32.2876, Review: Spanish; General Linguistics: Hualde, Olarrea, Escobar, Travis (2020)

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Subject: 32.2876, Review: Spanish; General Linguistics: Hualde, Olarrea, Escobar, Travis (2020)

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Date: Thu, 09 Sep 2021 21:42:17
From: Marina Bonilla Conejo [mbonillaconejo at albany.edu]
Subject: Introducción a la lingüística hispánica

 
Discuss this message:
http://linguistlist.org/pubs/reviews/get-review.cfm?subid=36710057


Book announced at http://linguistlist.org/issues/31/31-3096.html

AUTHOR: José Ignacio Hualde
AUTHOR: Antxon  Olarrea
AUTHOR: Anna María Escobar
AUTHOR: Catherine E. Travis
TITLE: Introducción a la lingüística hispánica
SUBTITLE: 3rd Edition
PUBLISHER: Cambridge University Press
YEAR: 2020

REVIEWER: Marina Bonilla Conejo, State University of New York at Albany

SUMMARY
 
In this new edition of this widely used textbook “Introducción a la
lingüística hispánica”, the authors offer an in-depth introduction to Hispanic
linguistics and its different subfields. Written entirely in Spanish, the
volume covers a wide range of topics that include history of linguistics as a
cognitive science, language acquisition, the structure of Spanish (including
phonetics and phonology, morphology, and syntax), history of the Spanish
language, semantics and pragmatics, and language variation and language
contact in the Spanish speaking world. The novelty in this edition is the
inclusion of an additional chapter by a new contributor, Cristina Sanz, which
covers teaching and learning of Spanish as a second or heritage language. 
 
This third edition consists of nine chapters: linguistics as a cognitive
science (Chapter 1); phonetics and phonology (Chapter 2); morphology (Chapter
3); syntax (Chapter 4); history of the Spanish language (Chapter 5); semantics
and pragmatics (Chapter 6); variation in Spanish (Chapter 7); Spanish in the
US (Chapter 8) and teaching and learning of Spanish as a second language
(Chapter 9). Each chapter consists of an introduction, a detailed description
of the main concepts and topics, and a conclusion that summarizes the major
ideas introduced in the chapter. In addition, the authors offer exercises that
encourage the students to think critically as they learn the concepts being
introduced, and a series of review exercises at the end of each chapter.
Finally, at the end of the book a glossary and a bibliography are provided.
 
In Chapter one, the authors start with an introduction to the history of
linguistics and the great strides achieved over the last century and a half,
drawing special attention to the journey from prescriptive to descriptive
linguistics. They discuss the cognitive nature of language as a system, and
what distinguishes it from other animal forms of communication. This chapter
also introduces the Chomskyan proposal that humans are biologically wired to
acquire a language; arguments in favor and against such a proposal are
discussed. The authors take the time before the end of the chapter to explain
their decision to use “Español” instead of “Castellano” (Castilian Spanish).
Spanish, as we know it, was originally spoken in the Castilian region of Spain
(Menéndez Pelayo 1940). Both terms “Spanish” and “Castilian” can be found in
the literature and are used by Spanish speakers themselves. I agree with the
authors that it is important to clarify the difference and explain the
decision to use the term “Spanish”/“Español” to avoid confusion.
 
Chapter two starts by defining some basic concepts related to Spanish
phonetics and phonology, such as phoneme, allophone, and types of phonetic
transcription. It also describes how sounds are classified according to place,
manner of articulation, and voicing. In addition, rules of syllabification in
Spanish are explained, together with types of assimilation, and the main
intonation patterns. To familiarize students with acoustic phonetics, some
examples of oscillograms and spectrograms are included. The chapter also
contains a noteworthy explanation of stress, prosodic accent patterns, and the
use of the orthographic accents according to the type of words in Spanish. 
 
Similarly, Chapter three begins with an introduction to the basic concepts of
morphology, including morphemes, roots, affixes, and allomorphs. Next, the
major morphological processes are described, with particular emphasis on
inflection, derivation, and composition. In the case of inflection, the
authors examine how Spanish marks grammatical gender, plurality, tense,
aspect, and mood. In the case of derivation, an exhaustive description of
derivational suffixes according to the type of lexical category are listed.
For example, in the case of nominal derivation examples are given of the most
common suffixes used to derive nouns from other nouns, adjectives, and verbs.
At the end of the chapter, other morphological processes in Spanish, including
abbreviation and acronyms, are summarized. 
 
Chapter four analyzes the structure of the Spanish sentence, from constituents
to simple and complex sentences. The chapter contains an introduction to
generative syntax, with a variety of examples and exercises for students to
learn the principles of X-bar theory and how to draw tree diagrams. Additional
major points discussed in this chapter include the use of ‘se’ and sequence of
tense in Spanish. A detailed presentation of subordinate clauses in Spanish is
followed by two excellent appendices that summarize types of sentences and
sequence of tense  in Spanish.  
 
