31.91, Review: Spanish; General Linguistics: Diaz-Campos, Geeslin, Gurzynski-Weiss (2017)
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LINGUIST List: Vol-31-91. Tue Jan 07 2020. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.
Subject: 31.91, Review: Spanish; General Linguistics: Diaz-Campos, Geeslin, Gurzynski-Weiss (2017)
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Date: Tue, 07 Jan 2020 15:02:41
From: Boris Yelin [boris.yelin at gmail.com]
Subject: Introducción y aplicaciones contextualizadas a la lingüística hispánica
Discuss this message:
http://linguistlist.org/pubs/reviews/get-review.cfm?subid=36518457
Book announced at http://linguistlist.org/issues/29/29-4795.html
AUTHOR: Manuel Diaz-Campos
AUTHOR: Kimberly L Geeslin
AUTHOR: Laura Gurzynski-Weiss
TITLE: Introducción y aplicaciones contextualizadas a la lingüística hispánica
PUBLISHER: Wiley
YEAR: 2017
REVIEWER: Boris Yelin, Northeastern University
SUMMARY
The proposed audience of Introducción y aplicaciones contextualizadas a la
lingüística hispánica is advanced undergraduate students. The book is
organized into nine chapters: Chapter 1 – Animal Communication and Human
Language, Chapter 2 – The Acquisition of Spanish as a Second Language, Chapter
3 – Phonetics: The Sounds of Spanish, Chapter 4 – Phonology: The Structure of
the Sounds of Spanish, Chapter 5 – Morphosyntax: The Structure of Spanish,
Chapter 6 – Spanish in the World, Chapter 7 – Semantics: The Study of Meaning,
Chapter 8 – Pragmatics: Use in Context, and Chapter 9 – Study Abroad.
Though many chapter titles are self-explanatory, what follows is some general
information about each one. Chapter 1 delineates how human language is
different from other forms of communication and defines key concepts of the
linguistic system. Chapter 2 broadly explains second language acquisition,
mentioning methods of analysis. Chapter 3 introduces phonetics with a focus on
both articulation and acoustic analysis. Chapter 4 covers phonological
concepts and touches on optimality theory. Chapter 5 discusses word classes,
word formation, and syntax trees. Chapter 6 discusses the evolution of Spanish
and dialectal variation and related phonological/morphosyntactic processes.
Chapter 7 includes mood, deixis, and semantic roles. Chapter 8 is essentially
a brief discussion of what research has been conducted in a study abroad
context, drawing contrasts between longitudinal versus cross-sectional
studies.
Every chapter begins with an outline and concludes with a section on
theoretical questions, empirical findings, key terms, and references, which
could be great springboards for research ideas and/or further study. Thus,
there is a high amount of organization that makes the text easily accessible
and searchable. A unique feature of this textbook project is the supplementary
online materials that refer directly to the reading. They help learners put
immediately into practice the concepts they have just learned.
EVALUATION
Though the authors consistently write that the text contains overviews of the
elements that make up linguistics, the book is quite thorough. The authors
provide numerous examples and summaries of model studies that are related to
each linguistic aspect. For instance, the book addresses syllabic structure
and phonological processes (e.g. assimilation), topics that are absent in many
introductory texts. Likewise, the chapter on semantics, often seen as one of
the more complex branches of linguistics, succinctly explains more complex
meaning differences such as the following:
(83) a. Luis no se marchó porque tenía que hacer algo urgente.
[Luis did not leave because he had something urgent to do.]
b. Luis no se marchó porque tuviera que hacer algo urgente.
[Luis did not leave because he had something urgent to do. ] (p. 261)
4
Though the glosses could be expressed in the same way in English (though with
different intonation), in example 83a Luis did not leave and did had something
urgent to do, while in example 83b, Luis did leave but did not have something
urgent. For second language learners these types of examples help solidify
some of the more difficult elements of Spanish grammar to acquire. For native
speakers of Spanish, these types of examples provide a platform for the
metalinguistic tools to describe what is innate. The book even includes a
chapter on pragmatics, including discourse analysis and politeness, which many
learners do not get exposed to unless they specialize in applied linguistics.
Therefore, the text is quite complete in terms of the theoretical and applied
topics covered.
