adult languagelearner, in contrast, must develop some basic tools of grammatical description and linguistic analysis in order to access this otherwise hidden dimension of the language, essential to mastering many “strange” (unEnglish) foreign-language constructions. Tip  The successful foreign-language learner develops a knowledge of and a sensitivity to the essential structural aspects of language, the hidden underpinnings of its words and meanings. Tip 

0.2 Unity in diversity Notions like “the Spanish language” or “the English language” are really just convenient cover terms for the many varieties of each speech in daily use. The version of English heard in Montgomery AL, or Bronx NY or Iowa City IA all sound a bit different, yet they are generally understandable to speakers of the other areas, so linguists dub them “dialects” of English, variations on a theme. In this sense, “dialect” is not a pejorative term, as often used by laypersons who mean “a language lacking a writing system,” or “a simplistic/primitive [sic] language.” In linguistics it means merely “one of the many versions of a language,” often linked to a particu lar geographic region or tied to a certain social class (“educated” speech vs. “hillbilly talk”; R.P. vs. cockney). Within Spain, Spanish shares its official language status with three other tongues: Basque (vascuence), common in the far north costal region; Galician (gallego), found in the northwest; and Catalan (catalán) along the east coast. Of these, Galician and Catalan are modern evolutions

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of Latin, as is Spanish (along with Portuguese, French, Italian…). But Basque is unique, unrelated to these neo-Latin dialects ‒ or indeed to any other known language on earth. The linguist’s test for distinguishing ‘dialect’ and ‘language’ is “mutual intelligibility”: since a (monolingual) Spanish-speaker and a (monolingual) Catalan-speaker cannot readily understand each other in conversation, these are considered different languages. But a Spanishspeaker from Burgos (north-central Spain) and one from Huelva (south-west) can indeed carry on an intelligible conversation, so their utterances are taken to lie within a single language. Since every language is in slow and constant evolution, dialect differences arise over time , especially if a speech community becomes divided, i.e. if its members become geographically separated from one other. The natural linguistic changes occurring in each group then begin to diverge, and differences in their once-common tongue grow gradually greater. One such separation of speakers took place for Spanish starting in 1492, when the Catholic Inquisition forced Jewish Spaniards to either convert to Christianity or be expelled from the country. Many emigrated to the eastern Mediterranean, where the dialec t that evolved in their communities is one we know today as “Ladino.” An even more dramatic schism is the larger one which occurred at about the same time in the form of the colonization of the New World. Dialect geography studies what dialects are spoken where, and lists their distinguishing characteristics. In the Spanish-speaking world there are well known differences in the language as spoken in Spain and in the New World (just as there are between British and American English). Both language regions show further internal dialectical divergence, due (for Spanish) to dramatic linguistic evolution in 16th- and 17th-century Iberia, as well as in its transplanted New World locations. This has created what we know today as two principal dialect regions in Spain, and two more in Spanish America. Some historical perspective will illustrate the origins of the Spanish language, as well as its later diversification.

0.2.1 Settlements and conquests The first inhabitants of what is now Spain were the Iberians, a tribal people whose origins go back to earlier than 3000 BCE. Little is known about them, including the kind of language they spoke. When the Celts arrived in about 1000 BCE, they mixed with the Iberians and formed a culture which spoke Celtiberian, a Celtic language (akin to today’s Irish, Scots Gaelic, Welsh). For the next eight centuries the Celtiberians dominated the peninsula, as several Greek and Phonecian colonies developed along the coast, to make their modest contribution to the evolving Celtiberian culture, until the arrival of the Romans in 218 BCE. The Romans ruled Iberia (save the remote Basque region) for nearly 600 years, imposing their Latin language and Roman law. Later, with the decline of imperial Rome came invasions by Germanic tribes (”Visigoths”), who soon adopted the settled lifestyle and late-Latin language of

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their subjects. Visigoth Spain was stable from about 409 CE until 711, when an army of North African Berbers («moros») invaded southern Spain and promptly occupied most of the peninsula. Their Arabian cultural influence was pervasive for over 700 years, witnessing an exceptional flowering of medieval learning fueled by Islamic-Christian-Jewish collaboration and mutual respect. The Moors were finally beaten back by expansionist Christian legions from the north, leading a holy reconquista, which eventually (1492) expelled the Arab occupiers from their last stronghold in Granada, but left the local Latin vernacular enriched with a great many common words of Arabic origin.

0.2.2 Language evolution and regional variation Today’s peninsular Spanish is the product of continuous changes in the speech that arrived with the Roman soldiers, which was not the polished Latin of Roman poets and historians, stylized and standardized by sages, but a rustic version spoken by the provincially-diverse country folk who made up the imperial army. With Rome so distant and communication so slow, it was free to evolve, as languages always do over time, on the road to becoming Modern Spanish. But it did not evolve in the same direction or at the same pace in each area, so that today we find variation in the Spanish spoken in the various regions of the country, as well as around the Spanish-speaking world.

0.2.2.1 Spain On the peninsula, it is comon to speak of two main versions of Spanish: one, andaluz, spoken in the south (Andalucía), and another, typical of the north-central region, known as castellano, the latter showing such features as4: • a distinctive th-type sound (IPA [θ]) written with the letters z and c (before front vowels e, i), as in zapato, cesto, cinco. • an upstart le replacing lo as masculine direct object personal pronoun: A Carlos le conozco muy bien. • vosotros, os as plural familiar pronouns, plus their agreeing verb forms: ¿Qué hacéis vosotros? Sentados a descansar. • present perfect in place of preterite, for recently-completed actions: Hoy me he levantado (for me levanté) a las seis. The speech of Andalucía, on the other hand, shows other characteristics, including • a non-strident jota-sound, softened to resemble the sound of English h (mere aspiration), as in baja, gente, oxo. • z and c being pronounced the same as s; the th-sound [θ] never establishing itself systematically in the south. • the absence of castellano’s th-sound [θ] as well as of its vosotros, os and their verb forms; vosotros is replaced by ustedes.

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• historically-faithful lo (instead of le) is the masculine direct object personal pronoun: A Carlos lo conozco muy bien. • syllable-final s typically weakens or drops out (s→h→Ø); estos [éh.toh] tristes [tríh.te] suspiros [suh.pí.ro] • between two vowels, b, d, g show a weakened articulation: abogado [abogádo]. Phonetically, this is a change from stop to fricative; i.e. from air flow being momentarily blocked. to air squeezing noisily through a tight aperture.

0.2.2.2 Americas In Spanish America, instead of a north-south divide, dialectology rather reflects topography: highlands vs lowlands. There was a preference among the early colonists for the temperate high-altitude regions in establishing the principal cities of the colonial period (México, Quito, Lima, Bogotá, La Paz), versus the tropical settlements on the coast essential to maintaining maritime trade and communication with the European motherland. The language of both zones share features which differentiate them from that of the mother country: they • soften the jota (IPA [x]) from its peninsular stridency (baja [báxa], ojo [óxo]) to a mere aspiration [báha], [óho] • freely adopt «indigenismos» ‒ words borrowed from their aboriginal neighbors: maíz, ají, palta, maní, cacao, huipil … • exhibit wide variation in the pronunciation of the palatal sounds written ll and y, as in calle, mayo (IPA [š, ž, λ, ɕ, ʝ, ɉ]). But there are also notable differences between the speech of the highlands and that of the coast. Highland New World Spanish reflects the speech of the early colonists who departed Spain prior to a series of peninsular linguistic innovations which affected the language of the mother country during the next century or two. The language which these pioneers brought to the Americas predates, and thus does NOT include, the following later peninsular changes. • Development of the th-sound [θ], as well as of the pronouns vosotros and os, plus their associated verb forms. • Substitution of the present perfect for the recent preterite: Me he levantado hoy a las seis.  Me levanté hoy a las seis. • Switch to le (instead of historical lo) as its masculine direct object personal pronoun: A Carlos le conozco muy bien. (It is sometimes supposed that “Latin America once had, but then lost, the Castillian th-sound [θ].” Actually, it arose historically in north-central Spain after New World colonization was already well underway, so that Spanish America was seeded with colonists who lacked it.)

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The New World ports and costal settlements, on the other hand, were continuously exposed to the living language of Spain, via maritime commerce. All during the colonial period, ongoing trade with the motherland and constant migration from Andalucía, helped the language spoken in these coastal areas keep pace with innovations reaching the southern homeland. (Even northerners wishing to emigrate to the New World had to first travel to a southern port, then wait months while making arrangements for the next available ship, during which time they were exposed to the surrounding Andalucian language and its characteristics.) It is thus that coastal New World Spanish exhibits “innovative”features from Andalucia; e.g. • s is typically weakens (s→h→Ø) in syllable-final position: estos [éh.toh] tristes [tríh.te] suspiros [suh.pí.roh] • b, d, g (intervocalic voiced occlusives) are greatly weakened: abogado [abogádo], gabardina [gabardína] • vos replaces tú, ti in many then-remote areas; e.g. Buenos Aires, Montevideo: Y vos ¿qué contás? Sentate y decime. (Vos, like tú, comes from Latin and is a cousin of French vous; the accompanying verb may take several different regional forms. While vos replaces tú and ti in the speech of most Argentine and Uruguayan nationals, it also characteristic of innumerable rural communities spread all over Central and South America, and is constantly brought to the cities via urban migration.) Caribbean Spanish (Cuba, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico) mirrors additional late Andalucian sound changes, which have earned it the designation of “vanguard” dialect (at the forefront of innovation); e.g.: • velarization of n (spoken as [ŋ] (“ng”)) in word-final position: van y vienen va[ŋ] y viene[ŋ]; bien buena bie[ŋ] buena • “ch” goes to “sh” ([č]→[š]) via loss of affricate occlusion: muchacho chocho [mušášo šóšo]; trecho ancho [tréšo ánšo] • fusion of r and l syllable-finally ‒these two sounds switch or merge: mal puerto ma[r] pwe[l]to; el mar e[r] ma[l] Such linguistic evolution in the Spanish language during this last half-millennium is entirely in accord with phenomena observed by linguists inr many diverse tongues. Thus, the b, d, g consonant weakening is a process well-documented in the history of other Romance languages. Likewise, the aspiration and elision of s happened so long ago in e.g. French (Latin SCOLA→Old Fr. escola→Modern Fr. école) that it is not even noticed today, and has certainly stood the test of time. The same is true of the loss of the initial stop element in French affrication (“ch”→“sh”): cheval→[š]eval. (The fact that the initial “sh” consonant of Chicago is spelled “ch” in English is due to the early French explorers who first recorded in their standard orthography the “sh” pronunciation heard among the indigenous population.) Japanese and Korean both intermingle

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what we hear separately as r and l. Historical and comparative linguistics provides many such examples of the universality and inevitability of language change. These developments in modern Caribbean speech are not aberrations or errors. In the area of morphological diversity, a notable feature of New World Spanish is voseo, the pronoun vos replacing tú, ti. This exists sporadically throughout central and south America, especially in informal registers among rural or less-educated citizens.. It dominates rioplatense Spanish (Uruguay and Argentina border opposite shores of el Río de la Plata), replacing tú, ti in all situations, with a matching novel verbal morphology. It is noteworthy that the two groups of Spanish-speakers most numerous in the United States have roots in distinct poles of New World dialectology: northeast and southeast U.S. boast large numbers of innovative coastal and Caribbean speakers (Cuba, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico), while speakers representing conservative highland Central America and Mexico, historically concentrated in the U.S. southwest (where their ancestors were well-established Mexican citizens before their land was appropriated by the expansionist United States5) are extending their influence into the rest of the continent. Tip  Debates about which version of Spanish is more “correct” are misconceived, since each is a product of its own natural historical development, and evidently meets the needs of its speakers. Even though North American schools may aim to teach a “neutral” internationally-standardized Spanish language (lengua culta), for use by educated citizens, they dare not demean the everyday colloquial speech of those of any particular linguistic heritage. All speakers have the ability to function on different “stylistic registers” (levels of formality) as the occasion demands: from a more careful, formal version for “important” persons and events, to a relaxed, casual style for everyday use with friends and family. Neither one contradicts the other. No one needs be made to feel ashamed of their speech. Tip 

0.3 Tips for language learners Not all language learners are created equal. While children learn their first language (s) effortlessly, post-puberty language-learners show mixed success, and few attain the fluency of their childhood native language acquisition. During and after the teenage years, atrophy of the innate human capacity to intuitively pick up a language is a common fact of maturation. Nature intends for us to be early language learners: the sooner, the better. Reading this as an adult, you face diminished acuity in language learning, but you have picked up effective conscious learning strategies, and have by now developed an analytical capacity for reasoning and problem-solving.

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You are free to apply those capabilities to the sort of language learning which one typically encounters in this second stage of life: that of a school subject. These two ways of coming to know a language (as a child vs. as an adult) have earned different names, reflecting their different natures. The first one, called language ACQUISITION, occurs automatically, effortlessly and completely. The second, known as language LEARNING, requires conscious effort, an instructional program, usually a teacher and/or textbook, and is frustratingly difficult. It usually ends well short of a goal of full fluency. Learning a foreign tongue in school is different from other subjects like geography or art history, which involve mastering a set of facts to be analyzed. If second language study were like this, then its exams would ask students to describe typical sentence patterns available in the language, to list the various types of pronouns in use, whether its verbs are conjugated for aspect (§1.3) or tense (or both, or neither), its inventory of basic sounds, types of prefixes and suffixes found, how it forms compounds, etc. There is, in fact, an academic discipline which deals with such matters; it is called LINGUISTICS. Language learning, on the other hand, involves the growth of a performance SKILL. The goal is not to display knowledge ABOUT the language, but to express oneself IN the language. Seen in this light, becoming functional in a foreign language is more like learning to ice skate, or to play the piano (also skills), than it is like taking a sociology or astronomy course. Just as with other performance skills (we are not all good prospective skaters or pianists), mature individuals exhibit varying degrees of residual talent for mastering a foreign tongue, with most of us facing stiff challenges. So if you now find yourself in an uphill battle trying to master another language when you are already “past your prime,” it helps to know that this is a natural condition, since the deck has been genetically stacked against you. However, remember that you HAVE already learned a great deal about the new language, that you CAN partially function in this foreign tongue, and that there ARE strategies which can improve your chances for success in this less-than-ideal situation.

0.3.1 Meeting the challenge In your foreign-language courses you were exposed to a large amount of information which did not all sink in: too much to assimilate on a first pass, in an artificial classroom setting, for a few hours per week. If you are now ready to take deeper look at how the language works, you should get organized in order to maximize your learning. Find an effective method (some combination of daily study and practice) for mastering those arbitrary details of basic data; e.g. verbal irregularities, whether the word for battle exists as a noun the battle (masculine or feminine?) and/or as a verb they battled (and to what conjugational class it belongs, what kinds of objects it takes, etc.).

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This book’s grammar perspectives will put a fresh face on many challenging topics (e.g. subjunctive, uses of se…) that were incompletely absorbed in your previous Spanish studies, and likely still problematic. A foreign language is best approached on its own terms, from within its own grammatical system rather than from the outside, distorted by English translation ( “ traductor = traidor”). Familiarity with grammatical terminology (see Glossary of grammatical terms) is useful for naming and describing elements of and patterns in the new language, for clarifying the constructions and the mechanisms it uses. Grammar is key to perceiving the systematic regularity, meaningful structure, and organizational unity of Spanish. To turbocharge your progress, take every opportunity to hear and SPEAK the language. This is the hardest skill, and develops only to the extent that you actually use it. If your learning situation does not include conversational opportunities, you must actively court real-world communicative experiences in Spanish. Find Spanish-speaking friends, and GO ABROAD for travel or study. When you do, stay for as long as possible (a semester is better than a summer; a year better than a semester) and LIMIT YOUR ENGLISH-SPEAKING CONTACTS so as to not squander this immersion opportunity. Do not get discouraged. Realize that second-language learning is an uphill climb. Your key to progress is persistent, active involvement and sincere effort. Pick up a textbook of annotated readings; use it to expand your vocabulary (memorize ten new words each day), intensify your grammar review, and use the language (orally and in writing) frequently. Improvement will be more dramatic if you opt for an extended study-abroad experience, avoiding English. IN SUM : ► The two ways of improving foreign-language fluency after the basic courses are:

1) Go to a country where the language is spoken and immerse yourself in it for months or years, staying away from English-speakers ‒ this option works better the younger you are. 2) Undertake more classroom or independent study in the language and its linguistic underpinnings, find readings, videos and podcasts; get as much experience using the language as possible in your non-Hispanic context.

