Ateneo - UPO

Phonetics, phonology, and morphosyntax of the Spanish language.

A) Compulsory readings for all students:
A1. Manuel Carrera Díaz [2013], "Grammatica spagnola", Bari: Laterza, pp. 30-73, 140-153, 178-255, 324-362;
A2. Real Academia Española [2019], "Gramática y ortografía básicas de la lengua española", Barcelona: Planeta, capp. 8-12 (pp. 85-128);
A3. Real Academia Española [2019], "Nueva gramática de la lengua española", Barcelona: Planeta, cap. 23 (pp.427-453);
A4. Materials uploaded to the DIR platform by the professor.

B) Additional compulsory reading for non-attending students (recommended for attending students):
B1. Matteo Lefèvre [2015], "La traduzione dello spagnolo. Teoria e pratica", Roma: Carocci, pp. 49-68.

C) Recommended dictionary:
C1. Diccionario Salamanca de la lengua española.

The course aims at analysing metalinguistically the Spanish language, from both a theoretical and applied perspective, focusing on its phonetic-phonological and morphosyntactic structures, examined from both a contrastive perspective with respect to Italian [15 hours] and a translation perspective [15 hours].
The course therefore aims to:
1. provide students with critical tools for metalinguistic reflection, carried out from a contrastive perspective;
2. develop basic competences in the field of Spanish-Italian translation, with particular attention to the divergent morphosyntactic structures examined during the course.

To be admitted to the exam, students must have passed the first-year SPANISH LANGUAGE exam. It is also preferable that they have already taken the first-year exam of GENERAL LINGUISTICS.

Lectures with a seminar-based approach and active student participation. Use of the DIR platform and digital tools.

At the beginning of the academic year, a vademecum is published on all DIR pages for Spanish Language and Linguistics. It provides detailed information on examinations, exam sessions, students with specific learning disorders and compensatory measures, Erasmus, and other academic matters. This document is compulsory reading for all students.
Students with physical disabilities, Learning Disabilities or Special Education Needs can request specific services and tools via the Staff Sviluppo e Coordinamento Carriere e Servizi alle Studentesse e agli Studenti, consulting the University webpage: https://www.uniupo.it/en/services/services-students-physical-or-learning-disabilities. Students with disabilities, learning disabilities or special education needs, once they have contacted the University Staff, must refer to the tutor in charge of the course to define the examination modalities, concerning academic aspects.

The acquisition of knowledge and compentences will be assessed through a written exam [2 hours and 30 minutes] structured as follows: 2 theoretical-practical exercises on the contents of phonetics, phonology, and morphosyntax; 2 open-ended questions on the theoretical contents of the course; 1 translation from Spanish into Italian, with a commentary on the main phenomena studied emerging from the text. The use of a monolingual dictionary is permitted. The exam will be considered passed if a minimum score of 18/30 is achieved.

ASSESSMENT CRITERIA AND GRADE ASSIGNMENT: The exam will be considered excellent if it demonstrates: excellent knowledge of the theoretical contents of the course; the ability to analyse and describe rigorously and with awareness the main phonetic-phonological and morphosyntactic phenomena of Spanish, also from a contrastive perspective with respect to Italian; the ability to recognise, justify, and contextualise the characteristics of the standard norm and of the main varieties; full command of the relevant terminology, excellent presentation and argumentative skills, and extensive and pertinent use of examples to illustrate the phenomena studied; the ability to produce a correct, fluent, and context-appropriate translation, accompanied by a precise and critical commentary on the main morphosyntactic divergences between Spanish and Italian emerging from the text. The exam will be considered satisfactory if it demonstrates: good knowledge of the fundamental contents of the course; the ability to correctly identify and describe the main phonetic-phonological and morphosyntactic phenomena of Spanish, also from a contrastive perspective, although with some slight inaccuracies in the analysis or formulation of judgements; knowledge of the standard norm and of the main linguistic varieties; good command of the relevant terminology, generally appropriate presentation skills, and adequate use of examples to support the analysis of the phenomena studied; the ability to produce an overall correct translation, although with slight inaccuracies, and to comment on the main interlinguistic differences. The exam will be considered sufficient if it demonstrates: essential knowledge of the contents of the course; the ability to recognise and describe the main phonetic-phonological and morphosyntactic phenomena of Spanish, although in a predominantly descriptive or not always accurate manner; basic use of the relevant terminology and limited or not always correct use of examples to support the description of the phenomena studied; the ability to produce an overall correct translation, despite some linguistic inaccuracies, and with a limited commentary on the main interlinguistic differences. The exam will be considered insufficient if it demonstrates: serious gaps in the knowledge of the theoretical contents of the course; limited knowledge of the main phonetic-phonological and morphosyntactic phenomena of Spanish, which does not allow an adequate analysis of the data provided; inadequate use of the relevant terminology and examples; a translation that is not sufficiently accurate and an inadequate commentary on the main interlinguistic differences.

During the course, the main phonetic-phonological phenomena of Spanish will be examined, as well as the following morphosyntactic contents (morphology, functions, uses, and syntactic rules) from a contrastive and translation perspective: stressed and unstressed personal pronouns, articles, demonstratives, possessives, quantifiers, the prepositional accusative, ‘ser’ and ‘estar’ (predicative and attributive uses), the indicative and the conditional.

At the end of the course, students will achieve the following learning objectives:

KNOWLEDGE:
1. they have a theoretical knowledge of Spanish phonology, morphology, and morphosyntax;
2. they possess the fundamentals of Spanish-Italian contrastive linguistics.

SKILLS/COMPETENCES:
1. they are able to recognise linguistic norms and variation in Spanish, also from a contrastive perspective with respect to Italian;
2. they are able to identify, also through concrete examples, the main phonological and morphosyntactic phenomena of Spanish;
3. they are able to express reasoned judgements on the grammatical characteristics of standard Spanish [and its main standard varieties] in relation to non-standard forms and Italian;
4. they are able to accurately express the main linguistic concepts related to Spanish-Italian contrastive analysis and describe the phenomena studied using appropriate terminology;
5. they are able to apply the acquired morphosyntactic knowledge to translation from Spanish into Italian, identifying the main structural divergences between the two languages and adopting translation solutions appropriate to the context.