2

INDEXINDEX

PART A: THEORY

UNIT 1: BASIC PRINCIPLES OF CONTRASTIVE

LINGUISTICS

1. Definition and objectives

2. Bilingualism and linguistics interference

3. Language universals and linguistic and

cultural relativism

UNIT 2: APPLICATIONS OF CONTRASTIVE STUDIES

1. Language learning

1.1 Contrastive Analysis

1.2 Error Analysis

1.3 Interlanguage

2. Intercultural communication problems

3. Translation problems

UNIT 3: DESCRIPTIVE AND CONTRATIVE STUDY OF

THE PHONOGRAPHIC LEVEL

1. English and Spanish phonological systems in

contrast

1.1 English and Spanish consonant system in

contrast

1.2 English and Spanish vowel system in contrast

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1.2.1 Spanish vowels

1.2.2 English vowels

2. Punctuation and spelling in contrast

2.1 Stress

2.2 Punctuation and Orthography

UNIT 4: DESCRIPTIVE AND CONTRATIVE STUDY OF

THE GRAMMATICAL LEVEL

1. The Noun Phrase

1.1 Number

1.1.1Number in English

1.1.2Number in Spanish

1.2 Gender

1.2.1Gender in English

1.2.2Gender in Spanish

1.3 Diminutives

2. The Verb Phrase

2.1 Modals

2.2 To be: ser vs. estar

3. Other grammar differences

3.1 Reported speech

3.2 Noun clauses as subjects of impersonal verbs

UNIT 5: DESCRIPTIVE AND CONTRATIVE STUDY OF

THE LEXICAL AND SEMANTIC LEVEL

1. Degrees of similarities between words

2. Restrictions on the use of lexical units

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2.1 Selectional restrictions

2.2 Collocations restrictions

3. Semantic relations between lexical items

3.1 Polysemy

3.2 Homonymy

3.3 Synonyms

3.4 Antonyms

3.5 Semantic fields

3.6 Connotative meaning

PART B: PRACTICE PART B: PRACTICE

1. Handout with all information about the subject.

2. Papers done for the course:

a. Spanish and English Phrasal Systems: a

contrastive analysis.

b. Lexis

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6

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UNIT 1UNIT 1

BASIC PRINCIPLES OF CONTRASTIVEBASIC PRINCIPLES OF CONTRASTIVE

LINGUISTICSLINGUISTICS

ORIGINS OF CONTRASTIVE LINGUISTICS

- Grammars Aelfric’s Gramatica (c. 1000)

- Glosses and translations

- Vocabulary

- Dictionaries

o William Stepney, English-Spanish, Spanish

Schoolemaster (1591)

o Giral Delpino, A dictionary Spanish and

English, and English and Spanish (1973)

1. DEFINITION AND OBJECTIVES

It is quite important to differ between the different

branches of linguistics.

Comparative linguistics refers to that type of

general linguistics that makes use of the comparative

method by comparing different elements.

It can be synchronic linguistics, presented by Saussure

in the 20th C., that studies language in a particular

period of time (e.g. current Spanish); or diachronic

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linguistics that studies language over time (e.g. Spanish

from its beginning).

Historical linguistics it is the branch of linguistics

that studies the changes suffered through the history of

the language. It is concerned with the explanation of the

language, and its aim is reconstructing former periods

or stages of a particular language and to reconstruct the

language itself.

Typological linguistics it is a subfield of linguistics

that studies and classifies languages according to their

structural features. Its aim is to describe and explain the

structural diversity of the world's languages.

Contrastive linguistics part of comparative

linguistics, but concerned on the comparison between

two or more languages, according to determine both

differences and similarities that these languages hold.

They are focused mainly on the differences.

Frisick defines it as a subdiscipline of linguistics which

is concerned with the comparison of two or more

languages (or subsystems of languages) in order to

determine both the differences and similarities that hold

between them.

Steps of the comparison

1) Description the scholar must choose a suitable

framework of comparison, and it must be the same

for both languages. Every analysis should be founded

on independent descriptions of the important cluster

of the language compared.

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2) Juxtaposition selection of the material to be

compared. This is not without controversy, as it is

usually the scholar who decides what to compare

based on their intuition and knowledge of the

language.

3) Comparison or contrastive analysis in the strict

sense.

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2. BILINGUALISM AND LINGUISTIC INTERFERENCE

Contrastive linguistics is somehow possible because

there are bilingual speakers. It must be distinguished

among individual and social bilingualism:

Individual bilingualism some individuals are able

to speak in two or more languages.

Social bilingualism refers to a speech community

which is able to speak more than one language. For

example, Basque country: Basque and Spanish.

Being bilingual or not means different things

depending on the author.

According to McMannan: “A person that is bilingual has

the ability of speaking, reading, writing, understanding in

those languages”; whereas other authors consider that a

bilingual person is anyone who has the command of a

native speaker (it requires one of the parents to be foreign

and the speaker to be born and brought up in a foreign

country). Therefore, it is a very restrictive definition.

It is difficult to determine the degree of bilingualism a

persona has, because it depends on many factors, such as

motivation, feelings, aptitude of the person etc.

There are people that can be considered bilingual in

all degrees, but normally there is a dominant language that

is used in a determined area and other language that is

used in other situations.

There are some experiments of researches who study

children since very early, but there are not clear results. In

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the same way, there is not a clear distinction in the way a

bilingual is different from a monolingual person that

studies another language later.

There are some aspects to take into account when dealing

with bilingualism:

IMPORTANT ASPECTS!

Degree: level of competence of bilingual speakers or

proficiency.

Function: Use of the involved languages on the part of

the bilinguals.

Alternation treats the extent to which a bilingual

person switches or alternates between the languages.

Interference: It has to do with the extent to which a

bilingual person is able to do separate those languages

or whether they fused.