0.3.2 Grammar tells all All human languages have the potential to express the same messages, and do so by pairing certain sounds with specific meanings. However, the mechanisms which relate these sounds to those meaning in each case vary widely. Linguistic description concerns itself with determining the basic elements, processes and structures of the language, and showing how they interrelate to reveal the systematic features which account for its amazing properties. Describing a system involves identifying various components and their interrelationships. In a grammatical system, we use concepts like clause, subject, passive, object (direct, indirect), adverb, subjunctive, transitive, definite article, locative, impersonal, etc., as well as the processes

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that they undergo (e.g. modify, (pro)nominalize, subordination). Each field of study develops its own terminology, appropriate to its content. Language learning beyond the basics necessarily includes mastering structures and processes which cannot be explained via meaning alone, by means of translation or of English analogy; these are matters approachable only through grammatical analysis. Here are three examples from Spanish: (1) If who is generally quien, why is it not so in the Spanish version of The woman who lives next door has three dogs.? That is, why does one NOT say *La señora quien vive al lado…? Why must one rather use que here for who: La señora que vive al lado…? The answer is that Spanish disallows quien as the subject of a “restrictive relative clause” (i.e. one which identifies the noun it modifies; §7.1); , which is what we have in … que vive al lado …, since this clause singles out one señora among many possible referents. Thus, what first looks like a vocabulary problem (que vs quien) turns out to be a function of (arbitrary) structural factors, rather than a purely lexical matter. (2) Spanish has a passive construction quite parallel to the English one used in The tacos were prepared by my aunt.: Los tacos fueron preparados por mi tía. But the correspondence fails in cases like My aunt was asked to prepare the tacos. In fact *Mi tía fue pedida preparar los tacos. is impossible in Spanish. English allows both passives; so why not Spanish? The answer depends on our realizing that (a) passive involves an object changing into a subject, and that (b) the Spanish passive is applicable only to an object which is DIRECT and VERBAL . Contrast this with the English passive, which applies to ANY type of object (prepositional or verbal, direct or indirect). Although passivization has the same effect in both languages (an object becomes a subject), its applicability is more limited in Spanish, where it applies to only ONE type of object. Thus *Mi tía fue pedida… is blocked as a passive because mi tía corresponds (in the active version of the phrase, the one to which passivization applies) to an INDIRECT object: [A mi tía]IND le pidieron [preparar los tacos]DIR. Note that the DIRECT object of pedir, i.e. preparar los tacos, can indeed be passivized, as in Preparar los tacos le fue pedida a mi tía. Preparing the tacos was asked of my aunt. Both languages can passivize the direct object of prepare/preparar. But whereas English gets two passives from They asked [ my aunt ]IND [ to prepare the tacos ]DIR., one from each object, the more restricted Spanish passive operates only on the direct object preparar los tacos, blind to other object types6. As in the case of the *la mujer quien vive al lado, there are underlying structural reasons why what seems in English to be a perfectly valid word-for-word translation cannot go through in Spanish.

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(3) Accepting that Spanish has three versions of the English comparative term than: que, de, de lo que, how does one know which one to use in a given case? The following sentences will exemplify the problem: A) She spends more than she earns. B) She spends more than those who work with her. C) He has more than 5 credit cards. (He has 6.) D) He has more than 5 credit cards. (He has money in the bank to pay off his cards.) a) Ella gasta más de lo que gana. b) Ella gasta más que los que trabajan con ella. c) Él tiene más de 5 tarjetas de crédito. (Tiene 6 tarjetas.) d) Él tiene más que 5 tarjetas de crédito. (Tiene dinero en el banco para pagarlas.) The key factor is what immediately follows the than phrase in the Spanish version: in (a) it is a clause (minimally, a conjugated (finite) verb); in (b) it is a noun phrase (pronoun those + modifier who work with her) or it could be an adverb phrase (Mi hermanita está menos cansada que cuando llegó.) or an adjective phrase (Mi hermanita está menos cansada que aburrida.). In (c) it is one number compared to a different number (5 vs 6); and in (d) it is (a quantity of) one THING compared to a different THING (cards vs money). rather than to a different quantity. So the relevant generalization is: than is (a) de lo que before a clause, (b) de when comparing quantities of the same thing, que if comparing a quantified something with something else, and (c) que in all other circumstances (e.g. before a phrase). (We consider that a noun (adjective/adverb) is the minimal manifestation of a noun (adjective/adverb) phrase) Again, the “translation” of this English word than is found not by looking it up in an English-Spanish dictionary, but by appreciating uniquely grammatical factors available only via linguistic analysis. IN SUM: ► Do your best to familiarize yourself with grammar terminology, since it provides insights into otherwise-mysterious behaviors, both regular and arbitrary, which arise throughout this language. Tip  Think of a grammar as a series of statements on how a language works so as to pair meanings with sounds, on the one hand, and with well-formed structures, on the other. Tip 

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0.4 This book Americans are sometimes in awe of Europeans who seem to manage several languages easily. But of course our trans-atlantic friends have a more practical need to use a second language in their daily lives, due to closer geographical proximity and the international prominance of English today, plus a school system that starts them early with foreign tongues. American schools often delay study of world languages until middle or high school ‒ when a child’s inborn capacity for language-learning is in decline (§0.3). Furthermore, many U.S. students lack motivation for such language study, and upon finishing a core program with mediocre results, they are ready to drop it, convinced they are “not good at languages.” When the lucky minority who have made a credible beginning then move on to university, looking to deepen their understanding of the new tongue and its strange ways, they are typically offered a “composition and conversation” course which claims to hone “communicative skills” in writing and speaking. But rather than provide higher-level grammatical analysis, this approach too-often gets bogged down in rehashing last-year’s half-assimilated surface grammar, punctuated by small-group conversation ‒ in which intermediate students end up modeling to each other their favorite and frequent errors. Alternatively, they may be placed into upper-level literature courses, which immerse them in a style of language more complex than they can readily grasp. In neither this nor the preceding case are they getting the further systematic training in grammar, which would meet their felt need for a better structural grounding in the language. While most U.S. foreign-language students, teenagers already, no longer have full access to the natural language acquisition capabilities of their early childhood years, they have certainly developed general reasoning and problem-solving skills which can be applied to the post-puberty language-learning task. They could indeed profit from additional coursework targeting analysis of selected processes and constructions. Not to offer such coursework is tantamount to sending students out on an unknown terrain without compass or map. At this point in their quest for greater comprehension and control of the language, their reading and conversation needs supplementation by a better understanding of the target language’s functioning, via directed, explicit grammar analysis. For all those learners who do not have access to such a class, and for those who would teach them, we offer this book. Tip  Basic grammar terminology (see Glossary) is very accessible. Grammatical analysis proceeds by logical steps. Tip 

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0.4.1 Your kind of grammar In a previous era, the notion of “grammar rule” conjured up one of the PRESCRIPTIVE type, which attempted to impose “correct” (formal, literary) language on every situation, eradicating sub-par usage such as (for English) ain’t, double negatives, non-standard verbs (e.g. He do cook, I seen a ghost), “stranded” prepositions (e.g. Who did you give the book to?). Spanish counterparts might include “preterite s” (¿Ya comistes?), “resumptive” pronouns (Julián tiene una hija que la trata como a una princesa.), or “dequeísmo” (Ella me dijo de que sabía cocinar.), in favor of formal styles of expression: He does cook, I saw a ghost; To whom did you give the book?; tiene una hija que trata como a una princesa; Me dijo que sabía cocinar.). Such an outdated perspective overlooks the fact that most linguistic interaction between persons is quite informal, although no less authentic or effective because of that. In fact, all the world’s languages feature several stylistic levels of formality. For more than a century now, linguists have taken a less judgmental, more objective attitude towards language, preferring to describe how people actually speak, rather than telling them how they ought to. This DESCRIPTIVE orientation recognizes double negatives7 as common among many English-speakers. It likewise acknowledges ain’t as a conjugation of the verb be (negated, contracted, present-tense) or of the auxiliary have, perhaps noting that both are used mainly by persons of less formal education (and at times by educated speakers, for special effect). Likewise, Spanish preterite s, resumptive pronouns and dequeísmo are more honestly regarded as realworld data that merits description (as characterizing informal, less educated speech), rather than dismissed or condemned. ► A grammar in this sense is a series of statements describing how a language actually works:

• In standard English, third-person verb forms usually end in -s. He cooks. vs I cook | John criticizes Mary. vs They/We all criticize_ Mary, or • In international Spanish (norma culta), for formal and written communication: o A lexical indirect object is generally duplicated by a corresponding clitic pronoun: Le hicimos varias preguntas a la conferenciante. o A lexical direct object is duplicated by a clitic pronoun only if it is todo(s): Esas películas ya las vimos todas. or if it is placed in FRONT of its verb: Al senador se lo trató muy bien en el hospital. cf: Se trató muy bien al senador en el hospital. Such objective, descriptive rules serve to make explicit speakers’ subconscious knowledge of their language. The discipline which probes these matters is called LINGUISTICS, concerned not only with describing the form and content of any particular language, but also with how language is represented in the brain 8, with how it functions in human society, with the process

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by which it is acquired by children, and with how a set of abstract features shared by all human languages (“universal grammar”) provides insight into humanity’s common cognitiv e makeup. Tip  Spanish grammar and English grammar share many features (which facilitates learning), although these may be differently implemented in each (which impedes learning). Plus, each has elements which are unknown in the other. Tip 

Linguists thus conceive “grammar” more broadly than does the general public: as both “a speaker’s tacit knowledge of his language,” and as the “linguist’s representation of that linguistic competence” (as a system of basic building blocks plus the principles and processes which affect them). Linguists tweak different sorts of grammars for distinct purposes, but all deal with words (lexicon) and their inner make-up (morphology), how words combine to form phrases and sentences (syntax), plus how they sound when spoken (phonology) and what they mean (semantics). The fields of computational linguistics, machine translation and artificial intelligence use grammars written in computer code. Progress in mimicking full human linguistic competence in this way is slow, however, revealing how vexingly complex our languages really are. While a limited-range electronic grammars are in use for special purposes (medical diagnosis, routing incoming phone calls), their relevance to real-world language-learning is still remote. For our purposes, the best grammar for persons who want to learn a language is the “pedagogical” grammar (one with a teaching purpose) with a “contrastive” basis that highlights those areas in which the two languages most differ. Contrastive analysis predicts e.g. that Englishspeakers will have trouble with ser/estar, since their language combines these in a single be verb, while for the same reason Spanish-speakers learning English will need to devote extra attention to do/make, since their language largely unites these in the single verb hacer: Hice mi tarea, pero hice varios errores. I did my homework, but I made some mistakes. (*I made my homework, but I did some mistakes.)9 Likewise, the Spanish subjunctive mood is predictably challenging for English-speakers, since only vestiges of a once-larger subjunctive remain in their language. Meanwhile, Spanish speakers have trouble distinguishing the stress patterns of two types of English nomina l expressions, called “compound nouns” (e.g. Bíg Bìrd [name of the Sesame Street character]; Bróad Strèet [a street name]) and “noun phrases” (e.g. bìg bírd [a bird which is big], bròad stréet [a street that is broad]) ‒ where boldface plus ‘´’ signals strong voice stress and ‘`’ indicates weak voice stress. Such a contrastive grammar identifies likely pitfalls due to native-language interference. It focuses on areas of expression where the two languages differ dramatically, which even advanced students of Spanish find problematic. It dispels doubts, building competence and confidence. It smoothes rough spots, providing coping strategies where possible.

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Linguists who specialize in SLA (“second language acquisition”) seek effective methods of post-puberty language teaching, a task greatly complicated by the hugely diverse circumstances accompanying such activity; e.g.: ❖ Is the class located in an area where the target language is widely spoken and easily accessible (e.g. a Spanish class in Sevilla during study abroad, where the streets outside are full of Spanish)? Or in a mainly monolingual area of English-speaking North America, in which case students’ contact with the foreign language is largely limited to classroom time? ❖ Are the students healthy and motivated, primed to learn? Or are some listless, distracted or discouraged by problems in the family, the community environment or the school setting? Sadly, such matters are still not everywhere resolved. ❖ Are the students from the same native-language background (e.g. all English speakers)? If so, instruction can focus on those areas where the source and target languages diverge. Or are we teaching English as a second language to students from Malaysia, Nicaragua, Morocco, China, Brazil, Russia, Iran and Syria, where no common background can be expected? ❖ Are all students the same age? How old? Younger students may still have some of their child-like receptiveness intact. ❖ Do students like the teacher? Is she a native speaker and cultural exemplar? Are classmates supportive and enthusiastic? ❖ Does the school’s budget provide adequate modern learning resources (textbooks, workbooks, computers, language labs, low student/teacher ratio)? Or are we in a situation where one or more of these essential elements is lacking? No matter what pedagogy is chosen, its effectiveness will be compromised in a suboptimal situation (as are most). Inappropriate for the neophyte Spanish-learner, this book assumes a reader with a good command of the Spanish language, from both classroom study and real-world experience, including a good working vocabulary and control of basic mechanics like verb conjugation, gender assignment and agreement phenomena ‒ all housekeeping matters which do not require explanation, just observant practice. This book skips over such topics, less troublesome to advanced students, so as to prioritize the “danger zones”: common stumbling blocks which can best profit from additional analysis and insight. A bibliography lists works consulted in the preparation of this manuscript, plus suggestions for additional study. The present book is optimal for independent study, such as by a public school teacher of French recently reassigned to teach Spanish, but needing more preparation there. Or to supplement a literature course when the student finds herself missing the grammatical subtleties of what she is reading. It will be useful for linguists, translators, and other professionals who seek

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to enhace their Spanish competence, in fields like public service, administration, health, safety, and corrections, if comfortable with terms of classical grammar: recognizing parts of speech, distinguish subjects from subjects and objects. etc. (A fellow linguist suggested to me that it might even be relevant to students of Spanish as a first language, in studying their own grammar.) Following this introductory chapter come chapters dedicated to several of the most elusive aspects of Spanish grammar for English speakers, responding to gaps in their understanding of how the language functions; they hamper even advanced students and teachers. There is no particular rationale behind the order of presentation of topics here, just a vague notion of increasing complexity; they need not be studied in the order presented. There follow appendices on written accent use, verbal irregularity and sentence structure. Next come word studies of scores of often-confused vocabulary distinctions, plus a glossary of terms, a list of works consulted or recommended for further study, and an index. Oh, yes: don’t neglect each chapter’s footnotes, which do contain pertinent information. This book intends to increase your understanding of how Spanish works as a grammatical system. But even if you assimilate all those teachings, your newly-sophisticated comprehension will not manifest itself right away in a new fluency. Yet, as you continue to experience Spanish through constant written and spoken interactions, you will recognize many phenomena which you have studied here, understanding them for the first time. Your improved vision of how the language works will build your confidence and reinforce your new understanding until it gradually appears in your own production. What was previously mysterious can thus become familiar, manageable and comfortable. The book is addressed most specifically to in-service teachers of Spanish, who might feel themselves ill-prepared on some details that they are called on to teach, e.g. in the public schools, It is also directed to graduate students in Spanish in universities in North America, who typically double as teaching assistants charged with first- and second-year Spanish classes, but with minimal training in linguistics or in teaching undergraduates, nor in the nuances of the material they teach, nor in effective methodology. Such graduate students may be native speakers of Spanish, yet naïve as to how their language is put together. Or they may be English-speakers attracted to Spanish literature, lacking any linguistics background. They may be one of the lucky ones for whom learning Spanish came easy, which has allowed them to skip over the analytical engagement with the subject which their students need. Finally, they may be very aware of their own multiple weak spots in their Spanish expression, and doubly insecure about fielding student questions in those areas. This book aims to clarify those Spanish “danger zones” for them, thus restoring their confidence.

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0.4.2 Keys to fluency If you wish to improve your abilities in spoken Spanish, keep in mind that this book will take you only part way towards that goal. A good understanding of how the language works is essential, but insufficient for moving beyond accurate reading and writing to fluent communication. Conversational fluency requires on-demand, instantaneous access to one’s linguistic competence, a command performance in communicating and comprehending, in a real-world context. For a typical non-native speaker, fluency is a goal to be continually approached rather than fully attained, greater progress depending on frequency and depth of experience. A diligent student needs to stay involved with Spanish in all four core areas (reading, writing, listening, speaking). For maximum effect, this book must be complemented by regular prose reading (newspapers, novels…), movies, television and videos, frequent interaction (oral and written) with friends and associates ‒ all in Spanish! ‒ plus media files downloaded or streamed free from Hispanic internet sites such as (current at the time of this writing): BBC Mundo http://www.bbc.co.uk/mundo/ TeleSur: https://www.telesurtv.net/seccion/news/index.html CNN/Chile http://www.cnnchile.com/ CNN/Mexico http://mexico.cnn.com/ El hilo https://elhilo.audio/ Radio Ambulante http://www.npr.org/podcasts/510315/radio-ambulante Radio y Televisión Españolas https://www.rtve.es/ and https://www.rtve.es/play/radio/ Do not expect dramatic progress; slow and steady is a good enough goal. Like the muscles in your body, your Spanish fluency will develop with practice, atrophy with neglect. Your results will parallel the time and effort which you invest. You already have a commendable knowledge of Spanish, and now seek a better understanding of several tricky constructions and expressions. This book offers help in these matters, focusing on grammar and vocabulary, and taking account of intrusive English phenomena. But it needs to be complemented by as much real-world involvement as possible on your part in the Spanish language and with Spanish-speakers.

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Footnotes

1

Words which are pronounced the same, but have different meanings, or different spellings, or both.

