Spanish Semantics and Pragmatics
Code: 100585 ECTS Credits: 6| Degree | Type | Year | Semester |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2500248 Spanish Language and Literature | OB | 2 | 2 |
| 2501801 Catalan and Spanish | OT | 3 | 0 |
| 2501801 Catalan and Spanish | OT | 4 | 0 |
| 2501910 English and Spanish | OT | 3 | 0 |
| 2501910 English and Spanish | OT | 4 | 0 |
Contact
- Name:
- Carlos Subirats Ruggeberg
- Email:
- Carlos.Subirats@uab.cat
Use of Languages
- Principal working language:
- spanish (spa)
- Some groups entirely in English:
- No
- Some groups entirely in Catalan:
- No
- Some groups entirely in Spanish:
- Yes
Prerequisites
By obtaining the minimum of credits in basic training subjects, students have demonstrated to have acquired the basic competences and they will be able to express themselves orally and in writing.
For this reason, any spelling and expression errors that may be committed by the student in the performance of the evaluation activities planned during the subject will lead to a score decrease in the final grade.
Activities, practical sessions and papers submitted in the course must be original and under no circumstances will the total or partial plagiarism of third-party materials published on any medium be admitted.
Any submission of non-original material without properly indicating its origin will automatically result in a failure rating (0).
Objectives and Contextualisation
Spanish Semantics and Pragmatics course is part of the 30 compulsory credits of the subject Spanish language: synchrony, which the student attends in second and third grade, along with other subjects of Spanish language and literature.
GOALS
The goal of this course is to analyze the evolution of the concept of meaning from the Aristotelian referential semantics to the modern cognitive semantics. The following aspects will be studied:
(1) Origin of Aristotelian referential semantics and its influence in linguistics until the XX and XXI centurues
(2) Critical approaches to referential semantics: Augustine of Hippo, Bolzano, and Frege.
(3) Locke's theories on conceptualization and its influence on the French philosophical grammar of the XVIIIth century.
(4.1) Semantic networks in the XVIIIth century: Dictionaries of synonyms (Girard and Dendo y Ávila)
(4.2) From taxonomies of "reality" (Wilkins) and lexical networks of synonyms to the hierarchical semantic organization of the lexicon (Eduardo Benot).
(5) Relational semantics (Saussure) and the development of structural and formalist theories of meaning.
(6) Cognitive semantics and its application to the semantic analysis of the lexicon in the Spanish FrameNet project and its application to the automatic semantic role labeling in Spanish.
Competences
- Spanish Language and Literature
- Analyze the main phenomena of Spanish linguistic variation (historical, geographical, social and pragmatic variation).
- Describe the structure of the Spanish language, and distinguish the systematic and normative aspects.
- Identify grammar component belonging to linguistic phenomena basic analysis of Spanish language (phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, vocabulary, semantics and discourse).
- Students must be capable of applying their knowledge to their work or vocation in a professional way and they should have building arguments and problem resolution skills within their area of study.
- Students must be capable of collecting and interpreting relevant data (usually within their area of study) in order to make statements that reflect social, scientific or ethical relevant issues.
- Students must be capable of communicating information, ideas, problems and solutions to both specialised and non-specialised audiences.
- Typological framing the main phenomena of the Spanish language and relate them to similar phenomena in other Romance languages.
- Catalan and Spanish
- Analyze the main phenomena of Spanish linguistic variation (historical, geographical, social and pragmatic variation).
- Describe the structure of the Spanish language, and distinguish the systematic and normative aspects.
- Identify grammar component belonging to linguistic phenomena basic analysis of Spanish language (phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, vocabulary, semantics and discourse).
- Students can apply the knowledge to their own work or vocation in a professional manner and have the powers generally demonstrated by preparing and defending arguments and solving problems within their area of study.
- Students have the ability to gather and interpret relevant data (normally within their study area) to issue judgments that include reflection on important issues of social, scientific or ethical.
- Typological framing the main phenomena of the Spanish language and relate them to similar phenomena in other Romance languages.
- English and Spanish
- Analyze the main phenomena of Spanish linguistic variation (historical, geographical, social and pragmatic variation).
- Describe the structure of the Spanish language, and distinguish the systematic and normative aspects.
- Identify grammar component belonging to linguistic phenomena basic analysis of Spanish language (phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, vocabulary, semantics and discourse).
- Students can apply the knowledge to their own work or vocation in a professional manner and have the powers generally demonstrated by preparing and defending arguments and solving problems within their area of study.
- Students have the ability to gather and interpret relevant data (normally within their study area) to issue judgments that include reflection on important issues of social, scientific or ethical.
- Students must be capable of communicating information, ideas, problems and solutions to both specialised and non-specialised audiences.
- Typological framing the main phenomena of the Spanish language and relate them to similar phenomena in other Romance languages.
Learning Outcomes
- Accurately drawing up normative texts.
- Analyse Spanish linguistic structures.
- Analyzing Spanish linguistic structures.
- Apply the techniques of description and analysis of discursive pieces.
- Correctly identify linguistic units.
- Define the concepts of semantic and pragmatic competence
- Define the concepts of semantic and pragmatic competence.
- Distinguish geographic variation from the different levels of linguistic analysis.
- Distinguishing geographic variation from the different levels of linguistic analysis.
- Identificar els errors normatius, estilístics o argumentatius d'un text.