TYPES OF BILINGUALISM (Weinreich, 1953)

1) Coordinate bilingualism a person who learns the

language in separate environment. Languages are kept

separate in two linguistic systems.

2) Compound bilingualism: This person learns the two

languages in the same context, so there is just one

linguistic system with two different levels attached to

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it.

3) Sub-coordinate bilingualism: It a subtype of

compound bilingualism. The person would interpret

words through the words of the other languages. There

are a dominant language and a weak language, where

the words of the weak language are interpreted

through the words of the dominant language.

Bilinguals normally tend to mix words of one language

when they are speaking in the other language. This is

called code-switching, and different types can be

distinguished.

TYPES OF CODE-SWITCHING (Poplack, 1980)

Tag-switching involves the insertion of a tag in one

language into an utterance which is otherwise entirely in

the other language, e.g. you know, I mean or ¿verdad?. I

could understand que you don’t know Spanish ¿verdad?

Intersential switching involves a switch within a clause

or sentence boundary, where each clause sentence is in

one language or another. It may also occur between

speaker’s turns. Sometimes I start a sentence in Spanish

and termino en ingles.

Intrasential switching involves, arguably, the greatest

syntactic risk and may be avoided by all but the most

fluent bilingual.

Siempre está promising cosas.

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Lo sé, porque I went to the hospital to find out where

he was.

3. LANGUAGE UNIVERSALS AND LINGUISTIC

INTERFERENCE

There are some features that are common to all

languages. For example, Subject + Verb + Object.

Linguists then tend to set up some patterns that are

common in all languages. These features that tend to be

shared by all languages are considered language

universals.

Another notion of language universals is the first and

second person ( I, you) that also tends to exits in every

language. In the same way, some semantic features are

universal in most languages:

determiners: other, these

quantifiers: one

evaluators: good/bad

descriptors: small/big.

words related to speech: say, speak,

words.

possession: have or something similar.

death: die.

There are some features that are shared, due to this

contrastive linguistics is possible: there is something to

contrast. Contrastive linguistics tries to look for specific

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realisations of some of those universals, that is, how this

realisation is done, for example, in English and Spanish.

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UNIT 2UNIT 2

APPLICATIONS OF CONTRASTIVEAPPLICATIONS OF CONTRASTIVE

STUDIESSTUDIES

1. LANGUAGE LEARNING

1.1 Contrastive analysis

The contrastive analysis consists of establishing a

systematic comparison between two languages at all levels.

It is based on the views of structuralism and behaviourism.

In this sense, the language is seen as a condition disposed

and believing that errors, and is believed that errors result

from the interference of learners with their native

language.

Scholars within this framework think that errors are due to

the differences between the mother and foreign tongue.

Their aim is to predict the differences and errors that will

take place during the learning process.

Shortcoming students will make other errors, not only

interference.

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CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS APPROACHCONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS APPROACH 11

Chronology: (1945-1967)

Proponents (predecessors): C.Fries (1945) and R.Lado (1957).

Principles

The systematic and synchronic comparison of two linguistic

systems - the mother tongue or L1 and the target language L2 –

will determine the differences and analogies in order to predict

the difficult areas in the learning of a given L2.

Concepts

a) Interference linguistic phenomenon where by a

phonetics, morphological, syntactic or lexical characteristic

of a mother language will appear in the structure of the

language used by the learner of a L2.

b) Error deviance from the norm of the target language, its

origin lies in the interference with learner’s mother tongue.

Methodology

a) Structural description of L1 and L2

b) Comparison of the descriptions

c) Listing of non equivalent structures

d) Establishment of a hierarchy of difficulty

e) Prediction and description of learning difficulties

f) Pedagogical material design

Criticism

a) Scarce applicability to teaching

b) Abstraction of the descriptions

c) Lack of a clear theoretical linguistic framework

1 Adapted from Santos Gargallo (1993)17

d) Limited conception of error origin

e) Failure in predictions

Teaching methodology

a) Translation method

b) Audio-oral method

General Assessment

It established the basis for error analysis and enables us to

understand the present studies on interlanguage and the global

production of a student learning L2.

1.2 Error Analysis

This theory emerged in the 1960’s and was based on

Chomsky’s Generative Grammar. It questions the ideas

proposed by behaviourism.

According to these scholars, errors indicate the stages of

student’s acquisition of the language, rather that

interference with mother tongue.

In this sense, there are similarities between children

learning and foreign learners, because both set up

hypothesis (predictions). They know the rules and apply

them to everything without considering sometimes the

irregularities.

Positive transfer similar in both languages.

Negative transfer (interference) similar in both

languages, but not actually the same. For example,

false friends.

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These scholars also consider that interference can be

not only from your own mother tongue but also from any

other language.

1.2.1 Types of errors

ERRORS by Richards (1974)

a) Interlingual / interference errors caused by the

influence of the mother tongue

b)Intralingual errors coming from the structure of the

target language, similar to those produced by children in

their mother tongue

c) Developmental errors, as well as intralingual errors

are independent from L1. They reflect the student’s

attempts to make hypotheses about the target language

based on their experience.

ERRORS by Norris (1983)

a)Error systematic deviance from the norm

b)Mistake inconsistent or transitional deviance

c) Lapsus deviance due to extralinguistic factors, such as

lack of concentration, short memory or similar

1.3 Interlanguage

Interlanguage is a concept used to define the

linguistic system used by students of a L2, which is

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intermediate between their mother tongue (L1) and the

system of a target language (L2), whose complexity is

increasing in a creative process characterised by the

different stages as language as students acquire new

structures and vocabulary.

It reflects how well the learner is doing it in trying to

acquire the target language. There are then changes over

time and moves closer and closer to the target language,

remaining some errors. However, some never disappear;

they are called fossilised errors.

In describing interlanguage, scholars identify four different

processes that determine the formation of an

interlanguage.