Note that this is different from the layperson’s casual use of this term to refer to something “vague” or “nebulous”: the two interpretations here are quite clear and specific. 2

3

Sameness of meaning is defined here as “each being true if the other is;” it excludes nuances of style or emphasis.

4

The square brackets indicate phonetic transcription; the dot shows a syllable boundary. /

5

These are the Mexican-Americans who can say that they did not cross the border, but that, historically, the border crossed them. The 19th century “manifest destiny” fervor of westward U.S. expansion produced the one-sided “Mexican War” and its humiliating Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo which in 1848 forced our southern neighbor to cede 55% of its national territory (actually 67% if the Mexican state of Texas is included). Perhaps these facts should be included in present-day discussion of “illegal” immigrants to the U.S., since they suggest that such immigration represents partial historical compensation (or “right of return”) for past U.S. actions of questionable legitimacy. While passives of this sort (ser passives) are more restricted, and therefore less common, in Spanish than in English, we will see later (§4.4.2.5) that Spanish has other resources (including a second kind of passive) with which it can match the missing ser passives. 6

Multiple negatives were common and acceptable in earlier periods of English, e.g. Chaucer and Shakespeare (Nor never none Shall mistress of it be, save I alone. ‒Twelfth Night). 7

8

For Professor Chomsky, linguistics is a branch of cognitive psychology, a promising “window on the mind.”

An asterisk preceding a sentence indicates that it is “ungrammatical” (ill-formed accordingly to the descriptive principles which underly native-speaker competence). 9

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1 Verb forms and functions The verb is the essential nexus of the Spanish sentence. In fact, a single verb can comprise a complete sentence: Llegamos. Notably, the Spanish verb is more highly inflected (shows more variations in form) than its English counterpart. Regular English verbs have just four (talk, talks, talked, talking) or five (ring, rings, rang, rung, ringing) distinct shapes. Even the most irregular English verb shows only eight (be, been, being, am, is, are, was, were). But the typical regular Spanish verb has at least 45 separate forms. One doesn’t get far in Spanish without paying attention to verbs and their variations! Verbs are conjugated in three classes for tense (§1.1), mood (§6) and aspect (§1.3), and must agree with their subject in person and number. Thus e.g. habláramos is first conjugation, subjunctive mood, past tense, imperfect aspect, first person, plural number. In some cases, and to some extent, it is possible to distinguish and isolate these separate components (“morphemes”) of the verb, as in the case of habl-á-ra-mos: habl-a-ra-mos

verbal root “theme” vowel (a, e or i; identifies the conjugational class) tense (past), mood (subjunctive) and aspect (imperfect) person (first) & number (plural)

But in most cases these tacit verbal components have been historically distorted so as to no longer be separately distinguishable.1 Moving beyond the mechanics of conjugation itself, this book examines factors which challenge the advanced student, such as how to select, from this plethora of available verb forms, the right one in each circumstance.

1.1 Compound verbs A compound verb is a phrasal verb: more than one word. Preceding the main verb may be an auxiliary verb (hemos llegado), which may require a related preposition (acabamos de llegar). There may be a pair of auxiliary verbs (pueden haber llegado they may have arrived) or (rarely) even three (deben haber podido llegar they should have been able to arrive).2 © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 P. W. Klein, Spanish Grammar Companion for Teachers, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-84111-9_1

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1.1.1 Auxiliaries, endings and links In a compound verb, the auxiliary is the one conjugated to agree with its subject, while the main verb is assigned an ending by its auxiliary.3 The most familiar compound verbs (plus the endings they assign) are the “progressive” (estamos llegando) and the “perfective” (hemos llegado). In the case of multiple auxiliaries, each one governs the ending on the verb following it: Los resultados deben estar siendo revelados de a poco. The results should be making themselves

known (should be being revealed) little by little. Though often misleadingly labeled as “tenses,” such ‘progressive’ and ‘perfective’ compounds are better described as phrasal verbs which highlight, respectively, an action’s PERSISTENCE (“ongoingness”; an ‘aspectual’ variation) or its ANTERIORITY (a ‘temporal’ variation); each in turn shows tense (habríamos comido; estuviera viviendo). Rather than ‘being’ a tense, these compound verbs are themselves manifested in all the available tenses A third type of auxiliary verb is the ‘modal’ , such as poder and deber, which assigns infinitive status to the accompanying main verb, while the progressives present it as a gerund, and the perfectives dress it as a participle.4 INFINITIVE

GERUND

(modal) deben llegar they should arrive pueden llegar they can/may arrive quieren llegar they want to arrive

(progressive)5 están llegando they are arriving vienen llegando they have been arriving van llegando they’re gradually arriving …

PARTICIPLE

(perfective) han llegado they have arrived

In compound verbs where the second term is an infinitive, a preposition or que may be required to link the auxiliary with the main verb: van a llegar they’re going to arrive acaban de llegar they’ve just arrived` amenazan con llegar they’re threatening to arrive están por llegar they’re about to arrive piensan en llegar they’re thinking of arriving tienen que llegar6 they have to arrive

1.2 Tenses: real and apparent The use of accurate terminology can enhance one’s understanding of verbal tenses in Spanish. To say that e.g. vivía is a ‘past tense verb’ is only partially correct, since that label neglects

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other relevant information. After all, viviera and vivió are also past tense verbs. How then do these three pasts differ? Furthermore, in Le dije que actualmente vivía en el centro. I told her that I was currently living downtown. past-tense vivía refers to a present-time situation!

1.2.1 Time vs. tense vs. mood Vivía differs from viviera in that, while both are past tense, the latter belongs to the subjunctive mood and the former to the indicative. MOOD is a technical term which serves to label contrasting conjugational sets: each verb has a set of indicative forms and another of subjunctive forms7, two parallel conjugational universes, with indicative containing considerably more forms than subjunctive. Chapter 6 looks at circumstances which call for a subjunctive verb in Spanish instead of a (default) indicative.

1.2.2 Manipulation of tense Time and tense are separate concepts. The former refers to real-world chronology, and is uniform in each time zone; e.g. everyone in the western North American time zone called “Pacific” experiences “noon” at the same instant. Tense, on the other hand, is an artificial construct, a property of a linguistic system, a product of the human mind, independent of objective reality, and not constrained by it. It may overlap with chronological time, but it can also diverge from it at will. Tense is fungible.

1.2.2.1 Vividness In both English and Spanish, it is common for one to begin relating some previous event in the past tense, and then switch to the present-tense, so as to make the narration more immediate and compelling. E.g.: Fue el martes pasado y cuando llegué a la estación de metro, veo que hay muchos policías y a otro cliente le pregunto lo que pasa y este me dice que… Spanish exploits this variable link between LINGUISTIC TENSE and REAL-WORLD TIME in several ways.

1.2.2.2 Conjecture English has a series of everyday expressions which serve to speculate or conjecture: (a) Do you think/suppose Jamie can figure this out? (b) The children probably prefer to watch cartoons. (c) Don Fabio is not so young, he must be sixty at least. (d) I guess the fire started in the shed at the back of the house. (e) I wonder what time she got home after the party last night. What English expresses here by adding a conjecture word or phrase (bolded), Spanish accomplishes through manipulation of tenses. Thus, a conjecture which refers to something in present time (‘now’) is put into the future tense; while speculation concerning the past (‘back then’) is outfitted in the conditional tense.

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(a) ¿Sabrá Jaime resolver este misterio? (right now) (b) Los niños preferirán mirar los dibujos animados. (at this time) (c) Don Fabio ya no es tan joven, tendrá al menos sesenta años. (nowadays) (d) El incendio empezaría en el galpón detrás de la casa. (some time earlier) (e) ¿A qué hora llegaría ella a su casa después de la fiesta? (at some time earlier)

1.2.2.3 Options and formulas8 To refer to a future situation or event, depending on its proximity in time (and thus its assumed likelihood), Spanish speakers have further options. They might replace future tense, with the ir a periphrasis9, or with the simple present tense. In spite of the event being set in “future time,” the verb in the first two instances following is conjugated in the “present tense.” Hoy mismo voy a San Francisco. event is imminent; fulfillment is near-term El próximo mes voy a ir a San Francisco. event is proximate; medium-term plan Para la Navidad iré a San Francisco. event is more remote; longer-term projection Examples of further manipulation of verbal tense (distortion of the time/tense distinction): SEQUENCE OF TENSES

(rightward propagation of past tense)

(a) El mundo es redondo. Fernando de Magallanes ya lo demostró. ➔ (A) Fernando de Magallanes demostró que el mundo era redondo.

(b) La crisis climática es una realidad. Esta transnacional petrolera negó eso. ➔ (B) Esta transnacional petrolera negó que la crisis climática fuera una realidad. REPORTED SPEECH

(cf. §8)

(c) Marisol: «Me gustan las novelas policíacas.» ➔ (C) Dijo Marisol que le gustaban las novelas policíacas

(d) Eduardo: «Ya me voy. Volveré para mediodía.» ➔ (D) Dijo Eduardo que ya se iba y que volvería para mediodía. 10

(e) Sofía: «Prometo llamarte en cuanto llegue a casa.» ➔ (E) Sofía prometió llamarme en cuanto llegara a casa. CONDITIONAL SENTENCES (if-then clauses — cf. §5.6.3)

(f) Si me dan el aumento de sueldo, puedo/podré comprar la bicicleta. [present indicative]

[present/future indicative]

(g) Si me dieran el aumento de sueldo, podría comprarme la bicicleta. [past subjunctive] [conditional indicative] In such cases the verb’s tense is set mechanically, controlled by formula, rather than clock time. The extent of tense manipulation of time in Spanish is especially dramatic in (E), where past tense llegara actually refers to the future, i.e. a time subsequent either to the time of the speech act corresponding to prometió, or to the later time at which the entire observation was made. More

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concretely: Samuel reports at noon that Sofía prometió (referring to an earlier speech event, at 10 AM) llamarme en cuanto llegara (referring to an event expected for mid-afternoon).

1.3 Two perspectives on the past Instead of seeing “two Spanish past tenses”, it is linguistically more accurate to distinguish contrasting perspectives within a single past; i.e. to recognize two ASPECTS of one past tense . The “imperfect” is time-wise continuous, conveying mere ongoingness (with no thought or mention of when an action or state began or ended). It is thus parallel to the constantly evolving present tense ‒ but shifted onto past time. The “preterite,” on the other hand, breaks the continuum, segmenting a chunk of time corresponding to some event which ocurred, or a situation which existed11. CONTINUATION thus contrasts with COMPLETION, an ASPECTUAL distinction which Spanish exploits widely, as shown e.g. by:

Preterite is frequently associated with ACTION, since many actions are over and done quickly. En junio del 2012 chocó contra un poste. In June of 2012 she crashed into a post. Aprobé el curso y me dieron el diploma. I passed the course and I got the diploma.

vs ↕  Imperfect often correlates with STATIC STATE, since many situations are stable and ongoing. Vivíamos en Lima, como prefería mi esposa. We were living in Lima, as my wife preferred. Todos sabíamos que la jefa era vengativa. We all knew that the bosslady was vengeful.

The preterite indicates the BOUNDARIES (START or FINISH) of a completed action, or the initiation of a new situation or mental state. Por fin terminé mi tarea de lingüística. I finally finished my linguistics homework. Esta mañana me levanté tempranito. This morning I got up quite early. Ella estuvo triste cuando oyó la noticia. She became sad when she heard the news.

vs ↕  The imperfect does not know when the action/situation started or stopped. It only sees what was ongoing at a particular moment during that EXTENSION OF TIME. Terminaba mi tarea y estaba cansada. I was finishing my homework and I was tired. Cantábamos mientras nos preparábamos. We used to sing while we were getting ready12. Ella almorzaba a la vez que leía el diario. She would read the paper as she was eating lunch.

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A series of preterites ADVANCES THE NARRATION, detailing one event after another in a string of actions which occurred and are now over and done with. Hoy llovió todo el día. Fue triste; no salimos. It rained all day. It was sad; we didn’t go out. En el siglo XVI se exploró el Nuevo Mundo.The New World got explored in the 16th century13. Oímos un ruido y Beatriz fue a investigar. We heard a noise and Beatriz went to check on it.

↕  The imperfect RAISES THE CURTAIN on a stage where actions can now take place;it INTRODUCES A NEW TOPIC of which we now expect to get more details. Llovía y hacía frío;nos aburríamos en casa. It was rainy and cold; we stayed home bored. Mientras se exploraba el Nuevo Mundo, se es- As the New World was being explored, contablecían contactos con los pueblos indígenas. tacts were getting set up with the natives.

The preterite progressive construction STRETCHES an otherwise brief event, prolonging it for emphasis and intensity. (Trabajé en la mina todo el día.) ➔ Estuve trabajando en la mina todo el día. I spent the whole day working in the mine. (Se demoraron 3 días en tramitar mi solicitud.) ➔ Se estuvo tramitando mi petición durante 3 días. They took 3 days to process my request.

vs ↕  The imperfect progressive construction serves to INTERRUPT and briefly FREEZE an activity which would normally be routine and prompt. (Metía la moneda.) ➔ Estaba metiendo He was putting a coin la moneda en la ranura cuando le robaron. in the slot when he was mugged. Se lastimó cuando (cambiaba) She hurt herself when ➔ estaba cambiándole las pilas. she was changing the batteries.

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The preterite indicates FINISH, COMPLETION: something HAPPENED at a given moment. Mi hermana sí pudo terminar la carrera. My sister did manage to finish the race. Quise abrir el frasco pero no tenía fuerzas. I tried to open the jar, but I lacked strength. Tuviste que ir a la corte por mí. ¡Gracias! You had to go to court for me; thanks! Aquellos turistas no hablaron holandés. Those tourists uttered not a word of Dutch.

vs ↕  The imperfect indicates mere POTENTIAL and CAPABILITY; but no concrete realization. Cuando era joven podía correr más distancia. When I was young I could run farther. Quería abrir el frasco para probar la salsa. I wished to open the jar to taste the sauce. Hernán tenía que ir a la corte hoy. Herman was needing to go to court today. Aquellos turistas no hablaban holandés. Those tourists were not Dutch-speakers.

PRETERITE limited time took place during that time frame completion manifestation occurrence in real time start finish foreground action

IN SUM:

⇔

IMPERFECT indefinite duration was going on at that moment continuation prolongation potenciality timelessness static or durative situation background context

1.4 Non-verbal functions When is a verb not a verb? This situation arises in three cases involving “non-finite” verb forms. A “finite” (conjugated) verb changes its form (its ending) to agree in number and person with its subject (e.g. vives is 2nd person singular, so to agree with subject tú). A conjugated verb thus typically shows tense and mood (e.g. present indicative for vives). But there are three verb forms (“non-finites”) which do not share these characteristics, which do not count as “conjugated” because they lack an overt lexical subject with which to agree, and therefore have no tense/mood affiliation. In such a situation, they exchange their normal verbal nature for an alternate reality, each manifesting a non-verbal “alter ego.”

1.4.1 Nominal: infinitive One is the INFINITIVE, which takes on the role of a verbal NOUN whenever a nominal function (i.e. subject or object) must be filled by a verb. (In English, on the other hand, it is the verb’s –ing ‘gerund’ form which is often found in this noun role.)

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Correr es buen ejercicio. Running is good exercise. (correr functions as subject of es) Sofía prefiere bailar. Sophie prefers dancing. (bailar functions as direct object of prefiere) Saldremos después de comer. We will leave after eating. (comer functions as object of preposition de)

1.4.2 Adverbial: gerund The Spanish GERUND functions verbally (as “present participle”) when it occurs after the estar auxiliary (or one of its stand-ins, §3.1.2.5) in the “progressive” verb phrase (e.g. vamos progresando). But with a non-verbal value, it has a separate life as an ADVERB (modifying a verb) to tell when, why or how an action happens, as in: Comprendiendo su difícil situación, le presté ayuda. Since I understood her difficult position, … Viviendo en Barcelona, aproveché a estudiar catalán. While living in Barcelona, … Trabajando horas extras, pude mantener a mi familia. By working overtime, … Note that the English translation often includes an extra word (while, by, since…). Especially in the case of an adverb of ‘manner’ (one which describes the WAY in which an action takes place, as in our third example above), English inserts by, because the English gerund (-ing) here functions not adverbially but as a noun. The preceding preposition then combines with it to form a prepositional phrase, which in turn adverbially conveys the desired manner content.14 English has another use for its -ing gerund which is not well-matched in Spanish: English uses it as an adjective, as in: banking crisis crisis bancaria shining path sendero luminoso threatening gesture gesto amenazante work(ing) days días laborables Spanish does not use –ndo gerunds as adjectives15, but it often finds a suitable match in its lexicon.16 Alternatively, it can create an appropriate relative clause (§7.1), which is a modifier in clausal form, as in crying baby bebé que llora approaching storm tormenta que se acerca offending text palabras que ofenden barking dog perro que ladra Compare these two versions of Smoking is bad for your health, one phrased with an infinitive, the other with a gerund:

Fumar te perjudica la salud. to smoke harms to you the health subject: fumar indirect object: te

direct object: salud

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Fumando ø te perjudicas la salud. by smoking you harm to yourself the health adverbial gerund

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reflex. obj: te subject: (tú) direct object: salud

Verb forms and functions

1.4.3 Adjectival: participle The verbal PARTICIPLE is the form taken by a main verb when it appears following the perfective auxiliary (helping verb) haber, as in ¿Han almorzado Uds.? Non-verbally, it functions as an ADJECTIVE to modify a noun17, as in el premiado cineasta Almodóvar los caminos más frecuentados otra profesora distraída While a dozen or so participles are consistently irregular (dicho, roto, escrito…), several others become regularized when they function verbally (after haber), but go irregular when they function as adjective. This duality gives rise to contrasts between the verbal participle (invariable in -o) and adjectival participle, which agrees with whatever noun it modifies:

El cura ha bendecido el agua. Es agua bendita. El dinero ha corrumpido a los ministros. Están todos corruptos. When a particple functions adjectivally, like other adjectives it shows agreement with the noun it modifies: Margarita tiene terminada toda su tarea. Mis poemas han sido traducidas al inglés. But when it comes immediately after auxiliary haber, it retains its role as main verb and thus shows no agreement. Margarita ha terminado toda su tarea. Han traducido mis poemas al inglés.

