About this book

I am presenting a proposal as a paradigm for the study of Spanish grammar based (1) in the knowledge accrued by the great masters of American Spanish, specially Andrés Bello and Rufino J. Cuervo, (2) in an adaptation of Fillmore's (1968) Case Grammar to Spanish, and (3) in an adaptation of Bloomfield (1933) and Wells' (1958) Constituent Theory to Spanish.

From Antonio de Nebrija, to Andrés Bello to Rufino J. Cuervo to government and binding theory, the study of grammar, and particularly syntax, has in common the idea that in a sentence the noun (the subject noun phrase) governs the verb. Another characteristic of these grammars is that they are anthropocentric. The use of the category 'subject' stands out, which precludes things and objects from being allotted equal rights in a sentence.

Gramática Viva is based on the idea that the verb not the subject is the center of the sentence, therefore giving each noun phrase equal but different status in relation to the verb.

A metaphor is always useful to drive a point. Considering the subject as the center of the sentence is like the geocentric idea of considering the earth the center of the universe. Considering the verb as the center of the sentence is like the heliocentric idea of considering the sun the center of the universe. The first could be called a Ptolomeic approach to syntax; the second one, a Galilean approach.

Gramática Viva is a Galilean approach to syntax. If language is compared to the solar system, the verb is the sun, the axis of the sentence, and the different constituents are the planets revolving around it, each in a particular orbit, the particular verb cases. Furthermore, the planets have satellites, the same way the nouns have determinants and modifiers.

Gramática Viva is a verbal grammmar, researche and developed from live language, especially, lyrics of songs, and proverbs. It is underpinned by the thesis that in discourse, syntax is to verb as morphology is to constituent: In the syntactic-semantic level, verbs establish case relationships with constituents, and with other verbs; in the morphological level, inside the constituent, words function like nouns, determinants, or links.

The verb is the fundamental component and the axis of the sentence. The semantic information that accompanies the verb, who, what, to whom, how, when, where, etc., is communicated through sometimes highly complex morphological constituents, that establish with the verb a particular case relationship at the syntactic level. The nucleus of the constituent is always a noun (substantive, adjective, adverb), a pronoun, or a verb2.

About the author

Norma Corrales-Martin, Ph.D., is originally from Colombia, where she got her Bachelor's degree in TESL. She has a Master's in Hispanic Linguistics from the prestigious Instituto Caro y Cuervo in Bogotá, and a Ph.D. from Ohio University. She teaches Spanish at Temple University.

She is a pioneer in the use of music for language instruction. She has coauthored a literary anthology Pinceladas Literarias Hispanoamericanas (Wiley, 2003). She has written and published on Afro-Hispanic Literature and music.

MÓDULO 1. INTRODUCCIÓN Y OBJETIVOS

MÓDULO 2. CANCIONES

2. 1 GUÍA DE ANÁLISIS DE LA CANCIÓN

2. 2 GUÍA PARA TRADUCIR LAS CANCIONES

MÓDULO 3.  MARCO TEÓRICO DEL TEXTO

3.1. EL ENFOQUE SEMÁNTICO COMUNICATIVO

3.2. EL CONCEPTO DE REALIDAD

3.3. LA LENGUA COMO MEDIO DE COMUNICACIÓN

EL PROCESO COMUNICATIVO.  Introduce un esquema básico para entender el proceso de comunicación en sociedad.

3.4 LA OBRA DE ARTE COMO PRODUCTO SOCIAL

3.5 RESUMEN

MÓDULO 4. DE LAS CATEGORÍAS GRAMATICALES

4.1 CATEGORÍAS GRAMATICALES. Estudia las funciones de las palabras según se relacionen o no con el verbo.

4.2 CATEGORÍAS DE LA REALIDAD Y CATEGORÍAS GRAMATICALES

MÓDULO 5. DEL VERBO

5.1 RELACIONES DE CASO DEL VERBO 1. Explica las relaciones de caso básicas del español.

5.2 CASOS DE PERSONAS O ENTES

5.3 CASOS CIRCUNSTANCIALES

5.4 RELACIONES DE CASO DEL VERBO II. Presenta la matrix de relaciones de caso básicas del español.

MATRIX DE CASOS, CANCIÓN, LA BILIRRUBINA

5.5 CLASIFICACIÓN DE LOS VERBOS. Clasifica los verbos según las relaciones de caso establecidas especialmente con los casos agente, experimentor y paciente.

5.6 LAS CATEGORÍAS GRAMATICALES Y LOS CASOS DEL VERBO

MÓDULO 6. DE LOS CONSTITUYENTES

6.1 ESTRUCTURA CONSTITUYENTE DE LA LENGUA. Estudia los constituyentes morfológicos básicos del español.

6.2 ENLACES.  Une bajo el nombre y carácter de enlaces preposiciones, conjunciones y enlaces subordinativos.

6.3 ENLACES II. CUADRO DE ENLACES

6.4 RELACIONES DEL NOMBRE. Estudia las relaciones que el nombre establece con otros nombres, con adjetivos y adverbios y con la oración relativa.

6.5 RELACIONES DEL NOMBRE II. COMPARACIÓN

MÓDULO 7. TEMAS DEL ESPAÑOL

7.1 ¿QUE QUÉ?  Estudia la palabra que en sus diferentes funciones.

7.2 VERBALES Y PERÍFRASIS VERBALES

7.3 ¿TODO POR QUÉ Y PARA QUÉ?

7.4 SER, ESTAR, HAY

7.5 PRETÉRITO E IMPERFECTO DE INDICATIVO

7.6 ESTUDIO DE LOS PRONOMBRES

7.6 ESTUDIO DEL MODO SUBJUNTIVO

REFERENCIAS

APÉNDICE SOLUCIONES SELECTAS A LOS EJERICICIOS