1. Overgeneralization of target language rules,

which consists of extending the use of certain

linguistic forms to contexts in which they are not

appropriate or in which they result in

ungrammaticalities, due to false analogies with other

forms. For example:

*“What did he intended to say?”

* “I didn’t took a big trip”

2. Transfer of training, which has its source in the

way in which skills and exercises are constructed

and ordered. An example is the tendency to use he in

all exercises. As a result, students may use he

instead of she, even when it is necessary, because

textbooks and teachers tend to present exercises

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with the masculine pronoun rather than with

feminine one.

a. Simplification foreign language learners

tend to reduce the target language to a simpler

system and make errors typically involving

omission of various grammatical formula, and

sometimes even function words.

* “Swimming is Ø very interesting and nice

kind of sport”

3. Strategies of communication involve yet another

form of simplification. The errors in this domain

usually have their source in the learner’s conscious

or unconscious condition that one cannot waste too

much time in reflecting on how to say things, even if

one knows how to say them properly. This leads

learners to ignore many grammatical phenomena,

which do not affect communication. These kinds of

errors include the plural number of nouns, certain

function words and certain conjunctions.

4. Transfer from the source language, which is the

familiar process of interference of the source

language patterns.

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INTERLANGUAGEINTERLANGUAGE22

Chronology: (1972-1993)

Proponent (processor /forefather): L Selinker (1972)

Principles

Language is considered a communicative system. It allows the study of

the global production of students to characterise the linguistic system

they use.

Concepts

1. Interlanguage linguistic system used by students of a L2

which is intermediate between their mother tongue (L1) and the

system of a target language (L2), whose complexity is increasing

in a creative process characterised by the different stages as

language as students acquire new structures and vocabulary.

2. Fossilisation linguistic phenomenon that consists of keeping

some aspects of the grammar of the mother tongue in the

structure of the system used by the student.

3. Strategy of communication linguistic phenomenon, which is

the result of the conscious planning. For instance, the past of the

learners to realise a given communicative problem, due to a

linguistic lack.

Methodology

a) Determination of the profile of the informant

b) Determination of the type of analysis (language, luminal or cross-

sectional)

c) Design of the most suitable task to fulfil the objectives

d) Establishment of the factors causing the variability in the

interlanguage

e) Analysis of the data

2 Adapted from Santos Gargallo (1993)22

Criticism

a) Slippery theoretical framework

b) Paucity of empiric studies

Teaching method

Humanist approach

General assessment

It provides a better systematisation of the methodogical approach and a

greater number of empiric studies that test the hypothesis and help in

the process of learning an L2.

2. INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION PROBLEMS

In a communicative process, not everything is

language, but there is also a large number of extra-

linguistic elements that are also important for

communication.

Ana Cestero talks about non-verbal communication

including signs and the cultural system. This cultural

system refers to the behaviour and environmental habits

that are commonly applied to a particular community. In

the western society, for example, citizens expect people to

wear a suit in particular situations. This social aspect gives

you a clue about how the communication is going to be

developed.

3. TRANSLATION PROBLEMS

A good knowledge of the culture of the countries

where the studied languages are spoken enables the

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translator to make a more suitable translation. Culture is

also important for a successful translation. Therefore, the

competence needs to be not only linguistic, but also

cultural.

There are many fixed expressions and linguistic

modulations that can only be understood with a great

cultural competence of both countries.

‘You can bet your life’ ‘Te puedes jugar la vida/el

cuello/el pellejo’

‘Keep off the grass’

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UNIT 3UNIT 3

DESCRIPTIVE AND CONTRASTIVEDESCRIPTIVE AND CONTRASTIVE

STUDY OF THE PHONOGRAPHIC LEVELSTUDY OF THE PHONOGRAPHIC LEVEL

1. ENGLISH AND SPANISH PHONOLOGICAL

SYSTEMS IN CONTRAST

A phoneme is the smallest contrastive phonological

unit which produces differences in meanings, while

allomorphs are different realizations of a particular

phoneme.

Depending on the borrowing sound, the sound /n/ is

different; for example in Antonio [ n ] dental sound,

whereas in angustia [ ŋ ] velar sound.

They are not aware of the difference and there is no

distinction in meaning. This is because they have to do

with phonology, that is, they are allophones and

correspond to the realisations of sounds; on the contrary,

phonemes are studied by phonetics and produce diffences

in meaning.

In English there are distinctive sounds and not in

Spanish. E.g. sin /n/; sing /ŋ/.

There is distinction in the manner of description sounds:

Place of articulation: where the speaker pronounces

the sound.

Manner of articulation: how the speaker

pronounces the sound.

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1.1 English and Spanish consonants in contrast

PHONEM

E

/P/ It is aspirated in English, while it is non-

aspirated in Spanish.

/T/ It is more palatal in Spanish than in

English.

/K/ Spanish pronunciation tends to relax this

sound in final position, but it is

pronounced in English.

/B/ /P/ In Spanish, these sounds are neutralized

at the end of the syllable, but in English

they must be marked.

/H/ It is aspirated in English, but it not

pronounced in Spanish.

/J/ In English it tends to be pronounces as [y]

/S/ In Spanish, it is always voiceless in final

position and it is voiced in the middle of

the syllable.

In English, this distinction between

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voiceless and voiced allow us to

distinguished words

HOUSE (noun) VS HOUSE (verb)

/V/ It does not exist in Spanish, although it

exists is English.

/W/ It is similar in both languages.