1.5 Government (régimen) Language students learn that transitive verbs take a direct object (preparar, comer…), while others do not (salir, abusar…). For some Spanish transitives, the object may optionally be dropped: Recién comí (una ensalada); for others it is required: Recién preparé UNA ENSALADA.. Further fine tuning then distinguishes verbs which take a verbal object (direct, indirect or both; reflexive or not) from others that take a prepositional object (Abusaban de las drogas.), etc. An expansion of this familiar notion of TRANSITIVITY leads us to the KEY topic of verbal GOVERNMENT (régimen) ‒ a common feature of languages of the world ‒ concerned with what

types of accoutrements must (obligatorily) or may (optionally) appear with the verb in order to fulfill the sentence. Each verb is indexed not only to take the right kind of OBJECT, but also the right type of SUBJECT: ladrar requires a canine subject, conducir and manejar demand a human subject but exclude a human object. (In English one can drive one’s CHILDREN to school, but in Spanish one may drive only a VEHICLE). Most verbs require a subject, but some, like weather verbs *El día hace calor. and impersonals (§2.6) *El alumno hay que estudiar. must be marked to exclude one.

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Some verbs require a personal INDIRECT object: ¡Quítale los fosforos al niño! and are incomplete without it (*Quita los fósforos.). Others need a complement in addition to their object‒ either nominal: Eligieron presidenta a Cristina. or adjectival: Consideramos incompetente al director. Implicar needs both a subject and a direct object (*María implicaba ø.), while poner demands subject, direct object and «locative» (adverb or prepositional phrase of place or location) (*Yo la puse ø). And so on.

Each verb’s profile of required adjuncts comes into play as it is invoked for use in a sentence. Since native speakers do not produce ill-formed sentences like *Preparé. or *Insisto una ensalada. or *Conduje a mi hija al colegio.18, we know that the properties which block them are part of speakers’ essential linguistic competence. However, when second-language learners memorize a new verb, they too often assume that it has the same government properties as its English counterpart. Thus they must eventually revise its régimen so as to avoid aberrations like *Salió la casa tras *salirte un recado. Salió tempranito. → Salió de la casa tras dejarte un recado. Salió tempranito. *Depende en (→Depende de) los niños, and *Soñé acerca de (→Soñé con) ganarme la lotería. (See also faltar~hacer falta, olvidar~olvidársele, and parecer~parecerse a, pensar de~en~INF in Appendix D for other examples of contrasting government.)

1.5.1 Recycling and recombination 19

Spanish takes advantage of the many options made available by verbal government in order to expand its stock of words, reconfiguring the same base form with recombined objects, subjects, complements, prepositions, etc. Notably, each resulting new creation is infused with its own régimen (properties of government). In spite of the fact that the pairing of a given word with a given meaning in a given language is ultimately arbitrary (there is no “explanation” for the fact that dog in French sounds like chien, in Spanish like perro, in German like Hund, in Mandarin Chinese like gŏu, in Swahili like mbwa, etc.), patterns may sometimes be discerned. Consider Spanish versions of the verb marry, as in Elena married Fabio last Sunday. and Father Mario married them in the small chapel. casarse con: a reflexive verb, used with preposition con, whose object is one of the marriage partners, and whose subject is the other partner. Elena se casó con Fabio el domingo pasado. o Fabio se casó con Elena el domingo pasado. casar: a transitive verb with a direct object (the marriage partners), whose subject is a religious or civil authority empowered to conduct weddings: El Padre Mario los casó en la capilla menor. El capitán los casó al atardecer. In these marry examples (and many more), English uses the same verb (marry) in the same form (past tense), while Spanish uses a single base verb, but with distinct governed adjuncts. There are myriad other cases where Spanish “recycles” a single base verb with new régimen features, while English opts for using separate, unrelated words with no lexical commonality: Spanish Grammar Companion for Teachers

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despedir: transitive verb, takes direct object; both subject and object are human; subject has workplace authority over object; English translation fire: El jefe amenaza con despedirme.

despedirse de: reflexive verb20 with prepositional object de; both subject and object are human; English translation say good-bye to; take one’s leave of: Mi hermana lloró al despedirse de mí.21 We see further variations on this theme in the many verbal expressions formed on the basis of acabar, including:

acabarse be over, done, finished reflexive; no object Cuando se acabó la subvención también se acabó el gratuito almuerzo escolar. El siglo XX ya se acabó; ya llegamos al XXI. acabar finish, complete allows direct object Mi cuñado Óscar no pudo acabar la carrera porque le dio un calambre en el pie. Saldrán para la fiesta cuando acaben su tarea. acabar con finish with, put an end to takes prepositional (con) object Ya acabamos con la esclavitud, pero ¿cuándo acabaremos con tanta injusticia? Acabaron con ese subsidio. acabar de have just Ved no object; infinitive follows Acababan de llegar y estaban cansadísimos. Acaba de llover y como consecuencia, todo el patio está mojado. acabar+-ndo end up (doing) no object; gerund or infinitive follows Los demás acabarán odiándonos. Tras tanta repetición acabas creyéndolo. o acabar por Los demás acabarán por odiarnos. Acabarán por odiarnos y por rechazarnos. acabársele one’s __ run out reflexive; indirect object: person affected; subject: scarce item Llegaré a tiempo si no se me acaba el combustible. …if my fuel doesn’t run out. Se me acabó la paciencia y le contesté de mal modo. …my patience gave out…

1.5.2 Verbal classification These properties of government correspond to the required sentence trappings that the language-learner needs to know about each verb in order to deploy it appropriately. Language researchers using modern computer coding techniques should be able to create databases and reference materials classing verbs by their régimen chacteristics, such as:

“takes con prepositional object”

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soñar, conformarse (Soñe con un mundo mejor.), … but not imaginar; tolerar, …

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“requires animate subject”

caminar, sentir (La tortuga camina despacito.), … but not caer, mover, …

and their combinations, like “takes both direct and indirect object”

dar (No quiso darme su nombre.), agradecer, but not agradar, parecer, … “requires subject be empowered to impose legal judicial sentence” condenar, absolver (La juez lo condenó a cadena perpetua.), but not acusar, detener, … Tip  The verb is the “command center” of the sentence, tasked with mobilizing other required components. Learning a verb involves internalizing more than just its its conjugational properties. It includes other sentence elements which it governs. Tip 

Until some user-friendly version of such a “dictionary of government” becomes available, the rest of us can try to organize things by noticing where Spanish and English regímenes differ, keeping tabs on the distinct requirements for certain sentential elements which various verbs impose, in some manner such as: ❑

ZERO subject and objects: p.ej: weather verbs—

Llovía mucho. | Ayer escarchó. | ¿Vuelve a nevar? ❑

ONE requirement (subject): intransitives—

No conviene [aplazar la decisión]SUJ [nosotros]SUJ Jugábamos (a los naipes todo el día) [Mis padres]SUJ siempre discuten (sobre política). ❑

TWO requirements (subject + something else)

• subject + direct object – [Ellos]SUJ prefieren [los autos europeos]DO • subject + indirect object – [Les]IO gustan [los autos europeos]SUJ • subject + adjectival attribute – [Varios niños]SUJ parecían [enfermos]ATRAj • subject + nominal attribute – [Mis padres]SUJ eran [maestros]ATRNm y [mis hermanas]SUJ también [lo]ATRNm son. ❑

THREE requirements (subject + 2 others)

• subject + direct object + locative– [ellos]SUJ [Lo]DO guardan [en ese cajón]LOC • subject + direct object + indirect object – [yo]SUJ [Le]IO quité [las llaves]DO [al niño]IO. • subject + direct object + complement – [nosotros]SUJ Consideramos [inteligente]COMP a [Lisa]DO. • subject + prepositional object + compensatory se – [yo]SUJ [Me]CMPse casé [con argentino]OPcon..

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Such arbitrary details of government are at the root of many late language-learning problems, since similar verbs may have notoriously distinct government characteristics in the two languages. Thus, the typical dictionary tells us that the translation for e.g. thank is agradecer, but it may not point out differences in régimen; similarly in other cases:

thank: deploys subject + direct object + prepositional (for) object [She]SUJ thanked [them]DO for [the present]OPfor. agradecer: deploys subject + direct object + indirect object [ella]SUJ [Les]IO agradeció [el regalo]DO. fall in love: deploys subject + prepositional (with) object [Luis]SUJ fell in love with [Sarita]OPwith. enamorar: reflexive; deploys subject + prepositional (de) object [Luis]SUJ se enamoró de [Sarita]OPde. take away: deploys subject + dir. object + prep. (from) object [I]SUJ took [the knife]DO away from [the child]OPfrom. quitar: deploys subject + + direct object + indirect object [yo]SUJ [Le]IO quité [el cuchillo]DO a[l niño]IO None of these details escapes the child in her first few years as she proceeds inexorably to acquire her native language. It is harder for the post-puberty language-learner, but the goal is essentially is the same. An analytic focus on government (verbal subclassification) highlights the scope and nature of the problem, the relevant and essential data.

1.5.3 Secondary considerations Some additional factors which impinge on this régimen framework. These involve variations on the basic theme, which determine how the verb is to be used in a given sentence. ❑

❑

Some “required” elements can be omited: even though the verb is coded for needing an object or a subject, this item can be dropped at times (e.g. if it is understood from context and its mention would add no new information). (nosotros) Comimos (los tallarines) a las seis. Todas las semanas Rosa les escribe (una carta) a sus padres. (tú) Ayer practicaste (el piano) por 2 horas (yo) No tengo licencia para manejar (camiones de ese tipo). Optional elements freely appear in many combinations. Esas botas [de plástico] no [me] duran ni un mes.

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Les gusta caminar [solos] [por la playa] [a mis tíos]. (Uds.) Comen tostadas [diariamente] [en el desayuno]. The se clitics which régimen marks as objects (§4.4.1) are the reflexive, reciprocal and repla-cive types. The others (passive, impersonal, compensatory, derivational, inherent) are mere pseudo-objects which serve to signal diverse grammatical functions.

❑

Todos se despertaron a las seis. (compensatory) Quién no se queja del tiempo? (inherent) ❑

● ● ● ❑

❑

❑

❑

Some verbs have «recycled» cousins in more than one régimen category, with distinct accou-trements used for each. dormir intransitive (duración): Dormí (8 horas) (anoche). requires subject dormir intransitive (acción): Me dormí (al instante). needs subject & compensatory SE dormir transitive: La madre durmió al niño. – takes subject; requires direct object The verbal subject (even if specific and identified) is often omitted: ● This is always the case with non-human subject pronouns: ¡Limpien esa mesa! *ella Está sucia. ● A human subject pronoun is also omitted (ø) if redundant, i.e. not contextually new, nor contrasted with another subject, nor emphatic: ¿Pilar? Sí. ø Llegó tarde y ø pidió disculpas. Avisa a papá: ø debe llevar corbata para entrar ahí.

Verbs paired with impersonal se have a non-explicit subject (human and anonymous): A los mayores se les exige lealtad, mientras que a los menores se les concede lapsos. Each verb listed as governing a preposition must also specify which preposition that is: El futuro no siempre depende [de nuestra voluntad]. Ella soñó [con bailar el tango conmigo]. Haber has the unusual feature of requiring a direct object; while excluding any subject. — ¿Hay uvas hoy en el mercado? — Sí, ayer no las hubo, pero hoy las hay. ¿Hay preguntas? Si no las hay, pasemos a otro tema. ¿Hay problema con el impresor? Si lo hay, ya llamé al técnico.

1.6 Impersonal verbal expressions There are three types of verbal expressions often termed “impersonal.” They are perhaps better called “unipersonal” (i.e. one person), or “third-personal,” due to the fact that they are limited to conjugation in the THIRD-PERSON SINGULAR form only.

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A further defining feature is that their subject is never a simple noun, but is either (a) a CLAUSE or an INFINITIVE, or else (b) ABSENT completely (empty, missing) or else (c) ABSTRACT (tacitly present but with no outward sign),. The (a) cases (infinitival or clausal subject ‒typically found in final position) are evident in verbal expressions like: ● infinitive: Conviene [llegar a tiempo]SU. Hacía falta [incluir a las mujeres]SU Es urgente [ayudarlos]SU ●

clause: Es pena [que no sepas chino]SU Era cierto [que no tenían carnet]SU Está bien [que participen]SU

In the absent-subject (b) category we find weather verbs and idioms which disallow a subject: ●

weather verb:

Hace frío.

Lloverá.

Nevó anoche.

Relampagueaba.

●

subjectless idiom: Hay que salir ya. Se trata de revolución. Buscábamos agua pero no la había.

The abstract type (c) (tacit subject understood as anonymously human), explored more in chapter 10, is exemplified by: ●

impersonal se: Se hizo lo que se pudo. No se respeta a los ancianos. Se come cuando se tiene hambre.

1.7 Summary The verb is central to the Spanish sentence, and represents the crux of many difficulties which second-language learners face with Spanish, such as managing the two aspects of its past tense. Besides sorting out conjugational details (including frequent irregularities), learners must handle situations where verbs take on non-verbal functions. Successful use of Spanish depends on appreciating the nuances of its verbal government (régimen), which is often arbitrary and at odds with the government properties of apparent English “counterparts.” Verb tense is central to the Spanish sentence 22, malleable to whatever roles best suit the grammatical system, including (for Spanish) phenomena like conjecture and sequence of tenses. Artificially manipulatable for specific effect, tenses need not correspond to chronological (clock) time.23 Tense is often confused with mood (§6), a parallel conjugational system, and with aspect (a temporal dimension of continuity vs. completion).

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Footnotes We see in §4.3.1) how a “clitic” (weak, dependent) pronoun binds to the verb, to form a structure consisting of verb stem+endings, plus one, two, or three clitics (respectively, Lo sé., Te la piden., Se me lo dieron. They gave it to him for me.), following the scheme: Cl0-3 [root + TV]stem +TMA +PN, where Cl0-3 stands for zero to three clitics, TV is “theme vowel,” TMA is “tense/mood/aspect” and PN is “person/number.” 1

2 There are several types of auxiliary verbs, and many VV combinations where the first verb is not an auxiliary (e.g. fingen estudiar, mandan salir), but we overlook such details in the general discussion which follows.

In the case of multiple auxiliaries, each verb in the phrase governs the ending on the verb following it: Deben estar siendo revelados de a poco. We simplify subsequent discussion by considering only the one-auxiliary verb scenario. 3

4

We use “participle” for –do cases where other grammarians might use “past participle,” and we use “gerund” for –ndo cases where others might use “present participle”. 5

We use “participle” for –do cases where other grammarians might use “past participle,” and we use “gerund” for –ndo cases where others might use “present participle”. The same construction (a preposition mediating between two verbs) occurs in English (she counted on winning, prepare for landing), though there is no relation between the two languages as to whether there is an intervening preposition (nor which one) in any given case. 6

Many languages show mood distinctions, to different degrees and in different ways. Modern German automatically uses subjunctive to report indirect discourse (Sie sagt daβ er krank sei. She says that he is sick., modern English shows remnants of a more extensive historical subjunctive; modern French shows similar though fewer subjunctives than Spanish. The world’s languages exhibit a variety of moods for different purposes; even Spanish ventures beyond indicative and subjunctive with hints of an additional IMPERATIVE mood (§8.2.2). 7

For a construction where tenses systematically differ between English and Spanish, see III. Vocabulary Distinctions: hace~desde hace. 8

9

This term refers to replacement of a verbal tense ending (here ‘future’) with an preceding auxiliary verb (here ir a).

Just as in the first clause of this sentence, imperfect iba is the past of present voy, in the second clause conditional volvería shows up as the past tense of the future volveré, another indication of the malleability of linguistic tenses and their essential independence from real time. 10

11 In much of Spain, the preterite is replaced by the present perfect for very recent events: Me he levantado temprano esta mañana. (instead of me levanté), but: Los dinosaurios desaparecieron hace millones de años.