The text is highly organized across and within chapters. The only improvement
I would suggest is to divide Chapter 6, Español en el mundo, into two sections
because the first part of the chapter addresses historical
linguistics/diachronic change (e.g. la historia del español), while the second
part addresses the current status of Spanish and synchronic differences. The
treatment of the historical evolution of Spanish from is the only section of
the text that is a truer overview, since it could have included a thorough
explanation of the transitional stages of the vowels among other elements.
This text is intended for advanced undergraduate students. Nevertheless, I
envision this book as an overview text for a graduate Spanish Linguistics
curriculum (equally challenging for native and non-native speakers) in which
the appropriate sections of the book are used in different courses in order to
have a high level of consistency in the curriculum. Then, there could be
supplemental texts provided for more specific foci, such as the historical
evolution of the vowels mentioned in the paragraph above. Thus, using certain
sections would also remedy information deemed to be missing or overexplained.
What follows are some of the highlights of the text. First, one element that
extends throughout the text is strong recognition of dialectal variation.
Though the authors deal directly with this topic in Chapter 6, there are
mentions to show contrasts in the morphosyntax, phonetics, etc… of different
speech communities. Some examples are the posterior /r/ of Puerto Rico or the
subtle distinction between vosotros and ustedes in Spain. Beyond dialectal
variation, there are several comparisons of variation from what is considered
the prescriptive norm. For instance, in Chapter 5 – Morphosyntax, the authors
discuss the fluidity of gender agreement with agua. Citing Eddington and
Hualde’s study (2008), they present an example of how certain determiners
(e.g. el or esta) will affect adjective agreement as part of collocations.
Highlighting variation creates a sense of open-mindedness from the beginning
with new linguistics students, which is important in fostering an
understanding of descriptive linguistics.
Additionally, within the chapters there are small sections that stand apart
called Enfoque en la investigación [Focus on research]. These sections show
exemplary/seminal works that are related to the topic at hand; they are
somewhat a combination of an abstract and summary highlighting elements that
are most pertinent to the particular part of the chapter, whether it be a
theoretical, practical, or methodological example. These sections are expertly
dispersed, and the readers encounter them just as they wonder how one would
test certain concepts. The diagrams throughout the text also help increase
understanding, for example the syntax trees that take a step-by-step approach.
The acoustic explanations with PRAAT diagrams are especially helpful given
that linguists will use that tool for analysis.
Another highlight is the sheer quantity of studies that were discussed
providing learners with a better sense of what references to pursue further in
their own research depending on interest. Beyond producing significant
research, themselves, the three authors have included studies that range from
foundational to more modern studies. Thus, their references are a combination
of research conducted in English as well as Spanish. There are even
comparisons to research on similar phenomena in other related languages, such
as the reduction of the preposition para in Brazilian Portuguese.
The compelling supplemental activities built into the text are the best
feature of this textbook. From the outset the questions lead learners to think
critically about the very nature of language, and there is a mix of
theoretical and practical tasks. The activities have models to help the
students along, and many of the questions could later be used as part of an
assessment, since they are directly testing knowledge and application of the
skills. These activities utilize real language via corpus usage and
non-pedagogical videos of speakers. However, one thing to keep in mind is that
several activities are tied to YouTube videos or other websites, which could
potentially vanish. In fact, while reviewing there were at least a dozen links
that no longer worked. This is overall a minor drawback, as I have already
bookmarked many of the resources that were previously unknown to me. If you
are interested in perusing the activities, they are available at
www.wiley.com/go/diaz-campos.
Speaking about resources, this book is invaluable to any instructor teaching
Spanish linguistics. Research is often presented in articles in English, so
there is the potential for lacking vocabulary of certain technical terms. This
text remedies those issues. While reviewing this text, I felt that it
encapsulated the core of my graduate education in linguistics, in general, as
well as with an emphasis on Spanish. I believe the authors succeed in
collecting a lot of information in a relatively short amount of text and that
this book, as mentioned previously, could take the place of other texts across
a curriculum with other texts as supplementary material.
REFERENCES
Eddington, D., & Hualde, J.I. (2008). El abundante agua fría: Hermaphroditic
Spanish nouns. Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics, 1(1), 5-32.
ABOUT THE REVIEWER
Boris Yelin is currently Assistant Teaching Professor of Spanish and
Portuguese at Northeastern University as well as the Coordinator of the
Portuguese Program. His main teaching interests are Spanish, Portuguese and
Spanish Linguistics. His research interests lie in SLA and Pedagogy with a
focus on L3 acquisition. Past research has included looking at the
intersection of language variation and semantics with respect to mood.
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