1.2 English and Spanish vowels in contrast

1.2.1 Spanish vowels

MODO DE

ARTICULACIÓN

PUNTO DE ARTICULACIÓN

Cerradas

Anteriores Centrales

Posteriores

/i/

/u/

Semiabiertas /e/ /o/

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Abiertas /a/

1.2.2 English vowels

MANNER OF

ARTICULATI

ON

PLACE OF ARTICULATION

FRONT CENTRA

L

BACK

CLOSE

HALF-CLOSE

/i:/

/ı/

/u:/

/u/

MID /e/ /з:/

/ә/

/:ּכ/

HALF-OPEN

OPEN

/æ/ /^/ / /

/a:/

2. PUNCTUATION AND SPELLING IN CONTRAST

2.1 Stress

Normally, stress is placed on the root of the word in

English. In Spanish, the accent tends to be in the middle,

while it tends to be at the beginning of the word in English.

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In Spanish, “acento diacrítico” is marked in order to

avoid confusion between two identical words in spelling.

Next, there are some examples:

WORDS WITH TILDE WORDS WITHOUT TILDE

Personal pronounsMí / tú

Possessives or “mi” as a musical note

Mi /Tu casa Verbs

Sé /déPreposition or nouns

Se / de Affirmative adverb or personal pronoun

Sí / Sí mismo

Conjunction or musicalSi / Si mayor

Plant of infusion Té

Personal pronoun or letter of the alphabet

TeBetween numbers100 ó 200

Conjunction O

Quantity adverbMás

Conjunction Mas no creas que no lo pensé

Meaning “todavía”Aún

Meaning “incluso”Aun

Meaning “solamente”Sólo

Meaning “solo, en soledad”

SoloInterrogative/ Exclamative

QuéRelative pronoun and cojunction

QueInterrogative Dónde / cuándo /cuál, etc.

Relative pronoun Donde / cuando /cual, etc.

ReasonPor qué / porqué

ConjunctionPor que /porque

2.2. Punctuation and Orthography

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DOT [.]

Dot with numeral in English (1.2 million people) >

comma with numeral in Spanish (1,2 million people).

Some 700,000 in English > unos 700.000 in Spanish.

Another 70,000 in English > 70.000 más in Spanish.

Initials and acronyms tend to be written without dot in

English, but it necessary in Spanish. For example: IFK

(English) > J.F.K (Spanish).

COMMA [,]

In English, there is a tendency to use comma before the

conjunctions “and/or”. In Spanish, it is usually wrong to

put comma before “y”, unless the subjects of two clauses

are different.

In English, the comma may be eluded in an adverbial

clause embodied within two coordinate sentences.

In English, comma can be omitted before adverbs or

adjuncts, while in Spanish the use of comma is

preferred, unless they are in ordinary position.

In English, a comma instead of colon is used to

introduce a quotation or the comma after the quotation.

In this case, in English the comma is placed within

quotations marks, while in Spanish it tends to be placed

after quotation marks.

There is also a tendency to use comma with attributive

adjectives in English.

In English, comma is used as headings in letters, e-mails

or other documents, while a colon must be used in

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Spanish.

CAPITAL LETTERS

There are some differences between English and

Spanish in the use of capital letters:

Forms of address, titles and positions are in small

letters in Spanish.

Religious, political, philosophical and artistic

tendencies are written with capital letters in English,

while small letters are used in these cases in Spanish.

For example: Vietnam War VS la Guerra de

Vietnam.

Holidays, months and days are written with capital

letters in English, while small letters are used in these

cases in Spanish.

Languages and adjectives and noun of origin are

written with capital letters in English, while small

letters are used for these cases in Spanish.

Geographical accidents are written with capital

letters in English, while small letters are used for

these cases in Spanish.

Streets, avenues and buildings are written with

capital letters in English, while small letters are used

for these cases in Spanish.

Titles of works are written with capital letters in

English, while small letters are used for these cases in

Spanish.

The beginning of every line in verses is written with

capital letters in English, while small letters are used

for these cases in Spanish.

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UNIT 4UNIT 4

DESCRIPTIVE AND CONTRASTIVEDESCRIPTIVE AND CONTRASTIVE

STUDY OF THE GRAMMATICAL LEVELSTUDY OF THE GRAMMATICAL LEVEL

1. THE NOUN PHRASE

Larger structure headed by a noun; therefore, the

only essential element is the noun (or any other word

functioning as a noun. It can be accompanied by other

categories such as adjectives (or other words or structures

functioning as adjectives) that function as modifiers (before

the noun) or qualifiers (after the noun); articles, and the

so-called determiners that function as determiners.

NP Determiner Modifier Head Qualifier

Nouns are normally divided into: Proper nouns and

common nouns; at the same time, common nouns are

divided into mass nouns (uncountable: water, liquids,

abstract) and count nouns (countable: can be counted,

made plural).

In some occasions, the same noun can be used as

count and uncountable noun, for example:

COUNT NOUNS NON-COUNT NOUNS

He’s an authority on

Egyptian art

He has no authority over

us

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This shop sells small

electric appliances like

irons, toasters, shavers,

mixers, etc…

He is wearing glasses

The iron industry is ….

The vase was made of

glass

Sometimes there are equivalences in both languages

(authority), but sometimes the are not (glass gafas,

cristal)

1.1 Number

Nouns are inflected for number in both English and

Spanish, so In Spanish some suffixes are added to indicate

plural.

1.1.1 Number in English

Countable nouns have normally singular and plural

forms, whereas non-count nouns do not have plural

1. Regular plurals take –s which is pronounced

differently depending on the preceding sound:

a) /s/ if last sound is voiceless (/p, t, k/), as in cats.

b) /z/ if last sound is voiced (vowels, b, d, g, m, n, l, r/),

as in boys.

c) /iz/ if last sound is /s, z, t , d , , / which corresponds

in spelling to <s(s), z(z), ch, ge, sh, x>, as in buses,

classes

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There are some irregularities to this, as when a final

consonant which is voiceless in the singular becomes

voiced in the plural, such as words in –th bath > baths.

The same applies to mouth, oath, path, etc. It does not

apply, however, to nouns ending in –nth, as in months.

