Evolution and Variation in Catalan
Code: 45502 ECTS Credits: 5| Degree | Type | Year |
|---|---|---|
| Advanced Studies in Catalan Language and Literature | OP | 1 |
Contact
- Name:
- Francesc Xavier Villalba Nicolas
- Email:
- xavier.villalba@uab.cat
Teachers
- Teresa Cabre Monne
- (External) Francesc Bernat Baltrons
Teaching groups languages
You can view this information at the end of this document.
Prerequisites
None.
Objectives and Contextualisation
This course has two goals. On the one hand, it describes and interprets phenomena that affect the phonological, morphological, syntactic and lexical levels of the Catalan language from a diachronic point of view, based on the analysis of texts and specific cases, and shows that the trends that are imposed on the synchronic level are often applicable to the diachronic. On the other hand, it describes interesting, peculiar or controversial dialectal features that can shed light on aspects of the codification of the Catalan language, and illustrates the impact that factors such as the influence of the standard language model or linguistic border situations have on the character of geographical variants.
Learning Outcomes
- CA16 (Competence) Produce academic papers, reports and innovative projects to describe the historical and geographical variation of the Catalan language.
- CA16 (Competence) Produce academic papers, reports and innovative projects to describe the historical and geographical variation of the Catalan language.
- CA17 (Competence) Apply criteria for coding the standard oral and written language to geographical and social variation.
- KA19 (Knowledge) Recognise the various types of variation (historical, geographical, social, among others) in the Catalan language.
- KA20 (Knowledge) Describe the differences between geographical, social and historical varieties of Catalan.
- KA21 (Knowledge) Identify fundamental elements (phonological, morphological, syntactic, semantic and lexical) of the historical evolution of the Catalan language.
- KA22 (Knowledge) Identify the sources and methods of data collection to study historical and geographical variation.
- KA23 (Knowledge) Relate the geographical variation of the Catalan language with the codification of the standard oral and written language.
- SA23 (Skill) Apply methods of analysis and understanding of linguistic phenomena from the perspectives of diachronic and geographical variation.
- SA24 (Skill) Use the appropriate tools and methods to obtain linguistic data.
- SA24 (Skill) Use the appropriate tools and methods to obtain linguistic data.
Content
Block 1. Xavier Villalba Nicolás (UAB)
1. The weak pronouns of Old Catalan
1.1. Pronominal typology and the creation of Romanesque weak pronouns
1.2. Proclisis and enclisis: factors of variation
1.3. Tobler-Mussafia's law and Wackernagel's position
Block 2. Teresa Cabré Monné (UAB)
2. Historical and dialectal variation of the 3rd person pronominal clitic system
2.1 Dialectal paradigm and standard paradigm.
2.1.1 Analysis of the morphosyntactic structure.
2.1.2 Historical legitimacy, compositionality and syncretism.
2.2 The pronominal system in Old Catalan.
2.2.1 Order and evolution. Previous studies
2.2.2 Analysis of CICA data
2.2.3 The clitic system at the end of the 15th century
Block 3. Francesc Bernat Baltrons (UB)
3.1 Linguistic variation and change
3.1.1 Variants generated within the same linguistic system
3.1.2 Variants influenced by a dominant language
3.2 Factors of linguistic change
3.2.1 Internal factors
3.2.2 External factors
3.3 Relationships between historical and geographical variation in Catalan
3.3.1 Constitutive dialects vs. Consecutive dialects
3.3.2 Western dialects vs. Eastern dialects
3.3.3 Catalan adstrats and dialects
3.4 Commentary on specific cases
Activities and Methodology
| Title | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Type: Directed | |||
| Presentations and discussion at the classroom | 40 | 1.6 | KA19, KA20, KA21, KA22, KA23, KA19 |
| Type: Supervised | |||
| Essays and exercises | 50 | 2 | CA16, CA17, SA23, SA24, CA16 |
| Type: Autonomous | |||
| Study and reading of literature | 35 | 1.4 | KA19, KA20, KA21, KA22, KA23, KA19 |
The course has a part of directed activities (presentations and discussion in the classroom), a part of supervised activities (exercises and assignments) and a part of autonomous activities (study and reading of the bibliography).
Note: 15 minutes of a class will be reserved, within the calendar established by the center/degree, for students to complete the surveys to evaluate the performance of the teaching staff and to evaluate the course.
Annotation: Within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.
Assessment
Continous Assessment Activities
| Title | Weighting | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Attendance and intervention at class | 20% | 0 | 0 | KA19, KA20, KA21, KA22, KA23 |
| Exercise 1 | 20% | 0 | 0 | CA16, CA17, KA19, KA20, KA23, SA23, SA24 |
| Exercise 2 | 20% | 0 | 0 | CA16, CA17, KA21, KA22, KA23, SA23, SA24 |
| Oral presentation | 20% | 0 | 0 | CA16, KA21, KA22, KA23, SA23 |
| Written memory | 20% | 0 | 0 | CA16, CA17, KA19, KA20, KA21, KA22, KA23, SA23, SA24 |
CONTINUOUS ASSESSMENT
Exercises 1 and 2 correspond to blocks 1 and 2 of the content, respectively. The oral presentation and the written report correspond to block 3 of the content. Attendance and class participation apply to all blocks of the course.
At the time of carrying out each assessment activity, the teacher will inform the students (Moodle) of the procedure and the date of review of the grades.
