teaching

SPAN-225 - Lying, Swearing and Breaking the Rules: An Introduction to the Linguistic Study of Spanish

This is an introductory linguistics course in which students learn about the major sub-fields in the discipline and how to critically analyze certain myths about language through a series of focused modules on different linguistic topics of relevance in the Spanish-speaking world. The course is given in Spanish.

SPAN-320 - Spanish Phonetics

The primary objectives of this course are: (i) to introduce students to the basic skills to accurately describe the sounds and rhythm of spoken Spanish and (ii) to show how those skills can be used to make testable hypotheses about how the sounds of Spanish (and language in general) are organized in a native speaker’s mental grammar. The course is divided into units on syllable structure, articulatory phonetics of vowels and consonants, acoustic phonetics, using Praat, the phonemic inventory of Spanish, intonation and dialectology. Throughout the course, students are presented with key contrasts between the articulatory phonetics of certain English and Spanish vowel and consonant sounds as well as differences in the phonemic inventory of the two languages. This course is given in Spanish.

SPAN-321 - The Structure of Spanish (morphology and syntax)

The primary objective of this course is to introduce students to how words, phrases and sentences are organized and interpreted in Spanish. We start by discussing ways of identifying lexical categories such as noun, verb and adjective, derivational morphology and then use a simple set of phrase structure rules to describe the organization of phrases and sentences in Spanish. These concepts are applied to readings and videos throughout the course. This course is given in Spanish.

SPAN-327 - Spanish Morphology

This course provides an introduction to morphological description and analysis of Spanish. We begin with classic problems such as how to define the notion 'word' and then discuss topics in inflection, derivation and other types of word formation. We make ample use of so-called "stigmatized" varieties of Spanish in developing an understanding of how inflectional and derivational processes vary in different speech communities. Students also use various linguistic corpora to answer questions about productivity and regional variability of different word forms. This course is given in Spanish.

SPAN-446 -Topics in Linguistics (undergraduate)

Introduction to Spanish Syntax from a Generative Perspective 

This course gradually introduces students to syntax from a generative perspective with an application to Spanish . It is divided into three main parts. First, we review and practice traditional terminology and 'sentence diagramming.' We then discuss certain foundational issues in generative linguistics such as 'Plato's problem', 'the poverty of stimulus' arguments, the distinction between i-language and e-language and the objectives of constructing a theory of a native speaker's i-language. Finally, we go step-by-step through different fragments of Spanish in order to construct a grammar of the language and create testable hypotheses about how the language works. Beyond simply learning about syntax, there is a heavy focus on argumentation and clear writing throughout the course. We also apply general concepts to languages in contact with Spanish in Europe and the Americas.  This is course is given in Spanish.

Mayan Languages and Linguistics

When most people hear 'Maya' or 'Mayan' they think of pyramids and an ancient civilization that mysteriously disappeared. In reality, Mayan culture and language are still a vital part of daily life in much of Guatemala, Belize and southern Mexico. The Mayan languages have fascinating sound systems and grammars that have greatly contributed to theories of how human language works. Additionally, Mayan people have been at the center of recent social and political movements about the civil, human and linguistic rights of indigenous communities. This course is an introduction to the Mayan language family and linguistic analysis of Mayan languages. There are three main objectives: (i) gain a general understanding of the language family and its linguistic characteristics (sounds, words, sentence structure), (ii) gain an understanding of how the Spanish spoken by Mayan speakers, and in areas where Mayan languages are in contact with Spanish, is different from other varieties of Spanish in the world and (iii) discuss the ethics of doing linguistic research in indigenous communities, an area in which Linguistics overlaps with many other topics in Indigenous Studies. This course is given in Spanish.

SPAN-630 -Topics in Linguistics (graduate)

Introduction to Spanish Syntax from a Generative Perspective 

This course gradually introduces students to syntax from a generative perspective with an application to Spanish . It is divided into three main parts. First, we review and practice traditional terminology and 'sentence diagramming.' We then discuss certain foundational issues in generative linguistics such as 'Plato's problem', 'the poverty of stimulus' arguments, the distinction between i-language and e-language and the objectives of constructing a theory of a native speaker's i-language. Finally, we go step-by-step through different fragments of Spanish in order to construct a grammar of the language and create testable hypotheses about how the language works. Beyond simply learning about syntax, there is a heavy focus on argumentation and clear writing throughout the course. We also apply general concepts to languages in contact with Spanish in Europe and the Americas.  This is course is given in Spanish and English.

Morphosyntactic Variation

In this course we study specific morphological, syntactic and semantic phenomena that exhibit variation across the Spanish speaking world. By “variation” we mean different ways of encoding the same or similar meanings. For instance, there are two ways to say “there were three people at the meeting” in Spanish: había tres personas en la reunión and habían tres personas en la reunión. The first way, which is the standard across all varieties of Spanish, involves a non-agreeing form of the existential verb haber. The second way, which involves an agreeing form of the existential verb, is characteristic of many spoken varieties and often deemed “sub-standard” or “incorrect” in normative grammars. Such variation raises fundamental questions for the study of the mental grammar that is shared among speakers of certain speech communities, which will be our primary focus in the course. For each course reading, we focus on four questions: (i) what varies and how do we accurately describe it? (ii) what is the distribution of the variation – is it regional, social, generational, etc.? (iii) what is the likely cause of the variation – has it arisen through an internal mechanism, contact with another language, etc.? and (iv) what methods are used by researchers to answer questions (i)-(iii)? Course readings showcase a wide range of grammatical phenomena (e.g. pronominal clitics, ser/estar, subject and object expression/omission, to name just a few), regional and ethnic varieties (e.g. different Iberian and Latin American as well as Afro-Hispanic varieties) and methods (e.g. traditional dialect surveys and elicitation, analyses of sociolinguistic interviews, corpus studies and experimental approaches). This course is given in Spanish and English.