2. Some other irregularities are observed in spelling

only. For instance, words ending in –o may add –es as in

echoes, heroes, etc. The e is optional in some words, such

as mosquito(e)s, volcano(e)s, etc.

There are some groups where the –e is omitted:

a) Nouns ending in singular in o preceded by any

vowel sound bamboos, radios, etc.

b) Abbreviations, such as photos, memos, etc.

c) Musical terms of Italian origin, such as

concertos, contraltos, etc.

d) Proper names, such as Eskimos, Filipinos.

3. Some other nouns are irregular in both

pronunciation and spelling, for instance words ending

in the singular –f(e) and in the plural –ves, such as

loaf, wife, thief, etc.

4. Old plural forms that have survived from Old and

Middle English, such as man, woman, foot, etc. and

maintain their original plural.

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5. Words from Latin, Greek and French origin, such as

octopus (octopi), formula (formulae), curriculum

(curricula), basis (bases), phenomenon (phenomena),

index (indexes), bureau (bureaux), etc. that maintain

their original plural.

6. Nouns used as a collective are not inflected, such

as sheep, deer, etc.

7. Words ending in –s and used just with a singular

verb, such as news, linguistics, etc. are not inflected.

8. Words ending in –s and used with a plural verb,

such as people, goods, belongings, etc. are not

inflected.

There are some other irregularities when making the

plural of some nouns in English, but they are not going to

be studied here.

1.1.2 Number in Spanish

1. Nouns that end in a vowel add –s to the singular

form: libros, mesas.

2. Nouns that end in a consonant add –es: papeles,

ciudades.

3. There are mass nouns in English that are count

nouns in Spanish and, as a result, are inflected for

number.

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A piece of furniture = un mueble

A piece of gossip = un cotilleo

A piece of toast = una tostada

A setting (service) of silverware =

un cubierto

A flash of lighting = un relámpago.

A clap of thunder = un trueno

A bit of advice = un consejo

A bit of nonsense = una tontería

A burst (peal) of laughter = una

carcajada

A piece of news = una noticia

4. Some other differences are those cases where

English mass nouns take an –s form, as in news, or

clothes (cloth:trapo), woods, oats (avena, sémola,

urticaria), grits and hives. In Spanish, their

equivalents are inflected for number.

Some exceptions can be found in Spanish too. The

table below summarises the main irregularities or

exceptions.

EXCEPTIONS!

1. If they are stressed on the second or third syllable form

the end (llana o esdrújula) and end in –s or –x is the

determiner the one that marks the plural, such as in el/los

tórax, la (s) tesis, etc.

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2. Foreign words are not usually regularised so they may

keep the original plural or be adapted to the rule, such as

in scanner > escáneres, pixels, faxes but los best-seller

(s), los CD (s), etc.

3. Nouns ending in stressed < i, u > usually take –es, but

sometimes two forms coexist, as in esquís/esquíes or

hindús/hindúes.

4. Just three nouns change the accent position in the plural:

régimen/regímens, cáracter/caracteres,

espécimen/especímenes.

1.2 Gender

In linguistics, two kinds of genders can be clearly

distinguished:

Natural gender for sexes: masculine and

feminine.

Grammatical gender refers to category. It is

morphologically marked.

1.2.1 Gender in English

English has lost the grammatical gender, so most

words are not inflected for it.

Personal

GENDER

CLASSESEXAMPLE

S

PRONOUN

SUBSTITUTIO

N

A.

Masculine

uncle Who-he

B. Feminine aunt Who-she

C. Dual doctor Who-s/he

D. Commonbaby Who-s/he, ?it

Which-it

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An

imate

E.

Collective

family Which-it

Who-they

Non-

personal

F.

Masculine

Higher

animal

bull Which-it

(?Who)-he

G.

Feminine.

Higher

animal

cow Which-it

(?Who)-she

H. Higher

organism

France Which-it/she

I. Lower

animal

ant Which-it

Inan

im J. Inanimate box Which-it

* (Adapted from Quirk et al., 1973:90)

1. Personal masculine / feminine nouns (A / B)

There are nouns that are morphologically unmarked

for gender: bachelor/spinster, king/queen, and

brother/sister.

2. There are others that are morphologically marked

for gender: bridegroom/bridge, duke/duchess,

emperor/empress, and god/goddess.

Most nouns have the same form for masculine and

feminine: parent, child, cousin, author, and painter.

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On some occasions, there is a conscious attempt at

marking the sex by adding a male or female referent,

as in woman student, female nurse.

3. Common gender (D)

The wide selection of pronouns should not be

understood to mean that all these are possible for all

nouns in all contexts.

A mother is not likely to refer to her baby as it, but it

would be possible for someone that is ignorant of its

sex.

4. Collective nouns (E)

Whether we decide to use them as singular or plural

will determine the choice of the verb form usually.

The singular stresses the non-personal collectivity of

the group and the plural. The personal individuality of

the group. It can be distinguished between:

a) Specific: army, clan, class, club, committee.

b) Generic: the aristocracy, the clergy, the elite.

c) Unique: The Arab League, The Congress, The

Papacy.

The following table presents an example of higher

animals:

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HORSE COW

HORSE

COLT: young horse

(male) up to the age of

four of five.

FILLY: female foal.

JACKASS: male ass

MARE: female horse or

donkey.

BULL: uncastrated male

of any animal of the ox

family.

BULLOCK: castrated

bull.

1.2.2 Gender in Spanish

A. Feminine ending

-a: casa (exceptions: día, and modern classic

borrowing; tema, problema, programa, telegrama)

-dad, -tad: ciudad, libertad.

-ion, -cion: reunión, nación

-umbre: cumbre, costumbre.

-ie: especie.

-z: nariz, matriz (exceptions: el lápiz and other like

carriz, matiz)

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B. Masculine ending

-o: libro (exceptions: mano; clipping like foto, moto,

dynamo, radio)

-l: papel, árbol.