- Identify normative, stylistic and argumentative text errors.
- Identify pragmatic factors that influence the use of various linguistic structures.
- Identify the paradigmatic and syntagmatic relations between the various language units.
- Identifying the regulatory, stylistic or argumentative errors of a text.
- Interpret the meaning of unknown words thanks to its context.
- Interpret the word from the different levels of linguistic analysis.
- Interpreting the meaning of unknown words thanks to its context.
- Make predictions and inferences about the content of a text.
- Making predictions and inferences about the content of a text.
- Pragmatic competence relate to geographical and social variation.
- Summarising characteristics of a written text according to its communicative purposes.
- Summarize characteristics of a written text according to its communicative purposes.
- Using suitable terminology when drawing up an academic text.
Content
Lexical item, sense, lexical unit (LU), and polysemy. Microsenses. Entyties, states and events.
The origins of Aristotelian referential semantics and their impact on linguistics.
Critical approaches to referential semantics: Augustine of Hippo, Bolzano, and Frege.
Locke's theory of conceptualization: Cognitive activity of the speaker and its influence on French and Spanish philosophical grammar.
Synonymy and lexical semantic networks: Girard and Dendo y Ávila.
From taxonomies of "reality" (Wilkins) and synonym networks to semantic hierarchies: Roget's Thesaurus and Eduardo Benot's Diccionario de ideas afines.
Relational semantics (Saussure) and the development of structural theories of meaning. Hyponymy, hyperonymy; meronymy, holonymy; synonymy, antonymy
Prototype theory: criticism of "objectivist realism" and the classical theory of categorization.
The construction of meaning. Frame semantics: Spanish FrameNet.
Conceptual metonymy and metaphor.
Frame semantics, Spanish FrameNet and automatic semantic role labeling.
Methodology
The learning of this subject by the students is distributed as follows:
- Directed activities (35%). These activities are divided into master classes and classroom practices led by the teacher, in which theoretical explanation is combined with solution of exercises and discussion of all types of texts.
- Supervised activities (10%). These tutorials are programmed by the teacher, dedicated to correcting and commenting on problems related to different levels of linguistic analysis.
- Autonomous activities (50%). These activities include both time devoted to individual study and production of reviews, papers and analytical comments written, as well as oral presentations.
- Assessment activities (5%). The evaluation of the subject will be describe in Assessment section.
Activities
| Title | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Type: Directed | |||
| Master classes | 26.25 | 1.05 | 6, 5 |
| To solve exercises | 26.25 | 1.05 | 1, 6, 19, 23, 5 |
| Type: Supervised | |||
| Review readings | 6 | 0.24 | 19, 17 |
| Type: Autonomous | |||
| Exercises preparation | 42.75 | 1.71 | 19, 5, 17 |
| Readings of references | 18.5 | 0.74 | 19, 17 |
| Self-assessment exercises | 18.5 | 0.74 | 6, 19, 23, 5 |
Assessment
A. To pass the subject:
1. The student must do the following assessment activities:
Theoretical exam on knowledge about semantics (40%)
Coursework on aspects related to semantics (50%)
Participation in class (5%)
2. The student must obtain an average score equal to or higher than 5.0.
B. The student will be "Non-assessed" if he/she has only been presented one of the assessment tests.
C. Reassessment criteria
Students who have not passed the assessment tests may do the reassessment test on the date set by the Faculty.
The student must have done the assessment tests mentioned above in order to be able to reassess.
D. Assessment criteria
In order to pass the course, it is necessary to carry out the activities developed during the course, in which the student must show that he / she can reflect on the semantic issues raised during the course, both at a theoretical and applied approach.
The students have to show that they are be able to explain theoretical or practical issues related to the topics addressed in this course, using the discursive habits of the scientific language. Discursive practices that show an inability to reason and / or relate ideas and establish clear explanations will have a negative impact on the mark of these activities.
The realization of spelling errors --including accentuation errors-- will be penalized: -0,25 each spelling mistake.
Assessment Activities
| Title | Weighting | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coursework on some aspect related to semantic and pragmatic approaches | 50% | 5 | 0.2 | 2, 1, 6, 7, 23, 12, 16, 20 |
| Participation in class on the proposed practices by the teacher | 10% | 3 | 0.12 | 2, 5, 12, 13 |
| Theoretical test about semantic knowledge | 40% | 3.75 | 0.15 | 3, 2, 4, 1, 6, 7, 9, 8, 19, 18, 23, 5, 14, 10, 11, 12, 13, 16, 17, 15, 20, 21, 22 |
Bibliography
Readings
- Benot, Eduardo. [1899]. Diccionario de ideas afines. Edición online de C. Subirats y A. Bueno, eds., 2019.
- Ibarretxe, Iraide; Valenzuela, Javier, eds. 2016. Lingüística cognitiva (2ª ed.). Barcelona: Anthropos. (Capítulos de lectura obligatoria: Cap. 2.1 La semántica cognitiva, Cap. 2.6 La semántica de marcos, Cap. 2.4 La metonimia conceptual y Cap. 2.3 La metáfora conceptual).
- Spanish FrameNet An Online Lexical Resource and Its Application to Natural Language Processing.
- Subirats, Carlos. 2020. La evolución del concepto de significado desde la semántica referencial al cognitivismo. Edición online.
Online Spanish Dictionaries
- WordReference.com Free Online Dictionaries