Would may correspond to the Spanish conditional tense, except when it translates as used to, which matches the Spanish imperfect: We would get together in the bars and try their snacks and drinks. Nos juntábamos en los bares y probábamos sus tapas y sus bebidas. 12

This example illustrates that the preterite is not limited to quick or instantaneous actions, but simply to those which begin and/or end within a limited period of time (however short or long). 13

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English-speaking students sometimes fail to recognize the adverbial nature of the Spanish gerund, and err in expressing such a phrase word for word, as por trabajar (which changes the meaning to because of working),. 14

Two common exceptions (admitted by the Real Academia Española) are (casa) ardiendo and (agua) hirviendo. Two common exceptions (admitted by the Real Academia Española) are (casa) ardiendo and (agua) hirviendo. 15

16

Amenazante derives historically(from suffixation of the Latin -nte present participle ending on the verb stem.

The Spanish PAST participle matches the English PRESENT particple in referring to physical posture/position, as in Estaba recostada boca abajo. She was lying face down. and Ya estábamos sentados a la mesa. We were already sitting at the table. 17

18

Spanish would rather say Llevé a mi hija al colegio (esta mañana) (en el coche).

19

Not only Spanish, of course; government is a common feature of languages in general.

This use of the “reflexive" does not imply ‘subject acting on object’ (e.g. nobody is marrying her/himself). This is rather an example of “dummy se” (§4.4.2) being appropriated to mark a new régimen. 20

The requirements imposed by verbal régimen do not take into account the special cases of metaphor or poetry, in sentences like Con semejante escándalo, el candidato se despidió de toda posibilidad de ganar las elecciones. (nonperson object) or Esta nueva receta casa los tallarines con las chauchas (where the objects are not human lovers and the subject lacks the power to marry persons). 21

E.g. absent in Mandarin Chinese, where verbs show no conjugation, and replaced entirely by aspectual distinctions in Russian. 22

23 In fact, there are certain constructions which never appear in the preterite, such as the temporal expressions with (desde) hace (Vivíamos en la misma casa desde hacía 20 años, hasta que nos echaron.), auxiliary verbs of the “aspectual” type (e.g. acabar de, haber de, ir a, llevar, soler…; Acabé ➔ Acababa de graduarme. I had just graduated.), and (except in some purely literary usage) the auxiliary haber of the perfective construction (Cuando hube ➔ había terminado mi tarea, salí a pasear.)

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2 Nouns and their modifiers

2.0 Gender and agreement The traditional understanding of noun is “the name of a person, place, thing or quality.” A form-based definition for noun in Spanish could well be “that part of speech with inherent gender.” Indeed, every noun is inherently either masculine or feminine, while other words which show gender (e.g. modifiers, pronouns) acquire it only through their agreement with a noun. Thus in caso sencillo, caso is listed in the lexicon (speaker’s mental dictionary) as being masculine, but sencillo carries no INHERENT gender assignment, becoming masculine via agreement with caso. The same is true for casa in casa sencilla: casa is lexically classed as feminine, but sencilla acquires feminine gender only thanks to agreement with the noun it modifies. Gender and agreement are pervasive features of Spanish, moreso than of English, and constitute an area where English-speakers must be alert to distinctions which their own language does not oblige them to notice. Consider this bilingual example: Mi atenta tía compró entradas para el concierto, pero mi querido tío la criticó porque salieron caras. My thoughtful aunt bought tickets for the concert, but my dear uncle criticized her because they were costly. In the Spanish case we see gender/number agreement not only between pronoun la and antecedent tía, but in six instances between modifier and noun (atenta tía, mi tía, mi tío, el concierto, querido tío, caras entradas), and three more between subject and verb (person/number: tía compró, tío criticó, entradas eran).1 But in the English example, the sole case of agreement is between the pronoun her and antecedent noun aunt; the former matches the latter in gender (feminine) and number (singular).

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 P. W. Klein, Spanish Grammar Companion for Teachers, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-84111-9_2

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2.1 Grammar vs. biology In linguistics and language studies, GENDER and SEX are distinct concepts. “Gender” is an abstract property of nouns within a grammatical system, while “sex” refers to physical characteristics of biological beings in the real world. Nouns show gender (masculine or feminine); while people (and many animals) are endowed with male or female sex. For nouns which refer to persons, grammatical gender and biological sex tend to agree, but not always: víctima is grammatically feminine, but may refer to persons of either sex: Pablo es una víctima de las circunstancias. ángel is grammatically masculine, but may refer to persons of either sex: Margarita es un ángel. modelo ends in o, but is feminine, and may refer to persons of either sex: Quiero presentarte a Carmen, una bella modelo colombiana. Grammatical gender, not being linked to biological sex, varies freely from one language to another. Whereas nouns in English, e.g. sun, moon, have no grammatical gender, Spanish sol is classed as masculine and luna as feminine, while German Sonne ‘sun’ is assigned to feminine gender and Mond ‘moon’ to masculine. German even classes some nouns referring to persons as neuter; e.g.: Mädchen ‘maiden, girl’, Kind ‘child’. Even so, their corresponding plural nouns are invariably feminine (e.g. die Kindern) ‒ as are all plurals in German ‒ thus underscoring how ARBITRARY grammatical gender assignment can be. It is pointless to speculate as to why many Western languages have grammatical gender, which might be uncharitably seen as a needless complication of their vocabulary. But it is notable that many non-Western languages have comparable systems of arbitrary noun classification: witness the dozen or so noun-prefix markers in Swahili, or the score of “measure words” in Mandarin Chinese. Evidently this sort of noun subclassification is licensed by language universals, a set of characteristics found to appear and reappear in various guises across the wide spectrum of the world’s languages.

2.1.1 Inherent vs. acquired In Spanish, gender is an inherent feature of every noun, and only of nouns. All Spanish nouns are either masculine or feminine (Spanish has no neuter nouns, as did Latin; as does German), and that gender is fixed.2 Dialectically, there are a few cases of nouns which are masculine in one region of the Spanish-speaking world, but feminine in another: el/la mar, el/la sarten, el/la

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radio etc.; but each of these is quite stable for the speakers in its own area. In contrast to nouns’ inherent gender, the gender observed in noun modifiers (e.g. adjectives, articles, possessives, demonstratives, quantifiers) is acquired via the grammatical process of agreement (concordancia). As alluded to in the previous section, there are three agreement processes: all involve number, two involve gender (in nouns,) and one involves person (in verbs): ► A pronoun agrees with its noun antecedent in gender and number: Compré estas revistas y las leí todas. ► A modifier agrees with the noun it modifies in gender and number: Vimos montañas altísimas y un cielo inmenso. ► A verb agrees with its subject in person and number: Mi prima estudia informática, le fascinan las computadoras.

2.1.2 Transparent vs. obscure Not every Spanish noun wears its gender on its sleeve; in fact, a noun’s gender is often not apparent from its appearance. We can distinguish three groups of nouns as to how they do or do not manifest the gender that they carry; e.g.: typical‒ the masculine form ends in o and the feminine form ends in a; e.g. el caso la casa el ojo la cara el libro la libra el piso la mesa el plato la plata el vaso la taza hidden‒ the noun’s form does not show its gender (the noun ends in a consonant or e3) ; e.g. el capital la capital el valle la calle el frente la frente el sol la col el orden la orden el ataúd la virtud irregular‒ the noun ends in i, u, e ─ or o (if feminine) or a (if masculine) ; e.g. la mano el planeta el taxi el cruce la dinamo el problema el espíritu el oboe la moto el día la mili la sede Note that the article preceding the noun “shows” that noun’s gender only in circular fashion: that article picked up its gender in the first place via agreement with the noun, a process which presupposes knowing the noun’s gender. Unfortunately: Tip  Gender assignment itself is ultimately idiosyncratic and arbitrary; there is no “rule” to reliably predict it in all cases. Tip 

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One confusing case of article-noun agreement concerns cases like the following: el hacha nueva

las hachas recién afiladas una hacha más grande la mejor hacha el área completa todas las áreas combinadas una área prohibida la otra área These are nouns which have FEMININE gender and begin with a stressed a ‒ which may or may not carry a written accent, in accordance with tilde norms (see Appendix A). They transparently show NORMAL FEMININE AGREEMENT in all cases ‒ except for the singular definite article, which appears in the shape of el rather than la (for obscure reasons of historical phonology). But this el still counts grammatically as a feminine article; it has simply assumed a novel disguise. ► The essential features of this “transvestite” (la→el) FEMININE article are thus: ❖ It affects ONLY the the FEMININE SINGULAR DEFINITE article la – not the indefinite una nor the demonstrative esta. ❖ The la→el change happens only if the article stands immediately in front of the noun which begins with a stressed a. ❖ It is blocked if another word intervenes between them: el agua tibia la tibia agua del Caribe el habla cotidiana la cotidiana habla del pueblo el ala izquierda laotra ala del águila el alma divina la divina alma de la virgen Tip  This transvestite article changes form (la→el), but not gender: it remains grammatically feminine. Tip 

2.1.3 Human reference As noted earlier in this chapter, the gender of nouns referring to human beings and the biological sex of those persons may not coincide. Exploring this matter further, we again find it convenient to divide such nouns into three subtypes: Alternate Ending both the form of the article and the noun’s final letter change to reflect the individual’s sex: o/a e/a (consonant) / a el amigo / la amiga el jefe / la jefa el autor / la autora el maestro / la maestra el monje / la monja el corredor / la corredora el viudo / la viuda el nene / la nena el profesor / la profesora

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Alternate Article the noun’s final letter is constant, but the article varies to reflect the individual’s sex: el/la atleta el/la portavoz el/la siquiatra el/la cantante el/la radioescucha el/la televidente el/la cliente el/la recluta el/la tenista el/la modelo el/la reo el/la testigo Fixed neither the article’s form nor the noun’s last letter changes; the noun’s gender is indifferent to sex: la criatura el amor (Margarita es un amor.) la figura el ángel (Mi hermana es un ángel.) la persona el genio (La profesora es un genio.) la víctima el individuo (Rosa no es ese individuo.)

2.1.4 Neuter gender in Spanish Gender is a property of every Spanish noun. A pronoun, inherently genderless, must inherit its gender by agreement with the noun it refers to (its “antecedent”). However, there exists a class of “neuter” pronouns with the interesting property that they neither have, nor inherit, nor exhibit either gender. A better name for these pronouns might be “genderless.” Tip  The term neutro (‘neither gender’) is said to originate from rapidly pronouncing ni uno ni otro. Tip 

Spanish has five neuter pronouns: ello (least common), the demonstratives esto, eso, aquello, and clitic lo (most common). Whereas other pronouns get gender by copying it from the noun they refer to, a neuter pronoun never has an antecedent noun (since if it did, it would need to adopt its gender). Instead, a neuter pronoun’s antecedent must be something other than an individual gendered noun. It might be a real-world object, referred to by pointing, as in examples such as: Eso que tú tienes en la mano es peligroso. What (that thing) you have in your hand is dangerous. Qué es esto que encuentro sobre mi escritorio? What is this (stuff) that I find on my desk? Neuters esto, eso and aquello have gendered pronoun counterparts when they occur with a noun antecedent, and thus acquire gender: masculine (éste, ése, aquél) or feminine (ésta, ésa, aquélla). (In such cases, English adds one after this/that.) Entre la tele y el cine, me interesa más este. Between TV and cinema, I’m more interested in the latter (this one closest).

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Estas carteras son feísimas, con la excepción de esa. These purses are super ugly, except for that one. De los varios cuadros a mano, me gusta más aquel. Of the several paintings at hand, I like that one over there the most. In the next examples, the neuter pronoun does refer back to an antecedent, but in no case is there agreement, since (a) neuters are invariable, and (b) phrases and clauses are not nouns and thus carry no gender specification to be copied.4 a) adjective

Las enfermeras están cansadísimas, aunque no lo parecen. Las niñas parecen contentas, pero no lo están de verdad.

b) infinitive

Paco debió parar, pero en vez de eso siguió caminando. Es que tú insistes en fumar, y por esto tienes tanta toz.

c)

phrase

Hay que derrocar la dictadura, y a ello estamos dedicados. Optaron por viajar por barco, lo que resultó ser error.

d)

clause

Les dije que hacía frío, lo cual no era ninguna exageración. Llegaron sin pasaportes, y por eso no pudimos atenderlos.

Tip  Neuter pronouns are genderless and never refer back to a masculine or femenine antecedent. Tip 

Finally, there are two constructions where neuter lo has no antecedent at all, either within or without the linguistic context. It represents an amorphous noun in one instance, and an exclamatory degree adverb in another, as we will next see.

2.1.4.1 Nominal lo + (non-agreeing) adjective Siento mucho lo de anoche. I’m very sorry about that business of last night. Lo problemático de los idiomas es la gramática. The problematical aspect of languages is their grammar. Lo difícil son los verbos. Lo fácil es la pronunciación. Verbs are the hard part. Pronunciation is an easy affair. Los personajes son lo menos interesante de sus novelas. The characters are the least interesting thing in his novels. The implicit abstract noun conjured up by this lo approximates thing, part, matter, affair, aspect, stuff, business…, as the glosses indicate. In other cases, the neuter pronoun corresponds to the ABSENCE of such a filler noun:

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Si vas a comprarte televisor, compra lo mejor. the best (there is; non-specific) cf: Si vas a comprarte televisor, compra el mejor. the best one (model “Sonic XGX”) Si vas a comprarte computadora, compra lo mejor. the best (there is; non-specific) cf: Si vas a comprarte computadora, compra la mejor. the best one (model “Alfa M”)

neutro masculino neutro femenino

The gendered pronoun in each Spanish case (as well as one in English) agrees with the direct object antecedent of comprar, but the neuter pronoun lo has no antecedent. Likewise, in this lo construction the modifier (the following adjective (phrase)) is invariable in form, never showing agreement with anything.

2.1.4.2 Adverbial lo + (agreeing) adjective Me atraía lo rítmicos que son sus versos. I was attracted by how rhythmical her verses are. ¿Comprendes lo ridícula que será tu situación? Do you understand how ridiculous your position will be? Era increíble lo pesadas que estaban las maletas. I could not believe how heavy her suitcases were. Inspira lástima lo aburrido que fue su discurso. How boring his speech was inspires pity for him. This “adverbial” lo has different properties from the “nominal” lo: (a) It expresses how much, to what extent, the adjective which it modifies is manifested; a typically adverb function. (b) It corresponds in English to exclamatory how (different from the interrogative how of How are you?). (c) It is invariably followed not only by an adjective, but also by the phrase que ser/estar, as a part of the exclamatory structure lo +ADJECTIVE + que + ser/estar5! how ADJ it is! (d) The adjective following agrees with the noun of the other clause (the subject of ser/estar).

2.2 Agreement quirks Subject-verb agreement is generally straightforward, but there are a few special cases. (a) The use of a collective noun subject like mayor parte, grupo, minoría, cantidad as in:

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La mayoría de los profesores están de huelga. Otro grupo de turistas llegarán el martes por la mañna. combined with a plural noun (e.g. profesores, turistas), which is in turn the object of an intervening preposition (de), tends to produce plural verb agreement. (b) There is one odd case of a verb appearing to agree with its object instead of its subject! Recall that impersonal haber is always subjectless, yet when it has a plural object some speakers use it with a plural verb, as in Sobran tres guardaespaldas; prefiero que hayan sólo dos. Fui al mercado por uvas, pero hoy no habían. We know that guardaespaldas and uvas here are objects (not subjects), since they take direct object pronoun clitics: Prefiero un par de guardaespaldas más, si los hay disponibles. Cómprame un kilo de uvas, si las hay. (c) Notice also the agreement behavior of uno, una in compound numbers before plural nouns: uno keeps its singular form (since it represents the number one): Tengo veintiún años.

Escribí trescientas una páginas.