SINGLE ASSESSMENT:
Synthesis test: 30%
Exercise: 30%
Oral test: 40%
RECOVERY
To participate in the recovery, the student must have previously been evaluated in a set of activities whose weight is equivalent to a minimum of 2/3 of the total grade (CONTINUOUS ASSESSMENT) or submit all the tests provided (SINGLE ASSESSMENT). The same recovery system will be applied as for continuous assessment
IRREGULARITIES
If the student commits any irregularity that could lead to a significant variation in the grade of an assessment act, this assessment act will be graded 0, regardless of the disciplinary process that may be instructed. In the event that several irregularities occur in the assessment acts of the same subject, the final grade for this subject will be 0.
USE OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE TOOLS
In this subject, the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies is not allowed in any of its phases. Any work that includes fragments generated with AI will be considered a lack of academic honesty and will result in the activity being graded 0 and not being able to be recovered, or greater sanctions in serious cases.
Bibliography
Adams, James N. (1994). Wackernagel’s law and the position of unstressed personal pronouns in Classical Latin. Transactions of the Philological Society, 92(2), 103–178. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-968X.1994.tb00430.x
Aitchison, Jean. (1993). El cambio en las lenguas: ¿Progreso o decadencia? Barcelona: Ariel.
Badia i Margarit, Antoni M. (1984). Gramàtica històrica catalana. València: 3 i 4.
Batlle, Mar. et alii (2016). Gramàtica històrica de la llengua catalana. Barcelona: Publicacions de l’Abadia de Montserrat.
Batllori, Montserrat, Iglésias, Narcís, & Martins, Ana M. (2005). Sintaxi dels clítics pronominals en català medieval. Caplletra. Revista Internacional de Filologia, 137–177.
Bonet, Eulàlia. (2002). Cliticització. In Joan Solà et al. (eds.) Gramàtica del català contemporani. Vol. I: 933–989. Barcelona: Empúries.
Cabré, Teresa. (2022). Syncretism and ordering in the evolution of Catalan Pronominal clitic clusters. Borealis: An International Journal of Hispanic Linguistics, 11: 173-190. https://doi.org/10.7557/1.11.1.6428
Cabré, Teresa; Fábregas, Antonio. (2019). 3rd person clitic combinations across Catalan varieties: Consequences of the nature of the dative clitic. The Linguistic Review, 36(2): 151–190. https://doi.org/10.1515/tlr-2018-2010
Casado, Celia & Marrero, Victoria. (2009). Variación y cambio lingüístico. In: M. V. Escandell (Ed.), El lenguaje humano. (pp. 239-75). Madrid: Editorial Universitaria Ramón Areces.
Casanova, Emili. (1989). Aproximació a la gramàtica contrastiva dels dialectes catalans al segle XVIII: la combinació de pronoms de 3a persona. Actes del VIII Col·loqui Internacional de Llengua i literatura catalanes. Vol.2: 57–80. Tolosa de Llenguadoc.
Chambers, Jack K., Trudgill, Peter, & Schilling-Estes, Natalie. (Eds). (2001). The handbook of language variation and change. Oxford: Blackwell.
Corpus Informatitzat de Català Antic (CICA). (2009). Joan Torruella (dir). http://www.cica.cat
Fabra, Pompeu. (1912). Gramática catalana. Barcelona: L’Avenç.
Fischer, Susann. (2003). Rethinking the Tobler-Mussafia Law. Diachronica, 20(2), 259–288. https://doi.org/10.1075/dia.20.2.03fis
Institut d’Estudis Catalans. (2016). Gramàtica de la llengua catalana. Barcelona: IEC.
Labov, William. (1996). Principios del cambio lingüístico. Volumen 1: Factores internos. Madrid: Gredos.
Labov, William. (2006). Principios del cambio lingüístico. Volumen 2: Factores sociales. Madrid: Gredos.
Lüdtke, Hens. (1998). El cambio lingüístico. Bellaterra: Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona.
Mas, Antoni & Montoya, Brauli (2004). “La sociolingüística de la variació als Països Catalans: estat de la qüestió”, Caplletra 37, 243-266.
Moll, Francesc de B. (1991 [1952]). Gramàtica històrica catalana. València: Universitat de València.
Mussafia, Antonio. (1898). Enclisi o proclisi del pronome personali atono quai oggetto. Romania, 27(105), 145–146. https://doi.org/10.3406/roma.1898.5532
Pérez Saldanya, Manuel (1998). “Per a una teoria del canvi morfosintàctic”. JOCS 1. Disponible a http://www.uoc.edu/jocs/1/linguistica/linguistica.html
Ribera, Josep E. (2018). “Déu lo í perdó tot y·l tinga en la sua santa glòria”. Al·lomorfia i reanàlisi en el pronom de datiu singular li i en el neutre ho en català antic. Anuari de Filologia. Estudis de Lingüística, 8: 103–135. https://doi.org/10.1344/AFEL2018.8.5
Salvi, Gianpaolo. (1993). The Defense and Illustration of the Wackernagel Law Applied to Old Romance Languages: The Position of Clitic Pronominal Forms. Cadernos de estudos linguisticos, 24, 111–130.
Todolí, Júlia. (1992). Variants dels pronoms febles de tercera persona al País Valencià: regles fonosintàctiques i morfològiques subjacents. Zeitschrift für Katalanistik: Revista d’Estudis Catalans, 5: 137–160.
Torres-Latorre, Aina. (2023). Productivitat i pragmàtica en la sintaxi dels clítics pronominals en català antic. Anuari de Filologia. Estudis de Lingüística, 13, 177–199.
Software
Corpus Informatitzat de Català Antic (CICA). 2009. Joan Torruella (dir). http://www.cica.cat
Groups and Languages
Please note that this information is provisional until 30 November 2025. You can check it through this link. To consult the language you will need to enter the CODE of the subject.
| Name | Group | Language | Semester | Turn |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| (TEm) Theory (master) | 1 | Catalan | first semester | afternoon |