-n: balón, jardín.

-e: parquet, elefante, coche (exceptions: llave, clave,

noche)

-r: dolor, sudor.

-s: interés, mes.

NOTE: When the word ends in –ed it can be take either the

feminine gender,

as in la pared, or the masculine, as in el césped.

C. Double gender

Professional denominations where the article can

determine the sex of the person with an invariable

form: el/la policía, el/la guía, el/la recluta, el/la

pianista, el/la cantante, el/la amante, el/la estudiante,

el/la canciller. Some animal names: gorila.

Double gender allowed in el/la mar, el/la armazón,

el/el calor. The later is considered vulgar by the

Academia. Sometimes there is double gender in plural

with difference in meaning: el arte/las artes, el

azucar/los azúcares.

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Otherwise, the meaning is completely different

depending on whether the noun is masculine or

feminine.

El capital/la capital El doblez/la doblez

El colera/la cólera El frente/la frente

El coma/la coma El orden/la orden

El cometa/la cometa El parte/la parte

El corte/la corte El pez/la pez

El cura/la cura El pendiente/ la pendiente

El delta/la delta (hang-

liding: ala delta)

El radio/ la radio

Doublets with –a / -o ending, being completely

different words. (It is not the case of sex alternation;

as in mono/a). They come from various etymological

origins, usually as in libro/a, caso/a, but they can also

be etymologically related as in fruto/a, cuchillo/a,

cesto/a, bolso/a, etc…

1.3 Diminutives

In Spanish diminutives are mainly applied to nouns.

The most general ones are –ito and –cito. Some other

endings are –illo/a. Some of them depend on the regional

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area. For example, in the northwest is quite common to

add the suffix –in, as in cominín; whereas in the southwest

in more common –ico, as in bonico.

Diminutives are mainly used to express:

o Something smaller chiquito

o Affection mamita

o Proximity cerquita

They are sometimes used with other pragmatic

purposes, such as to show someone one’s attachment

towards the adverse, as in ¡mira la vaquita!; or to show

closeness and friendship, as in ¿otro cafetito? In the same

way, they are commonly used ironically.

The contraries are aumentatives, although there are

not so many:

-azo

perrazo

-ucha

casucha

-acho

vinacho

In the same way, they can be used to mitigate reality,

for example feucho, which does not sound so hard. In

general, all of them can work as PDA (public display of

affection).

2. THE VERB PHRASE

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The Verb Phrase is the most complex structure of both

languages, since verbs are the only entities which have the

capacity of predicating. There are many differences among

both linguistic systems, because Spanish has a very

complex verb system (inflected to indicate person) in

opposition to English which has a verb system much more

reduced. For that reason, English verb system needs to

resort to other entities to cover some aspects expressed by

Spanish Verbs. A brief summary of the main differences

are going to be explained below.

On some occasions the fact of using one form or the

other determine the verb we need to use in English. For

example:

Sabía lo que estaba pasando (cuando hablé con

ella

I found out what was…

La conocía I knew her

La conocí I met her

English Spanish

Used to speak Imperfect (-aba)

Spoke Preterit or past (hablé,

temí)

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The difference in the choice of imperfect or past is a

matter of aspect or the optics from which the speakers

perceives the situation.

1. El niño anduvo a los 10 meses

2. El niño andaba a los 10 meses

3. El niño se cayó

4. El niño se caía

In number 1, the aspect is initiative, so the child

began to work at 10 months, whereas in number 3 is

terminative: the falling has finished. For those two

concepts, initiative and terminative Spanish uses an

identical form in English: past. It is labelled perfective

aspect, so the action occurs at one point in the past and

finished. In sentence 2 and 4, the middle of the event is

presented. It can be seen clearly in the following examples:

5. Golpeo la mesa

6. Golpeaba la mesa

In 5, the aspect is perfective, so the action has

finished, whereas in 6 the end of the action is not

expressed. Therefore, the perfect indicates a terminative

or perfective aspect, whereas the imperfect indicates a

durative aspect.

When dealing with imperfect in subjunctive, there are

different options, so the same form in Spanish gives place

to several translations in English.

46

SPANISH ENGLISH

Parecía como si hablara

Esperábamos que hablara

Permirieron que hablara

Es muy dudoso que hablara

Salieron sin hablar

He looked as if he might

speak

We hoped he would speak

He was allowed to speak

It’s very doubtful that he

spoke

They left without speaking

2.1 Modals

A modal verb (also modal, modal auxiliary verb,

modal auxiliary) is a type of auxiliary verb that is used to

indicate modality. The use of auxiliary verbs to express

modality is characteristic of Germanic languages. Modal

verbs give additional information about the mood of the

main verb that follows it. In other words, they help to

incorporate or add the level of necessity: (must =

obligation, requirement, no choice); (should =

recommendation); (can/could = it is possible); and

(may/might = option, choice). English then has a large

number of modal verbs which cover the meaning of some

Spanish verbs that are inflected to indicate that modality.

SPANISH ENGLISH

Deben de ser las 5

¿Me ayudas a poner la

It must be 5 o’clock. No, it

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mesa?

¿Podías esperame un

momento?

¿Abro la ventana?

¿Vamos al cine luego?

can’t be yet

Would you help to set the

table?

Would you hold on for a

second?

Shall I open the window?

Shall we go to the cinema

later?

2.2 To be: ser vs. estar

The verb to be cover two different verbs in Spanish

ser and estar. In the three cases, the verbs are copulative.

There are many differences in their use:

Ser is followed by:

1. An Adverb Phrase, either temporal or locative

2. A Noun Phrase, an Adjective Phrase or an Adverb

Phrase functioning as Subject Complement. Eres un

tesoro; la vida es así, etc.

