Department of Spanish and Portuguese

Topic: Syntactic and semantic change in Spanish
Prerequisite: Must be a Graduate student 

This course is a graduate-level introduction to the study of syntactic and semantic change, with a focus on Spanish and more broadly Romance data. In the first half of the course, we will review current perspectives on the study of syntactic and semantic change. We will consider theoretical questions like the following: How can we model the transition between stages of a language? How does language change inform our models of grammar and vice-versa? What is the role of reanalysis and analogy in language change? Which types of morpho-syntactic units do native speakers acquire and store? How can we identify and measure change objectively? In the second half we will discuss case studies of syntactic and semantic change in Spanish. In this part of the course students will have the opportunity to compare and evaluate the merits and shortcomings of different theories. We will focus on classic topics in Romance linguistics, e.g. the origin of differential object marking, the creation of verbal periphrases, the formation of articles, the loss and creation of indefinite pronouns, and the cyclic changes affecting negative markers.

Assignments include homework problem sets, the critical presentation of an article in class, a book review, and a final research paper. Readings should be completed by the date indicated in the syllabus.

HISP-S 611    # 30684       1:15P-2:30P        TR           BH 010         Prof. Patricia Amaral