2.3 Noun varieties Though the Spanish sentence is built around the verb, most also include the NAMES of persons, places, things, or qualities which are involved in the action or situation referenced by that verb, as seen in the nouns that follow: Anita levantó la mano derecha. La mejor estudiante de álgebra dio una respuesta modelo. La dedicada maestra que le había enseñsdo bien le felicitó su astucia. Nominals also have a structural function in the sentence: verbal subject, verbal object (as below), or prepositional object. They may take the form of either a single word, or a phrase (noun+ modifiers) or a clause (que+finite verb): simple noun: Quiero agua. a “noun” because it names a person, place, thing or quality noun phrase:

Quiero más agua fría. a “phrase” because it contains more than one word, but no finite verb

noun clause:

Quiero que me den agua. a “clause” because it contains its own conjugated (finite) verb6

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2.3.1 Compound nouns The noun phrase is not the only element intermediate between the simple noun and the noun clause. Spoken English sharply distinguishes “noun phrases” from look-alike “compound nouns” via a shift in the stress pattern. In the compound nouns examples which follow, boldface font plus the acute accent mark ‘´’ represent strong voice stress; while the grave accent ‘`’ indicates weak voice stress. These examples must be read out loud in order to be appreciated (please do so now): ráce hòrse clúb fòod hóuse dòg a type of horse food we get at the club a domestic kind of dog hórse ràce a type of race

fóod clùb a club centered on food

dóg hòuse a shelter for a pet dog

Besides the distinctive “stróng-wèak” stress pattern of these noun compounds vis-à-vis the “wèak-stróng” stress pattern of other noun phrases (e.g. whìte hóuse, gòod fóod, cùte dóg), a notable feature of these compounds is that, although both of the juxtaposed elements are nouns, the first functions adjectivally, as it (in effect) modifies (describes) the second. The few Spanish parallels to these are mostly “loan translations” of English phrases, like hombre rana células madre sofa cama escuela modelo videocinta frogman stem cells sofabed model school videotape. (These show no gender/number agreement, since there are no real adjectives here, just two nouns). The typical Spanish case of two nouns together, where one wants to modify the other, requires a connecting preposition (typically de). The resulting prepositional phrase then acquires adjectival functionality: caballo de carreras carrera de caballos estrella de cine hoja de ruta taza para té race horse horse race movie star road map teacup (Prepositional phrases may also function adverbially, as in del todo renovado, or aparecer de repente or llegar por adelantado.) Such expressions thus do not qualify as compound nouns in Spanish, but rather as noun phrases, in which the first noun counts as the head (núcleo) and the second becomes part of a prepositional phrase which functions adjectivally, modifying or qualifying it. These noun phrases are thus parallel to those containing a genuine adjective, such as: taza sucia carrera emocionante vasos rotos caballo favorito Additionally, one noun may in effect modify another by morphing into a cognate adjective via an appropriate suffix: crisis bancaria cadena hotelera rumores bélicos enfermedad infantil banking crisis hotel chain war rumors childhood disease

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In case there is no suitable adjective in the lexicon, Spanish easily creates a modifier by using a brief relative clause (§7.1): barking dog perro que ladra

approaching storm tomenta que se acerca

crying baby bebé que llora

Spanish noun compounding, however, is highly productive in a construction akin to English pickpocket: a verb+object noun; (always masculine singular: el cortafuegos firewall). Here are a few examples of hundreds in current usage7. Tip  This [ verb+object ] combo preferred in Spanish often matches the [ object+verb+-er ] typical of English, as in lava+platos vs. dish+wash+er (this -er being the “agentive” suffix, which tells who did the action.) Tip 

lavaplatos (lava+platos) dishwasher espantapájaros (espanta+pájaros) scarecrow salvapantallas (salva+pantallas) screen saver paraguas (para+aguas) umbrella cuentagotas (cuenta+gotas) eyedropper chupatinta (chupa+tinta) bureaucrat cortacéspedes (corta+céspedes) lawn mower parachoques (para+choques) bumper pisapapeles (pisa+papeles) paper weight abrelatas (abre+latas) can opener marcapáginas (marca+páginas) bookmark rascacielos (rasca+cielos) skyscraper tragamonedas (traga+monedas) slot machine

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aguafiestas (agua+fiestas) party pooper guardaespaldas (guarda+espaldas) bodyguard portaviones (porta+aviones) aircraft carrier sabelotodo (sabe+lo+todo) know-it-all matasanos (mata+sanos) quack doctor lameculos (lame+culos) brown nose, ass kisser sacapuntas (saca+puntas) pencil sharpener quitamanchas (quita+manchas) spot remover limpiaparabrisas (limpia+para+brisas) windshield wiper salvavidas (salva+vidas) lifeguard hazmerreír (haz+me+reír) laughingstock portamonedas (porta+monedas) coin purse quitaesmaltes (quita+esmaltes) fingernail polish remover

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2.4. Determiners as pointers While a noun phrase includes a noun and its modifiers; modifiers may be either adjectives or determiners, two categories with differing characteristics. DETERMINERS

ADJECTIVES

always preceed the noun “specify” or “indicate” the noun

may preceed or follow the noun “describe” the noun

DETERMINER is the group name for

articles, which may be definite; e.g. el (caso), la (casa); los (casos), las (casas) indefinite; e.g. un (caso), una (casa); unos (casos), unas (casas) demonstratives, which may be proximate este (caso), esta (casa)

distant ese (caso), esa (casa)

remote aquel (caso), aquella (casa)

possessives; e.g. mi (casa), tu (casa), su (casa), nuestro (caso), vuestro (caso)… quantifiers8, which may be definite, such as ordinal numerals (segundo (caso), última (casa)…) cardinal numerals (uno, tres…), docena, centenar… indefinite, such as otro (caso), alguna (casa), varios (casos)… Preceding the noun, articles, demonstratives and possessives are (normally) mutually exclusive (only one of them may occur), optionally followed by a quantifier: esta (otra) manzana estas (dos) manos tu (segunda) oportunidad los (varios) cuadernos *las estas manos *estas las manos *los dos tus ojos

2.4.1 Article vs absence Article use in Spanish differs from English: Spanish uses the DEFINITE article MORE, but the INDEFINITE article LESS. The DEFINITE article is USED in Spanish in cases where English normally omits it: ❖

before a generic noun (one with generalized rather than specific reference), especially if it functions as subject: En este país el pollo es barato pero los huevos son caros. In this country _ chicken is cheap, but _ eggs are expensive. ¿Te gustan los conciertos de roc? Los cursos de negocios son comunes en internet. El fútbol es el deporte más popular.

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¿Vas a ir al partido de ø fútbolOBJ? El dinero es la raíz del mal Es una cuestión de dineroOBJ , de fondosOBJ

.

Spanish often prefers its definite article over the English indefinite one: el universitario típico a typical university student ❖

in front of a personal or professional TITLE, when speaking ABOUT the person (rather than directly to her/him): ‒¿Has visto a la profesora Trujillo? ‒No, pero el señor Piñol me dijo que está enferma hoy.

❖

before a noun which names a PLACE which people commonly frequent: en la escuela at school en el trabajo at work en la iglesia at church en la cárcel in jail en la casa at home en el tribunal in court

❖

instead of a POSSESSIVE, with body parts, especially if the possessor is inferred or expressed as indirect object: Bajé la cabeza.

Pablito levantó la mano.

Nos pusimos los guantes.

Me puse la camisa.

Te quitaste el sombrero.

Se rascaron la cabeza.

These possessives also have a “strong form” which behaves like a descriptive adjective rather than a determiner. Las toallas suyas son más grandes que las nuestras. Se perdió el guante tuyo. Ese sombrero no es mío. ❖

with names of streets and GEOGRAPHIC LOCATIONS : Desde La Paz viajamos a El Cusco. Esa tienda queda por la Avenida Coronación. Siempre sopla viento en la Patagonia. La Corte Mundial tiene su sede en La Haya.

❖

citing PERCENTAGES, in place of per/por: citing PERCENTAGES, in place of per/por: Ese año la inflación alcanzó el dieciocho por ciento. Los lapiceros se venden a mil pesos la docena. La otra salchicha cuesta seis dólares el kilo

The INDEFINITE article is OMITTED (ø) in Spanish in places where it is normally used in English: ● before bare CLASSIFICATION of profesional, religious, nacionality (etc.) affiliation: nuestra hermana es ø cantante mi novio es ø japonés su tía fue ø socialista

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ese maestro es ø católico soy ø budista mi compañera de cuarto es ø poeta PERO: ese maestro es un católico convencido where the modifier convencido serves to individualize this catholic teacher, making him stand out as more than just another average, anonymous member of this category.

❖

in questions and negations, preceding an object, when there is NO REFERENCE to a specific item or instance: No tengo ø computadora propia. Nunca llevo ø corbata. ¿Te dio ø cheque o ø efectivo? ¿Compraste ø casa? ¿Ud. no tiene ø coche? ¿Pediste ø tortilla o ø sanwich?

❖

in front of ANOTHER DETERMINER: cien(to), mil, otro, medio, tal, cierto: ø cien voluntarios ø mil veces ø otro día ø media naranja ø tal respuesa ø cierto olor

❖

in EXCLAMATIONS: (What a …!) Hay dos fórmulas que se usan, ambas sin artículo: ¡Qué ø día más hermoso! ¡Qué ø hermoso día! ¡Qué ø novela más aburrida! ¡Qué ø aburrida novela!

2.4.2 Nominalization Although the determiner characteristically accompanies its noun, there are cases where it replaces it. This happens when the determiner itself is “upgraded” to nominal status (as noun or pronoun) in a process called nominalization. There is a partly similar nominalization phenomena in English; let’s see how it compares to the Spanish process:

❖ definite article: De las tres camisas, prefiero la azul. (nominalization changes la into a pronoun): the blue one ❖ indefinite article: Si vas a comprar auto nuevo, cómprate uno eléctrico. (nominalization makes uno a pronoun): an electric one ❖ demonstrative: En cuanto a quesos, prefiero este sobre aquel. (nominalization turns este, aquel into pronouns): this one, that one ❖ possessive: Si no cabe en la maleta mía, quizá quepa en la tuya. (nominalization has made la a pronoun): yours Tus padres ofrecen llevarnos en su coche, pero el de Julieta es más grande que el de ellos. (nominalization twice converts el to a pronoun): Julieta’s theirs Tip  Determiners point and select; adjectives describe and qualify. Both modify and agree with the noun. Tip 

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2.5 Adjectives as descriptors Adjectives are words which “describe” (or “qualify”) the nouns they modify; they can be COMPARED using more or less: menos inteligente, más caro). But while English prefers its ad-

jectives before the noun (a long, winding road), in Spanish they are just as likely to be placed before the noun as after it (un largo camino sinuoso). Several factors can influence the position of the adjective with respect to the noun.

2.5.1 Weight and context There are no adjectives which always go first or always come last; most can occupy either position, depending on circumstances. A key notion is RELATIVE WEIGHT or INFORMATIVE FOCUS. Given some noun + adjective pair, the word which carries the most content (information load) goes last. So in a case like (a) below, the noun comes last, because its content is more noteworthy in the urban context of a street corner, than the fact that the gorilla is a large animal, (a) Doblando la esquina, nos encontramos cara a cara con un enorme gorila. (b) Pronto verás que Alicia es una chica extraordinaria. which holds little new information. But in (b), since it is not unusual that a person named Alicia would be a chica (instead of a chico), the thrust of the sentence is conveyed by her special qualities expressed by the postposed adjective.

2.5.2 Distinction vs decoration A common way for an adjective to gain informational heft is by distinguishing one noun from another. The adjectives of nationality in (a) below are critical in separating one car from another, just as those describing personality in (b) carry an essential contrast between the two spouses. Thus in both instances the adjectives assume postnominal position. (a) ¿Vas a comprar un auto japonés? ¿No sabes que los coches alemanes son los mejores? (b) Teresa tiene un esposo simpático, pero Susana se casó con un hombre difícil. English is also sensitive to such adjectival contrasts, but prefers to mark them in pronunciation rather than by word order, via raised pitch of the voice on the adjective, followed by a voice pitch drop on the word immediately following: a Germancar vs. a Japanesecar This English tactic highlights the contrastive adjective vocally, while at the same time orally downplays the noun. Try this contrastive stress now, for yourself, out loud, on the examples cited.

2.5.3 Total vs partial A post-nominal adjective tends to separate out a subset of all the items potentially referred to by that noun, while a pre-nominal adjective is typically understood to refer to the totality of possible referents.

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unos borrachos futbolistas ingleses unos estúpidos futbolistas borrachos

(blanket condemnation: they are all drunk) (some others may be relatively sober)

los bien preservados artefactos indígenas los artefactos indígenas bien preservados

(all are still in good shape) (only some are well preserved)

2.5.4 Focus vs frill On the other hand, there are plenty of examples where adjectives are merely decorative rather than differentiating. No tengo ningún problema con Enrique, pero no me llevo bien con su antipática mujer. Todos aplaudimos al célebre alcalde y a su encantadora señora. We presume that Enrique and the mayor each have only one wife; the use of a postposed adjective would imply otherwise (contrasting one with another). Likewise, there is only one mayor in this universe of discourse, not a famous one vs. an unknown, so célebre is more decoration than substance; thus prenominal. There are also cases where either order is possible, sometimes accompanied by a shift of meaning, sometimes not: Nos sirvieron una excelente comida. Nos sirvieron una comida excelente.

(we had not expected to get a meal) (the food was of outstanding quality)

los restantes detalles técnicos los detalles técnicos restantes otro largo camino peligroso aquel peligroso camino sinuoso

(focus is on their technicality) (focus is on those remaining)

(danger is paramount; length is parenthetical) (windingness is main concern; danger merits a mention)

tres suaves golpecitos tres golpecitos suaves { practically indistinguishable otra sabrosa porción de flan otra porción sabrosa de flan { not much difference }

2.5.5 Objective vs subjective An additional parameter relevant to Spanish adjective placement involves a preference for placing more “objective” (literal, categorical) adjectives AFTER the noun, and more “subjective” (evaluative, parenthetical) ones BEFORE it; where the preposed adjectives are more subject to per inmensas pampas argentinas pequeño detalle técnico premodernos sistemas informáticos largos cabellos rubios miada autora española fragante pétalo aterciopelado sonal interpretation than the postposed classificatory modifiers, as seen just above. Tip  Several factors contribute to the adjective’s position before or after the noun, including those from the linguistic context and from the real-world circumstances at time of utterance. Tip 

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2.5.6 Translation note Spanish textbooks often present certain contrasts in adjective position as due to “change of meaning,” presumably because English uses different adjectives to translate such cases. But this is just another instance (like ser/ estar §3.1.2.4 or preterite vs imperfect §2.3) of Spanish exploiting a resource which English lacks; in this case, variable adjective positioning. The Spanish modifiers in question have the potential to function as either determiners or as descriptors, and in each case they exhibit the properties of their category. The (b) sentences below show the modifier’s DETERMINER nature (specifying or quantifying), while the (a) cases manifest the adjective’s DESCRIPTIVE (characterizing) nature. cierto: medio: mismo: puro: raro: único:

Este análisis no llega a conclusiones ciertas. Hemos llegado a ciertas conclusiones.

«definitive»

El hispanoamericano medio no tiene auto. No tengo hambre. Deme media porción no más.

«average»

El jefe mismo nos atendió. En esta oficina todos tenemos el mismo jefe. En este monte se toma agua pura. En este monte se toma pura agua. Últimamente este auto produce unos ruidos raros. Con raras excepciones, Marité siempre llega a tiempo. La solución que propongo tiene ventajas únicas. Nuestro único remedio es la revolución armada.

«some»

«half» «himself» «same» «pure» «nothing

but»

«strange» «infrequent» «unique» «only»9

2.5.7 Patterns of modification These and other combinations of nouns and modifiers may be categorized as follows: ❖ PROGRESSIVE: two or more adjectives FOLLOW the noun, each LIMITING MORE its reference: gobierno gobierno popular→ gobierno popular socialista →gobierno popular socialista moderno música música peruana música peruana foclórica →música peruana foclórica bailable

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❖ CONTRASTIVE: the adjective follows the noun to classify it or DIFFERENTIATE it from others: un auto alemán o un coche japonés el calentamiento global y la contaminación atmosférica ❖ DECORATIVE: a non-essential adjective precedes the noun with an EVALUATIVE or PARENTHETICAL effect: la esperada primavera tras el largo invierno una elegante tarjeta de sincero agradecimiento ❖ PARALLEL: neither adjective limits the other, both have EQUAL WEIGHT AND FUNCTION, in either position: POSTnominal PREnominal un análisis original y perceptivo su amable y sincera oferta de ayuda el camino pedregoso y peligroso la angosta y sinuosa carretera N.B: English uses a comma “,” instead of y: an original, perceptive analysis; their kind, sincere offer ❖ BALANCED: one DECORATIVE adjective precedes the noun, while another adjective follows it ancha playa cubana largo sendero luminoso deficientes conocimientos culinarios PREPOSED ADJECTIVE

(NOUN)

decorative / débil subjetivo / evaluativo

CONTRASTIVE

POSTPOSED ADJECTIVE

fuerte / contrastivo objetivo / clasificatorio

su elegante vestido de seda

VS

se puso un vestido elegante

los restantes detalles técnicos

VS

los problemáticos detalles restantes

botemos las podridas peras

VS

botemos las peras podridas

2.6 Summary Masculine or feminine gender is an inherent and arbitrary property of every Spanish noun, while other words (modifiers and antecedents) which show gender have acquired it only by agreement with the noun. A word’s gender may not be apparent from its appearance, since gender need not be overtly manifested.

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Neuter gender exists in Spanish only in pronouns, which are neither masculine or feminine, nor can they refer back to a (gendered) noun antecedent. Besides the neuter demonstrative pronouns esto, eso and aquello, two novel types of neuter lo figure centrally, one with characteristics of an abstract amorphous noun, the other representing an exclamatory adverb of degree. English and Spanish each have distinct ways of forming compound nouns, with the lavaplatos type most common in Spanish. Determiners in the two languages are subject to different conditions of usage and nominalization. Adjective placement in Spanish (with respect to the noun) is sensitive to informational prominence (in several guises), and gives rise to a variety of modification patterns with adjectives appearing either before or after the noun (or both).