When the Subject Complement is an adjective or a

noun, it must agree in number and gender.

The same contrast can be found with ser or estar: el

desayuno está/es en el comedor with the same translation

in English breakfast is in the dining-room. Likewise, there

are differences when adjectives are used with ser/estar.

Allegedly ser is used when the condition is permanent and

estar when it is used on some specific or temporary

occasion: es guapa/está guapa. There are, however, some

48

exceptions like estar muerto. As a result, there can be

some lexical consequences.

SP

WORD

SER ESTAR

malo naughty sick

listo clever ready

atento polite/kind pay

attention/attentive

aburrido boring bored

verde green not ripe

moreno brown tanned

The differences between ser and estar plus past

participle are sometimes formally differentiated in English.

The door is opened (passive ‘es abierta’ ‘se abre’

The door is open (‘está abierta)

The slaves are freed (‘son liberados’)

The slaves are free (‘están libres)

OTHER EXPRESSIONS WITH ESTAR

Que trina

Hecho un toro (as strong as an ox)

Hecho polvo (to be mentally depressed/ physically tired)

Como un roble (strong)

Como una rosa (perfectly fitted)

Como una bola /como una vaca

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Como una cabra /moto

Pedo (as drunk as a sailor)

Como un pez (in albis)

Que se sube por las paredes

Que lo tiras

Sopa (to shell a vat)

Mosca (to be suspicious)

3. OTHER GRAMMATICAL

DIFFERENCES

3.1 Reported Speech

As in reported speech in Spanish, a ‘que’ clause is

needed as the sentence object, while this construction

matches with an English infinitive construction + a

pronoun:

Dígale que salga Tell him to leave

Other verbs of this kind are want, expect, ask, suggest,

persuade, etc.

Dígale que salga Tell him to leave.

Quería que él fuera I wanted him to go.

Espero que él fuera I needed him to go.

Espero que Juan fuera I hope John will

come.

Espero a que Juan fuera I am waiting for

John to come.

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3.2 Noun clauses as subjects of impersonal verb

phrases

The impersonal verb phrases that participate in this

transformation are of two types: one ones made up “ser +

PRED”, where PRED includes adjectives and nouns which

contain the semantic components “necessity, uncertainly,

positive, or negative bias” = “preciso, necesario, possible,

ridículo, probable, díficil”.

Those made up of certain impersonal verbs or verbal

idioms (importar, valer la pena, gustar). The later includes

all of Vi 2 “(parecer, suceder) when negative or

interrogative, and the former includes also cierto, seguro,

and, verdad when negative” (Stockwell 1965:257).

Es preciso que estudies

Es mejor que se lo digas

In English usually we find as adjective like it necessary/

better/important.

On some occasion both indicative and subjunctive are

possible but the meaning is slightly different. E.g. Creo que

el tren llega a las diez/creía que llegaba/ creía que llegaría.

Me temo que llega/llegue a las 10.

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UNIT 5UNIT 5

DESCRIPTIVE AND CONTRASTIVEDESCRIPTIVE AND CONTRASTIVE

STUDY OF THE LEXICAL AND SEMANTICSTUDY OF THE LEXICAL AND SEMANTIC

DIFFERENCESDIFFERENCES

The lexis is the most complex part in a linguistic

system. There are words which exist in one language, but

do not in others. For example: kettle.

1. DEGREES OF SIMILARITIES BETWEEN WORDS

a. Similar in form and meaning: map/mapa, hotel/hotel,

pilot/piloto.

b. Similar in form but different meaning “false friends”:

actually/actualmente, constipated/constipado, molest

(abusar sexualmente) /molestar.

c. Similar in meaning but different in form: table/mesa,

chair/silla, tree/árbol.

d. Different in form and in meaning. The American

English “first floor” is different in form from Spanish

“primer piso”.

e. Different in their type of construction: give up =

resign, take off = start.

f. Similar in primary meaning, but different in

connotation: cock, pussy, almeja.

52

2. RESTRICTIONS ON THE USE OF LEXICAL UNITS

2.1 Selectional restrictions

Semantic features derived from the meaning of the

words which determine the construction of a particular

phrase or sentence by establishing some constrains or

restrictions. A violation of a selectional restriction of a

word results in anomaly.

“My ideas are sleeping” (needs an animate subject →

semantic restrictions)

Studious → to be applied to human beings not to

things. [+]human

2.2 Collocations restrictions

Collocations the occurrence of two or more words,

within a short space of each other in a text. For example:

Fixed expressions (Sinclair)

Collocations: small hours (de madrugada), heads or

tails (cara o cruz), Adam’s apple (nuez).

53

Collocations are “semantically arbitrary restrictions

which do not follow logically from the prepositional

meaning of a word (Baker, 1992:14) similes and

irreversible binomials: as good as gold, night and day.

Idioms: Pass a red light/ a law/ the course, etc… Pull

one’s leg/ tomar el pelo. They are frozen patterns of

language that allow little or no variation in form and

often carry meaning which cannot be deduced from

their individual components.

Proverbs: Don’t count your chicken before they are

hatched (No cantes victoria antes de tiempo).

There are other formulas are difficult to classify:

Many happy return (of the day)! (Feliz

cumpleaños)

It goes without saying … (No hace

falta decir)

Needless to say (Huelga decir)

Moon’s (1998) fixed expressions include:

MOON’S (1998) FIXED EXPRESSIONS

54

- Frozen collocations: honky tonky (garito).

- Grammatically ill- formed collocations: by and large;

stay put.

- Proverbs: enough is enough; you can’t have your

cake and eat it; first came, first served.

- Routine formulae: I’m sorry to say…; you know.

- Sayings: an eye for an eye; that’s the way the cookie

crumbles.

- Similes: clear as crystal, as white as a sheet (pálido),

easy as ABC (estátirado), like lambs to the slaughter

(Como corderos al matadero).