Chapter five gives an overview of the history of the Spanish language: it
discusses pre-Roman languages in the Iberian Peninsula, the Indo-European
languages, and the introduction and evolution of Latin that led to the
development of Spanish and other Ibero-Romance languages. The history of the
standardization of Spanish is also examined, with attention given to influence
from other languages. including Arabic and Native American languages. Several
examples of loanwords from Arabic, Amerindian languages, and English are
discussed. The chapter also covers dialectal variation and language change in
contemporary Spanish. At the end of the chapter, there is an analysis of texts
written in other varieties, such as Judeo-Spanish (Ladino), Aragonese, and
Galician.
 
Chapter six is an introduction to semantics and pragmatics. It provides
definitions of relevant concepts to familiarize students with these areas
(e.g., synonymy, antonymy, hyponymy, homonymy, and polysemy, among others).
The authors also introduce and discuss thematic roles, including agent,
patient, recipient, experiencer, instrument, time, and location. There are
several exercises for students to practice identifying each thematic role. The
chapter also offers a detailed description of deictic systems, speech acts,
and politeness. The different parts of the speech acts are analyzed, and their
classes described in detail. 
 
Chapter seven addresses linguistic variation in Spanish, including social and
geographical varieties, main dialectal areas of Spanish, as well as
bilingualism and language contact between Spanish and other languages in
Spain, Latin America, and elsewhere. Ample examples are provided of the
outcome of the contact between Spanish and other Iberian languages in Spain,
and Spanish and indigenous American languages in Latin America. Among the
variable phonological phenomena present in Spanish today, the authors mention
the case of the use of the interdental fricative in Peninsular Spanish, final
/s/ weakening, and the distinction between /ʎ/ and /ʝ/. In the case of
morphosyntactic phenomena, the authors focus on variation in forms of address,
including the distribution of the use of different forms of second person
singular: ‘vos’, ‘tú’, and ‘usted’. 
 
Chapter eight deals with the social history of Spanish in the United States
and its linguistic features, surveyed with much more detail in another work by
Escobar and Potowski (2015). Different phenomena of the contact between
English and Spanish are introduced, including codeswitching (the use of
Spanish alongside English in the same communicative event), lexical borrowing
(the insertion and adaptation of lone lexical items), and morphosyntactic
convergence (the increase in frequency of certain shared forms as described by
Silva-Corvalán 1994). Furthermore, factors regarding maintenance and shift of
the Spanish language in the United States are discussed. This chapter ends
with a discussion of macro-sociolinguistic factors that promote or endanger
the maintenance of Spanish in the U.S. 
 
The last chapter, not included in previous editions, is an introduction to the
teaching and acquisition of Spanish. In addition to a historical perspective
on language teaching, this chapter sets out to show how linguistics as a field
can help in making sound pedagogical decisions. Special focus is put on the
Task-Based Language Teaching approach, with a description of types of tasks
and how to carry them out in the classroom. The chapter ends with a discussion
of research in the field of second language acquisition that includes a
substantial discussion of the concept of “interlanguage” and the internal
factors, including individual factors, and external factors, such as type of
input and feedback, that affect individual learner attainment. 
 
EVALUATION
 
This third edition of the book “Introducción a la lingüística hispánica”
consolidates its position as the most comprehensive introductory text to
Hispanic Linguistics on the market today. Although its main target audience
remains advanced undergraduate students with a high level of competence in
Spanish, or even graduate students, its detailed content, well-organized
structure, and a robust battery of exercises make it an excellent entry into
the field. The fact that five different scholars of Spanish linguistics
contribute to this textbook explains the high degree of attention given to
each element discussed in every chapter. While the information might be
overwhelming in some instances—for example, the type of sound change from
Latin to modern Spanish might be challenging for undergraduate students taking
their first Spanish linguistics class—students will surely come back to this
text often as they take more specialized Spanish linguistics courses.
 
REFERENCES
 
Escobar, A. M., Potowski, K. (2015). “El español de los Estados Unidos”.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
 
Pelayo, M. (1940). “Historia de las ideas estéticas en España, vol. V”.
Santander:  Aldus.
 
Silva-Corvalán, C. (1994). “Language contact and change: Spanish in Los
Angeles”. Oxford: Clarendon Press.


ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Marina Bonilla Conejo is currently a third year PhD student at SUNY at Albany.
In 2016, she completed her MA in Spanish Literatures and Linguistics at the
University of Nebraska-Lincoln. <br />She is currently working on her
dissertation, examining which sociolinguistic factors condition the
pronunciation of final /s/ in three main areas of the province of Málaga, in
the South of Spain, across which pronunciation varies geographically and
socially, while making a comparison between the capital city and the rural
areas. <br />Besides her dissertation, she is currently working on a project
on sociophonetics, in which she studies the Spanish spoken in Melilla with her
advisor, Dr. Lotfi Sayahi. Furthermore, she is also working on two projects on
language variation and second language acquisition. Her research interests
include Sociolinguistics, language variation and phonetics and phonology.





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