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Footnotes 1

The English verbs are conjugated only for tense, and do not show person/number agreement distinctions.

Except in the unique case of arte, which is masculine in the singular (el arte moderno) but feminine in the plural (las artes plásticas). 2

3 The difference between this final e and that in the following “irregular” category is that the former is predictably added purely for pronunciation purposes (given certain constraints on Spanish syllable structure), while the (unexpected) latter e must be considered an integral part of the lexical representation.

Apparent exceptions like Parecen enfermeras/alemanes/budhistas, pero no lo son. where the neuter lo does have a nominal antecedent, are limited to generic, classificatory nouns, which label an ethnic, religious, professional… group, rather than refer to an individual. 4

An adverb can occupy the adjective slot in this formula as well: No se dan cuenta de lo lejos que está el mar. (See also §9.2.3) 5

I.e. one which is conjugated to agree with a (tacit) subject. This definition thus excludes the three non -finite verb forms: infinitive, gerund, and participle. 6

7 Prepositional phrases may also function adverbially, as in del todo insatisfactorio, or aparecer de repente or llegar por adelantado.

Quantifiers are probably not determiners, but they share some properties with the other three. We include them here as a simplification. 8

9

For more on Spanish versions of only, see §5.6 and Appendix D, “Word Pairs”: sólo ~ único (only).

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3 Ways of BEing

3.1 Ser vs. estar The difference between these two Spanish linking verbs (“copulas”) is often presented as one of permanent vs. temporary. But this simplistic approach quickly runs into difficulty in cases like the following, where both verbs refer to the same reality ‒ here paradoxically painted as both temporary and permanent. Mi primo está en el ejército. and Mi primo es soldado. My cousin is in the army. My cousin is a soldier. Further paradoxes arise where an accompanying adverb seems to contradict the copula: Los autobuses siempre están repletos. (siempre implies permanent, not temporary) The buses are always packed. En este momento es difícil ser paciente. (en este momento implies temporary, not permanent) At this time it is hard to be patient. A nuanced analysis might try to refine this MEANING-based approach, but a preferable analysis considers FORM as well, taking into account the linguistic context. Tip  It is useful to pay attention not only to the CONTENT of the message, but also to its FORM (grammatical expression). Tip 

3.1.1 Form over content The FORMal difference between the soldado/ejército cases lies in what follows the linking verb. There are two constructions which always follow estar, and two others which invariably follow ser. These are form-driven cases, where use of ser and estar is decided by structural considerations, regardless of the meaning expressed or speaker’s preference.

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 P. W. Klein, Spanish Grammar Companion for Teachers, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-84111-9_3

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3.1.1.1 Estar before ‒ndo Auxiliary estar (or one of its nuanced variants; see §3.1.2.5) precedes the present particple of a main verb to form its “progressive” counterpart (§2.1.1); e.g. Te estoy hablando. ¿Me estás escuchando? This is an exclusive estar context; estar is obligatory in this structure.

3.1.1.2 Estar before adverbial When a copula is needed preceding an adverb (§5.6.1), estar is the only possible option, regardless of message content. This is the explanation for its use in Mi primo está en el ejército., since en el ejército is a prepositional phrase with the adverbial function of specifying LOCATION.

3.1.1.3 Ser before nominal Ser is the only copula that can link two NOMINAL expressions. One of these will be the subject, which is always a nominal (noun, pronoun, or noun phrase). If the element fol lowing the linking verb is also a nominal, ser is the only linking verb possible here ‒ independent of meaning. So a student following the “temporary/permanent” approach would prefer estar in *El profesor Sánchez está taxista durante el verano. (since this is a temporary job for him). Teacher Sánchez drives a taxi during the summer. But since taxista is a post-copula noun, only ser can link it to the subject noun, and *Sánchez está taxista is blocked solely due to its form; our student must revert to El profesor Sánchez es taxista durante el verano. Actually, estar can (and must) be used instead of ser if we change the post-verbal expression taxista from a nominal to an adverbial (specifying his current MODE of being) in the form of a prepositional phrase like de taxista as a taxi-driver, so as to bring it into formal compliance with Spanish grammar. This gives us El profesor Sánchez está de taxista durante el verano …moonlighting as a taxi driver.

3.1.1.4 Ser before time & date Ser is the only copula that can stand before an expression of clock time or calendar date. Hoy es lunes. Son las tres de la tarde. Fueron tres semanas de lucha. Será verano en un par de meses. Fue el 25 de enero que nació mi hijo.

3.1.2 Meaningful contrasts Besides these cases where the STRUCTURE of the expression requires one or the other copula, there are cases of otherwise-identical sentences where the grammar picks the appropriate linking verb, depending on whether the speaker intends meaning A or meaning B: “if you mean to say A, then use estar; if instead you mean B, then use ser.” Here the speaker determines what is to be said, but the grammar decides whether to say it with ser or estar. Examples include:

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3.1.2 1 Entity vs. event The grammar makes the ser/estar decision for us in describing location, since Spanish distinguishes between location of entities (concrete) vs. events (abstract): the former take estar, while the latter are assigned to ser. So: El partido será en la cancha del este. (planned event) The match will take place on the east playing field. ¿Dónde está mi diccionario? Where is my dictionary?

(misplaced entity)

Nouns which can be either entity or event take the corresponding copula in each case: Mi clase es en otro edificio. My class is (held) in a different building

(scheduled event)

¿Dónde está la clase? (collection of persons) Where is everybody? (Where are all the students?) (Said when I forgot that today we were to meet in the auditorium for a multi-section lecture.)

3.1.2.2 Action vs. result It is not surprising that having two copulas instead of one gives Spanish greater precision than English in some areas. One of these involves the difference between an action and its result. English often blurs this distinction, as in: already when I arrived. STATIC (a) The lights were turned on at 9 PM by the custodian. ACTIVE (b) (a) Las luces estaban prendidas ya cuando llegué. (b) Las luces fueron prendidas por el celador.

Sentences like The lights were turned on. Her truck was inspected. Their country was illegally occupied. are intrinsically ambiguous in English, with the inherent ACTION vs. SITUATION interpretations brought out (if necessary) by additional text or by real-world context. But in Spanish no clarification is needed, since no ambiguity arises: ► ser+past participle signals “passive voice,” which always states an activity or event ► estar+past participle states a “resultant condition,” which always describes a static state Su camión fue inspeccionado por el oficial de turno, quien le dio el visto bueno. (acción) Su camión ya estaba inspeccionado, así que pudo seguir hasta la frontera. (situación)

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The traditional designation “passive voice” is not so appropriate here, since both it and the “active voice” refer to the same ACTION. Their contrast is rather one of the point of view with which the action is presented. The active-voice version El celador prendió las luces. makes a comment about its topic “the custodian;” the passive-voice starts with “the lights” as topic, and comments on them ‒as both refer to the same event. In addition, the passive version allows the speaker to focus on the action in isolation, avoiding mention of who carried it out ( in cases when it doesn’t matter).1

3.1.2.3 Subjective vs. objective Spanish exploits ser vs estar in the area of sensory perception (seeing, hearing, feeling, tasting, touching) in order to distinguish objective judgments from more subjective ones. This gives rise to contrasts like the following: DETACHED and OBJECTIVE

SUBJECTIVE and EXPERIENCIAL

La reseña dice que la película es buena. The review says it’s a good movie. La sopa de ajo del Corral es exquisita. The Corral’s garlic soup is top-notch. Pía es de aspecto físico regular. Pía has just average looks. Esa máquina tiende a ser ruidosa. This machine tends to be noisy. La seda es una tela suave y lisa. Silk is a soft and smooth fabric.

¡Qué va! ¡Está tonta y aburrida! (ya la vió) Are you kidding? I found it dumb and dull. ¡Esta sopa de ajo está divina! (probándola) This garlic soup tastes heavenly! ¡Pía está guapísima con ese traje! (viéndola) Pía looks spectacular in that suit. ¡Apágala! ¡Está ensordecedora! (oyéndola) Shut if off! It sounds deafening! ¿Qué seda? Está rugosa y áspera. (tocándola) What silk is this? It feels rough and course.

In each case, the left column, with its neutral, vanilla ser lacks the hands-on involvement which the right-hand side imparts with its personalized estar ‒standing in for several English experiential perception verbs. Note the third example, with look, which students might otherwise translate at mira, and the last example with feels, which tempts a student response of siente ‒but both these verbs must govern a direct object noun (§4.3.1) and thus cannot fit here. The ser statements are taken as aloof and timeless, whereas the estar cases correspond to the specific event of real experience or perception in some actual situation. What triggers the choice of estar in such instances is the potential for CHANGE of condition, and for variability of perception (you say it tastes fine, but I think it is too salty). ► If ser is be, then estar is be in a certain way at a certain place or time, as experienced by a certain individual. ► If ser describes a CHARACTERISTIC of the entity, then estar relates to the CHANGING CIRCUMSTANCES of how it is experenced by a given person in the real world. Estar thus encompasses the POTENTIAL FOR CHANGE inherent in such cases.

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Tip  The ser-estar choice requires the learner to become sensitive to factors fomerly below her/his conscious awareness. Tip 

3.1.2.4 Meaning shift Adjectives describe nouns (persons, things, qualities) and are often found follow the verb be: e.g. Mike is bored; Mike is boring ‒ two English sentences which differ only in their adjective, both Mike and is being constant. But the luxury of two versions of be opens up another option for distinguishing such cases, which Spanish does not fail to exploit: hold the adjective constant and vary the copula, which produces Miguel está aburrido. vs Miguel es aburrido. Recall (§1.4.3) that the past participle, used non-verbally, functions as an adjective.) Such cases are commonly described in textbooks as involving adjectives which “change meaning” when used now with ser, now with estar. But such an approach attempts to fit Spanish into an English mold, ignoring that what changes in Spanish is not the adjective but the copula, with its inherent ser/estar meaning distinction. Since English has only one be to work with, it transfers the distinction that it cannot show in the verb onto the adjective (the only other available variable). In Spanish, on the other hand, aburrido maintains a constant meaning, which with ser is interpreted as a characteristic of the thing or person (a inherent trait, relatively fixed and unchangeable), and with estar it is taken to be a sensation experienced by those in contact with the thing or person. Other adjectives which exhibit such behavior include: SER

ESTAR

bueno

La fruta es buena para la salud. beneficial

Las uvas están buenas; sírvete más. tasty

callado

El gran novelista es muy callado. reticent to speak

Están callados porque tienen miedo. silent, unspeaking

cómodo

El tren para Sevilla es cómodo. comfortable (comfort-producing)

Estoy cómoda en este sillón. comfortable (comfort-experiencing)

crudo

El invierno árctico es crudísimo. extremely harsh

¡Oye! Esta carne todavía está cruda. raw

distraído

No todos los profes somos distraídos. absent-minded

No me fijé porque estaba distraída. distracted

interesado Sus consejos son interesados. have ulterior motives

¿Usted está interesada en viajar? interested

listo

Tu jefa es lista, aunque antipática. clever

Hace rato que estoy listo para salir. ready

malo

No te fíes de ese vecino; es malo. evil

No tomes esa leche; está mala. spoiled

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seguro

¿Es seguro salir aquí de noche? safe

Estoy segura de que habrá terremoto. sure

verde

El aguacate es verde de color. green

Rechacé las uvas que estaban verdes. unripe

vivo

Esmeralda es viva como su mamá. lively

Pese al choque, todos estamos vivos. alive

Tip  Many of the “meaning-changing” adjectives of Spanish are better understood as having one constant meaning, but susceptible to interpretation as either an ESSENTIAL CHARATERISTIC or as a CIRCUMSTANTIAL SITUATION. Tip 

3.1.2.5 Progressive options Prefacing auxiliary estar to the present participle of a main verb (estar+Vndo) underscores the “ongoingness” of the action. But there are actually several versions of this “progressive” verb option, each using a different auxiliary in place of estar before Vndo, and each contributing its distinct shade of additional meaning:

andar

ir

quedar

seguir

venir

El viejo pordiosero andaba cojeando por la plaza, pidiendo limosna. The old beggar was limping around the square, asking for alms. (random movement) Creo que por fin voy comprendiendo los varios usos del subjuntivo. I think I’m catching on bit by bit to the several usages of the subjunctive. (gradualness) Mi hermana quedó mirándome atónita mientras yo subía la muralla. My sister stood there watching me speechless as I climbed the wall. (freezes time) Te seguiré queriendo con todo el alma mientras nos dure tu dinero. I’ll keep on loving you with all my heart as long as your money holds out. (continuity) Mis estudiantes vienen quejándose de los nuevos reglamentos. My students have been complaining about the new rules. (recently developing situation)

3.1.3 Bonus points Additional points of contrast with ser/estar concern differences in the way English handles parallel phenomena. One deals with a construction where nouns are repeated tacitly but not lilterally; the other involves word order.

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3.1.3.1 Complement lo 2

«Linking» verbs

act to bridge a subject and the word (or phrase) following the copula, which we will call the “attribute”). Mi primo está en el ejército. Mi primo es soldado. subject

attribute

subject

attribute

There are common cases where an attribute is understood to be repeated, but does not physically reappear. In such a situation the linking “bridge” comes out missing one of its end-supports. English easily tolerates this situation: My parents seem bored, but they are not ø. She doesn’t look like an engineer, but she sure is ø. Less frequently, English replaces the missing attribute with a type of pronoun, thus restoring the missing bridge support: They aren’t bored, even though they seem so. She doesn’t look like an engineer, but she sure is one. In Spanish, however, this use of a pronoun to stand in for a missing attribute is obligatory; and the pronoun3 is always the neuter lo (invariable), which, since it is a clitic (§4.3.1), precedes the verb. Because the understood subject of the second clause is often dropped, its arc linking subject to attribute is again deprived of one of its supports. This time it is the subject which is missing, but Spanish is content to allow this broken link; not so a missing attribute. Mis padres parecen aburridos, pero Ø no lo están. Ella no parece ingeniera, pero sí que Ø lo es.4 Hoy Elisa está muy enferma, pero la semana pasada, Ø no lo estaba. Tip  This lo which complements the copulas is NEUTRAL, so it never agrees with anything; it is invariable in form. Tip 

3.1.3.2 Questions The words in a phrase naturally group together; e.g. an adjective bonds with the noun it modifies. And we saw earlier that where an adjective has an attributive function with ser or estar, it shows cohesion and affinity with that verb.

a. [ Su hermana ] [ no está casada ] . Their sister is not married.

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b. [ Su hermana casada ] [ no está ]. Their married sister is not there/here.

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c. [ ¿No está casada ] [ su hermana? ] Is their sister not married?

d. [ ¿No está ] [ su hermana casada? ]. Is their married sister not here/there?

In sentences (a, c) the copula and the attributive adjective bond together as a unit (the “predicate” or “verb phrase”), while in sentences (b, d) the adjective groups instead with the subject su hermana (to form a “noun phrase”). But English and Spanish differ with respect to question formation (c, d), in which Spanish moves the entire predicate to the front of the sentence, while English fronts only the verb. (If English worked like Spanish, its question would come out *Isn’t married their sister?). Using the English question-formation procedure in Spanish can produce miscommunication, since what should represent Isn’t their sister married? comes out as Isn’t their married sister there?.

3.2 Existential haber There are two versions of haber: one is the auxiliary verb used to form the “perfect tenses” (e.g. Hemos llegado. (§1.1.1), and the other is a main verb with the existential meaning of there be5, which is sometimes confused with the be copulas ser and estar. But haber is different, in both behavior and meaning: it disallows any subject, and typically functions to introduce a new element into the discourse. We see all three verbs working together in: Recién hubo aquí un asalto armado en pleno día. El incidente fue en este mismo cruce. ¿Dónde estaría la policía? There was an armed attack here recently in broad daylight. The event took place at this very intersection. I wonder where the police were. where hubo introduces a new factor asalto, fue accompanies an event location, and estaría goes with an entity location.

3.3 Summary Certain constructions are reserved for ser, others for estar. Where both are possible, they contrast in rendering the location of an event vs. an entity, in describing an action vs. its resultant state, in neutral depictions vs. experiential reports, and in evoking different shades of meaning from various adjectives. Several verbs are available to replace estar in the progressive construction so as to highlight different types of continuity. Spanish demands a stand-in (neuter lo) for a dropped attributive adjective. Spanish question formation fronts the entire predicate, not just the verb (English-style). Existential haber there be has distinct characteristics and must be kept separate from these “pure” be copulas.

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Footnotes 1

See §10.1 for more information on passives.

In additional to ser and estar, these include similar “verbs of being” like parecer, resultar, hacerse, ponerse, quedar…. 2

This “pronoun” curiously refers not normally to a noun, the usual antecedent for a pronoun, but most often to an adjective. Perhaps it should be called therefore a “pro-adjective.” 3

4 Note that in this rare instance where the neuter lo refers back to a noun antecedent, the latter is invariably a broad professional category, rather than a specific individual. A neuter pronoun never makes reference to a noun denoting a single entity. 5

Often slurred in pronunciation to thr be; see also §10.2.1.2.