- Binomial expressions: dyads or conjoined pairs,

unrestricted as to word class, but normally occurring

in fixed order as irreversible binomials: England and

Wales, East and West, black and white, man and

women. It is sometimes said that the first item to

appear is felt as nearer to the speaker, as in here and

there. There is also a tendency for the slieler item to

appear first law and order, bed and breakfast.

Gläser’s defines phraseological unit as a lexicalized,

reproducible bilexemic or polylexemic word group in

common use, which has relative syntactic and semantic

stability, may be idiomatized, may carry connotation, and

may have an emphatic or intensifying function in a text.

Her classification distinguishes between word-like

phraseological units and sentence-like. Among the latter

she includes:

55

GLÄSER’S SENTECE-LIKE PHRASEOLOGICAL UNITS

- Proverbs: Make hay while the sun shines.

- Commonplaces: Boys will be boys.

- Routine formulae: Mind the step.

- Slogans: Safety first. Value for money. Safely first.

- Commandments and maxims: Thou shalt not kill

know thyself. Be brief. Be relevant.

- Quotations and winged words: Where ignorance is

bliss, ‘tis folly to be wise.

3. SEMANTIC RELATIONS BETWEEN LEXICAL

ITEMS

3.1 Polysemy

Words have more than one sense. Polysemous words

constitute networks of interconnections: for every

polysemous word in L1 there exists a “set of equivalent

items in L2 with each such item having a set of equivalent

items in L1, etc…” E.g. “manzana” 1) fruit 2) block of

flats. So “block” has different equivalents in Spanish: bloc,

libreta, etc…

Spare in English can be: spare time (tiempo libre); spare

pencil (boli de sobra); spare parts (repuestos).

56

3.2 Homonymy

Pure homonymy comes from a different origin and

seems to be alike both in spelling and pronunciation.

a)Homonymy usually refers to the relation between

lexical items which are formally identical, but whose

etymological origin is different. (See restrictions on

this, cases like ear-ear, flower-floor)

Spanish gato a) cat b) jack

English light a) ligero b) claro; mint a) menta b)

acuñar.

b)Homophony same sound different spelling

Sea – see Cell – sell

Boy – buoy Pair – pear

By – bye – buy Peer – pier

Two – to – too Bare - bear

Do – Doe – Don

Re – Ray – Re (s)

Mi – Me – Mi

Fa – Far – Far

Sol – Sew – Sol

La - - La

Ti – Tea – Si

In Spanish < b > and < v > for the same sound /b/,

like in cabe-cave, baca-vaca, cabo-cavo, basta-vasta,

57

basca-vasca, baron-varón, baya-vaya, bate-vate, bello-

vello, beta-veta, bobina-bovina, botar-votar, balón-

valón, bocear-vocear, sabia-savia, rebelar-revelar,

balido-valido.

< ge, gi > or < je, ji> for /xe/ - /xi/ as in gira-jira, geta-

jeta, ingerir-injerir.

mute < h > in asta-hasta, a-ha, e-he, orca-horca,

onda-honda, echo-hecho, ojear-hojear, ola-hola, ollar-

hollar or in aya-haya.

even in some areas of yeísmo, pollo-poyo, callo-cayo,

malla-maya, mella-meya, pulla-puya o rallar-rayar.

c) Homography sounds like exactly another one, but

the spelling is different.

- row, which can be pronounced /rəu/ “fila, cola” or

/rau/ “pelea, riña”

- lead /li:d/ “conducir, guiar” and /lEd/ “plomo”

- bow /bəu/ “arch;knot” or /bau/ “front part of a shop”

- ache /eik/ “pain” or /eit∫/ “letter h”

- tear /teə (r)/ verb or /tiə (r)/ as a noun

- read /ri:d/ or /red/

- wind /wind/ “air” or /waind/

- wound /wu:nd/ “injury”

3.3 Synonyms

58

Words that denote the same more or less and that can

be sometimes interchangeable. This is not always true. It’s

quite different find real synonyms as such: happy and

merry. They have particular collocations and you can’t

interchange them in many contexts. For example: “Merry

Birthday” is not possible. Broad-wide; wide- accent; wide-

minded, etc.

3.4 Antonyms

In the general sense, antonyms are words that denote

something totally different. Lyons established three

different kinds:

a)Complementarily: male-female, single-married;

However, there are middle grounds as in married-

separated-divorced-single.

b)Antonymys: big-small; good-bad. They are

characterized by the fact that they are “regularly

gradable”.

c) Converseness: One membership implies the other:

buy-sell, husband-wife, teach-hearn, and parent-child.

3.5 Semantic fields

Semantic fields vs. Lexical family

59

It has to be distinguished between lexical family, which

include derivation, and semantic fields. Even, if there’s no

agreed definition usually some points are highlighted.

1) The fact that the units form a network in which

certain semantic relations are observed between

the elements and with aspect to a higher unit

(superordinate or hyperonym)

2) As the relationship based on the experience of

peoples and individuals, they can differ from one

language to another.

3) The words or lexical units are in opposition to each

other.

Componential analysis is not free from deficiencies.

Firstly, because the features are sometimes

polysemous such as young meaning, ‘newly begun or

formed; not advanced’ as in the evening is young or ‘fresh,

youthful’, as in young for her age, so the equivalence could

not be perfect with Spanish “joven”

Secondly, the reduction inherent in decompositional

analysis of this sort does not seem to reveal accurately the

meaning of the analysed lexical items in so far as they

leave some area of meaning unaccounted for that boy is

60

not merely “young male” is well seen in the collocation

young boy.

Thirdly, because of the presence of areas of meaning

which escape componential analysis, which will lead to

faulty predictions. This is especially true with reference to

the emotional aspects of meaning. But, lad, youth cannot

be just characterised by using young and male”

61

62