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4 Personal pronouns English is no stranger to pronouns, but the Spanish versions can differ considerably in type and behavior. That is, Spanish features new kinds of personal pronouns,1 and they behave in unexpected ways.

4.1 Tú vs usted Spanish has distinct you pronouns for “familiar” vs “formal” address. They take different verb forms, since tú is a faithful continuation of the Latin second-person singular pronoun tu you, while usted arose historically as a contraction of the deferential phrase vuestra merced your grace, and thus takes third-person verb agreement. Typically tú is for family members, close friends, children and social inferiors; people whom in English one would address by their first name. Usted is the default form of address for adults with whom one is not (well) acquainted, or with whom one has a purely business/professional relationship, and with social superiors; person whom in English one would address with a title, such as Mr., Ms., Professor, Doctor…. Use of tú vs usted varies over the broad and diverse Spanish-speaking world, depending on region, individuals and circumstances. In some areas, children habitually use tú with their parents (since family ties are intimate), while in others they customarily use usted (to show respect). Some societies tend more towards informality than others. Generally, the choice of which personal pronoun to use in a given exchange beween persons is tied into factors like SOLIDARITY and STATUS/ Tip  As a rule of thumb, address a new acquaintance as usted, unless or until s/he initiates a tú treatment. Tip 

People use tú when they sense a relationship of trust and empathy, of shared life circumstances with the other individual. Trust may come as a result of long-time acquaintance, or may be due to perceived similar circumstances which allow one to easily identify with the other person; e.g. proximity in age, social class, job, shared interests and experiences. They may be classmates,

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 P. W. Klein, Spanish Grammar Companion for Teachers, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-84111-9_4

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clubmates or workmates, family members, or professional colleagues, as well as old friends. Assuming that these perceptions are mutual, then these individuals will use tú with each other. But if the persons do not perceive shared circumstances and sufficient common ground, they will more likely use usted. This is the typical situation between strangers who interact during the course of daily affairs, such as customer and sales clerk or office bureaucrat, workmates in an impersonal office, tenants in an apartment building, regional managers called together for a meeting at headquarters, etc. Even people in similar circumstances may prefer to tratarse de usted instead of tutearse, in order to maintain a comfortable distance. The ease of later making the switch from usted to tú varies according to country, region, age group, etc; it is perhaps greater in warmer climes and among young people. If in doubt, it is always safe to start a new relationship using usted, with the option of switching to tú later if circumstances so allow. The sociolinguistic relationships just described are notably symmetrical, in the sense that both individuals use tú or both use usted, where a similarity of social standing accompanies such reciprocal pronoun use. But there are other situations where one individual has greater status than, and power over, the other, such as students relative to their professor, children vis-à-vis their elders, a homeowner vis-à-vis his live-in maid, the driver of an expensive new car in a traffic conflict with the driver of a humble rattletrap, a politician pandering to the electorate, a boss lording it over an “underling,” a police officer cornering a criminal, a banker angered by the bill his auto mechanic has just presented to him, a landowner vis-à-vis a peasant who works his land, a well-dressed patron dining in an outdoor café vs the toothless old lady who approaches him selling flowers. In these circumstances where inequality of status and power replace trust and solidarity, pronoun treatment will be non-reciprocal. Here the person dominant in status has the option of choosing either tú (to underscore the status differential) or usted (to magnanimously show respect for another human being), but the lower-status individual MUST use deferential usted. For such an individual to use tú would be taken as offensive by the dominant party.

4.2 Subjects English sentences characteristically have an overt subject; this subject precedes its verb.2 This is true even of verbs which lack a real subject (such as “weather verbs”), whose dummy it refers to nothing, but still must be present. Did it snow

No, but it is raining now.

Will it be warmer tomorrow?

It is also true of those “impersonal” verbs (§1.6) with it, whose true subject (a clause) appears, not preverbally, but postverbally, perhaps at the end of the sentence. [That Janet arrived so late] surprised me.

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➔

69

It surprised me [that Janet arrived so late].

Personal pronouns

The corresponding Spanish sentences do not use a subject pronoun at all. ¿Nevó? No, pero ahora llueve. Mañana hará más calor? [Que Anita llegara tan tarde] me sorprendió. ➔ Me sorprendió [que Anita llegara tan tarde]. In fact the English it subject is never translated3 (always omitted: Ø) in Spanish, even when it has a specific referent. There’s something wrong with this car: it won’t start. Algo le pasa a este auto: ø no quiere arrancar. Your shirt is dirty; it has grease spots. Tu camisa está sucia; ø está manchada de grasa. Similarly, the Spanish subject pronoun is often dropped when unnecessary; e.g. when a subject is unchanged from that of the previous verb, as in (a) ‒whereas English needs to repeat she each time ‒ or in (b) when it carries no essential information (only nosotros could be the subject of empezábamos); the same goes for tú in the case of llamaste. (a) Cuando llegó mamá, ø estaba cansada. ø Se sentó, ø se hizo un té y ø prendió la radio. (b) [nosotros] Empezábamos a comer cuando [tú] llamaste. In contrast, Spanish subject pronouns must be present (cannot be omitted) when they are emphasized, or contrasted with another subject. In such a case they may also be moved to postverbal position for greater effect. ¿Está descompuesto el impresor? Pues llamemos a Claudia: ella sabrá arreglarlo. Mientras ella nos arregla la computadora, nosotros seguimos charlando. Tres veces ya lo intenté yo; inténtalo tú. [*Ya lo intenté; inténtalo.]

emphasis contrast both

4.3 Objects English-speakers are accustomed to distinguishing between object and subject: I know her well (*me know she well) and she knows me, too (*her knows I); they tacitly know that there are different pronouns for different functions. But English does not distinguish the form of the prepositional object from that of the verbal object or ‒in this latter category‒ the direct from the indirect verbal objects. Spanish, however, does typically use three different forms for these three separate functions, so that the English speaker must learn to make new distinctions.

Aquí hay una silla. ¿La ves? Voy a darle una patadita. Ahora me siento en ella.

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…Do you see it? …give it a little kick. …sitting down on it.

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objeto directo (de verbo) objeto indirecto (de verbo) objeto de preposición

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Mi novia es Inés. ¿La conoces? Hoy voy a darle un regalo. Pienso casarme con ella.

…Do you know her? …give her a present. …plan to marry her.

objeto directo (de verbo) objeto indirecto (de verbo) objeto de preposición

Me gustó el sofá y lo compré. Luego le puse una cubierta. ¿Quieres tenderte en él?

…couch … I bought it. objeto directo (de verbo) …I put a cover on it. objeto indirecto (de verbo) …like to lie down on it? objeto de preposición

4.3.1 Strong vs. weak Not only does Spanish have four distinct sets of pronouns against English’s two, it also distinguishes between strong pronouns and weak ones (“clitics”), with their strikingly different characteristics. Failure to appreciate these differences leads to student errors such as *Vi a ella. (➔La vi) for I saw her and *Señora, no conozco a usted. (➔Señora, a usted no la conozco.) for I don’t know you.. PERSONAL PRONOUNS

STRONG verbal

subject

sg.

1ª 2ª 3ª 1ª

pl.

2ª 3ª

reflexivo 3ª

prepositional object

yo tú usted él ella nosotros/as vosotros/as ustedes ellos/as

CLITIC

mí ti usted él ella nosotros/as vosotros/as ustedes ellos/as

—

sí

verbal direct

verbal indirect

object

object

me te la/lo4 lo la

me te le le le

nos os las/los los/las

nos os les les

se

se

Fig. 4-1: personal pronombrismo in international standard Spanish: lengua culta All Spanish VERBAL object pronouns are clitics! But mistakenly using clitics as PREPOSITIONAL objects as well gives rise to distortions like Cuando Cristóbal me preguntó sobre el nuevo presupuesto, le dije que no sabía nada de *lo. (➔…no sabía nada de él) for When Christopher asked me about the new budget, I told him I knew nothing about it. (This sentence illustrates a

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common error where some students confuse vocabulary with grammar. They simplistically decide that lo means it, and él means him, in all cases, oblivious to grammatical function, which is the controlling factor.) “Weakness” in Spanish verbal object pronouns means dependence on an adjacent verb, on which the clitic “leans” (the etymological sense of the Greek term klitikos). They cannot stand alone (verbless), as can English object pronouns.5

Q: Who wants ice cream? ‒¿Quién quiere helados?

A: I do! Me! ‒¡Yo!

Q: Who shall I give these chocolates to? ‒¿A quién le doy estos chocolates?

A: Me! ‒*¡Me!

➔ ¡A

mí!

The strong pronoun yo can be used in isolation, as can all English pronouns. But the clitic me, which cannot stand by itself, is excluded and replaced by the corresponding strong pronoun functioning as prepositional object. Tip  Respecting these distinctions between strong and weak pronouns, subject vs object, verbal object vs prepositional object, is fundamental to effective pronominal usage in Spanish. Tip 

4.3.2 Emphasis and repetition A consequence of clitic weakness is that such pronouns are incapable of carrying stress, and thus require a different strategy for marking emphasis. Whereas English just “shouts” a pronoun (raises the tone and volume of the voice) in order to emphasize it or contrast it with another element, Spanish has recourse to an alternative solution which is more structural than phonetic: it supplements the clitic with a prepositional phrase containing a stressable strong pronoun:6 I gave it to him, not to her. Se la di a él, no a ella. The nurses helped them, but they paid no attention to you or to me. Las enfermeras los ayudaron a ellos, pero a ti y a mí no nos hicieron caso. The preposition in these cases may only be a. It is a dummy preposition, arising by grammatical fiat, placed there to accompany the indirect object. Neither is it available as a translation for the English phrase To me, (used in stating an opinion, as in To me, these tomatoes lack flavor.), which must be para mí rather than *a mí. Para mí estos tomates no tienen sabor. (Cf: A mí me parece que estos tomates no tienen sabor. where a mí is emphatic for me.)

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The “real” and obligatory object pronoun, the clitic, accompanies the SUPPLEMENTARY prepositional phrase; it is NOT REPLACED by it. Contrastive stress invariably falls on the (strong) prepositional object, since the clitic cannot carry stress. This construction, in which two pronouns coexist, is sometimes called “redundant” But it is by no means superfluous, since each pronoun has a role to play: the clitic satisfies the verb’s requirement for an object (régimen §1.5), and the supplement provides a vehicle for vocal emphasis and contrast. Moreover, apart from matters of stress, emphasis and contrast, repeated pronoun objects are REQUIRED in constructions such as the following, where the main object is a noun or noun phrase, with the pronoun serving a duplicative function: ❖ When an object (direct or indirect) in its normal location following its verb, gets moved to the left of its verb (a process called “fronting”).7,8 Los erizos no los como a gusto. El auto lo vendí, pero la casa la mantengo. A los refugiados los recibieron con entusiasmo. A los damnificados les dieron una prórroga de 15 días. La novela la escribí en un mes; al libro de poemas le dediqué un año. A mis padres los telefoneé; a los demás parientes les escribí tarjetas. ❖

It is best practice to repeat (via clitic) every INDIRECT lexical object, in whatever position. Le mandamos cantar a mi papá. Hay que pedirles permiso a los dueños de la pensión.

❖ The clitic is obligatory for all gustar-type verbs, whether or not they come with a lexical object as well. A mi hermanita le dolía mucho el estómago. Les toca a los mayores ayudarles a los menores. A muchos estudiantes no les gustan los exámenes. No le concierne al gobierno regular la moral pública. Nos falta presupuesto para completar el proyecto. ¿No te importa la opinión ajena? Te conviene prestarle más atención. The gustar verbs are said in textbooks for English-speakers to exhibit a “reverse” or “inverted” construction, because their régimen (§1.5) diverges from that of corresponding English verbs: subject and (indirect) object are switched.

We liked the election results. Nos gustaron los resultados de los comicios.

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The election results were pleasing to us. I don’t much like seafood. No me gustan mucho los mariscos. I am not much pleased by seafood. Horace likes Eloise, but she doesn’t like him. A Horacio le gusta Eloisa, pero a ella no le gusta él. Eloise pleases Horace, but he isn’t pleasing to her. Among the most common gustar-type verbs we find: aburrirle(s) bore hacerle(s) falta be needed caerle(s) bien make a good impression on irle(s) bien go well for one caerle(s) mal make a bad impression on irle(s) mal go badly for one disgustarle(s) displease ocurrirle(s) happen dolerle(s) hurt (said of body parts) quedarle(s) have left over extrañarle(s) miss sobrarle(s) have in excess encantarle(s) delight venirle(s) bien be good for one faltarle(s) be missing venirle(s) mal be bad for one. Tip  Two things to remember about gustar-type verbs: (a) their object is always indirect (never direct), and (b) the English-version subject and object are switched in Spanish. Tip 

Notice that, whereas all indirect objects are routinely doubled with a clitic, the same is not true for the DIRECT object, except when that direct object is todo(s): English shows a similar behavior with all: We ate them all. He knows it all. ¿Las empanadas? Ya las comimos todas. Ese cretino cree que lo sabe todo.9

4.3.3 Direct object or indirect? As seen in §2.5, the kind of object a given verb takes (if any) is a matter of régimen (government), an essential, though unpredictable, detail, akin to gender in nouns, best internalized at the time a new word is first learned. Nevertheless, a useful rough “rule of thumb” states that if in English one can coherently put to in front of the object, it will typically be indirect in Spanish; conversely, if English rejects to before the object in question, it is likely direct in Spanish; e.g.: Do you write (to) her often? ➔ INDIRECT ¿Le escribes a menudo? Do you criticize (*to) her often?

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Of course, predicting the behavior of one language in terms of another is unreliable. It is far preferable to appreciate the structure of the target language itself. One stragegy for doing so is to check to see if the verb in question fits into one of the following categories of verbs known to include an indirect-object in its régimen:

❖

REVERSE-CONSTRUCTION

(“inverted”) verbs like gustar always take an INDIRECT object,

and never a direct. Le caíste bien al entrenador; le haces mucha falta al equipo. You impressed the coach; the team really needs you. Le duelen los ojos porque le faltan los anteojos. Her eyes hurt because she’s missing her glasses. ❖ Verbs with a (silent, hidden) UNDERSTOOD DIRECT OBJECT show only the INDIRECT object, omitting the direct. Tras verificar su trabajo, le pagamos. After verifying his work, we paid him (his wage). A mi hermano le ganó tres veces seguidas. She beat my brother three times straight (games). Le robaron cuando se dirigía a su empleo. They robbed him on his way to work (possessions). Salieron antes que pudieras agradecerles. They left before you could thank them (the favor). Cuando se negó a contestarle, le pegó. When he refused to answer her, she beat him (blows). ❖ Certain DOUBLE-SENSE verbs take an INDIRECT object if referring to a “psychological” or “mental” experience, but a DIRECT object if a corresponding physical activity is intended. Oír los comentarios negativos le molestaba. Hearing the negative comments disturbed her. No la molestes ahora; está ocupadísima. Don’t disturb her now; she’s super busy. A José le sorprendió que no lo eligieran. Joe was surprised not be be selected. A José lo sorprendí robándoles dinero. I caught Joe stealing money from them. A Sandra le toca lavar los platos esta tarde.

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It’s Sandra’s turn to wash the dishes this evening. A Sandra no le gusta que la toquen. Sandra doesn’t like to be touched. ❖ Most verbs have the option of adding on an INDIRECT object in order to indicate the PERSON INTERESTED in or AFFECTED by the action or situation referenced by the verb (positively or negatively; obviously or subtly). Un par de zapatos dura un año. (in general) A mi hijo un par de zapatos le dura dos meses. A pair of shoes lasts two months for my son. Mañana empiezan las clases. (in general) Mañana les empiezan las clases a mis hijas. Classes begin tomorrow for my daughters. Es difícil aprender otro idioma. (in general) Le es difícil aprender otro idioma a mi papá. It’s hard to learn another language for my dad. La Sra. Sumarresta enseña matemáticas. (in general) La Sra. Pincel les enseña dibujo a los discapacitados. Mrs. Pincel teaches drawing to the handicapped. Tip  Such general strategies may prove useful in telling direct from indirect objects, but they go only part way. In cases where they don’t seem to apply, the student must fall back on a solid knowledge of régimen. Tip 

4.3.4 Leísmo: minority option So far this pronoun presentation has assumed the standard lengua culta pronoun system of Fig. 4-1. There exist, however, divergences from that norm, such as voseo replacement of tú (§0.2.2.2). One which merits particular attention here is typical of north-central Spain, a large region which includes Madrid, political and cultural capital of the country, from whence the mass media project this usage nationally to compete with the traditional pronombrismo of Fig. 4-1. We refer to leísmo,10 which deviates from the standard pronombrismo of Fig. 4-1 in just one respect: the masculine direct-object personal pronoun is le(s) instead of lo(s). The following observations are especially relevant: ❖ This is a historical has lo in this role.

DEVIATION

in the sense that the linear develoment from Latin to Spanish

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❖ Only a MINORITY (