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Spanish Syntax: Simple Sentence

Code: 100583
Credits: 6
2026/2027
Degree programme Type Course
Spanish and Chinese Studies: Language, Literature and Culture OB 2
English and Spanish Studies OB 3
Catalan and Spanish Studies OB 3

Contact lecturer

Name :
Javier Fernandez Sanchez
Email :
javier.fernandez.sanchez@uab.cat

Teaching staff

Juan Romero Morales

Group languages

You can consult this information at the end of the document.

Prerequisites

Since the student has shown, by obtaining the credits corresponding to the basic and compulsory training subjects, that he / she has acquired the basic competences, he / she must be able to express himself / herself correctly orally and in writing.

In the case of written expression, it is understood that the student writes paragraphs with appropriate content. Misspellings, punctuation and speech structure will be taken into account. Fouls will be deducted 0.25 points each.

The activities, practices and assignments presented in the subject must be original and will not admit, under any circumstances, the total or partial plagiarism of other people's materials published in any support. The student must conveniently explain, according to the uses of the bibliographic documentation, the authorship of all the citations and the use of other people's materials. The possible presentation of non-original material without properly indicating its origin, will automatically cause the rating of suspense (0).

Similarly, the student is considered to know the general rules for submitting an academic paper. However, you can apply the specific rules that may be indicated by the teacher of the subject, if you deem it appropriate.
 

Objectives

This subject is part of the subject Spanish language: synchrony and aims to know and master the procedures that allow the combination of words in more complex syntactic units up to the level of the sentence.


The different syntactic projections and the principles that govern the formation are studied and the necessary theoretical tools to analyze the syntactic constructions are presented. At the end of the course, students:

  1. must be able to identify and describe the syntactic constructions of Spanish and to recognize the its structure;
  2. must know how to use the tools of syntactic analysis;
  3. must have acquired the techniques of syntactic argumentation, and
  4. must be able to use the basic bibliographic sources of the Spanish syntax.


In order to achieve the first three objectives, the students' linguistic competence will be based on and their capacity for reflection will be enhanced so that they will be able to ask themselves scientific questions about the linguistic data.

Learning outcomes

  1. Construct texts according to the established rules.
  2. Use the adequate terminology in the construction of an academic text.
  3. Use digital tools for collecting, classifying, interpreting and analysing relevant data.
  4. Analyse a situation and identify its points for improvement.
  5. Carry out predictions and inferences abut the content of a text.
  6. Summarise the characteristics of a written text in accordance with its communicative functions.
  7. Identify errors of rules, style or argument in a text.
  8. find out the meaning of unknown words in a text.
  9. Identify the pragmatic factors affecting the use of different linguistic structures.
  10. Interpret the word from the different levels of linguistic analysis.
  11. Apply techniques of description and analysis of discursive pieces.
  12. Analyse linguistic structures in Spanish.
  13. Relate pragmatic competence to geographical and social variation.
  14. Distinguish geographical variation on different levels of linguistic analysis.
  15. Describe and identify the phonetic and phonological system of the Spanish language.
  16. Analyse the structure of words from a morphological point of view.
  17. Correctly identify linguistic units.
  18. Define the concepts of semantic and pragmatic competence.
  19. Analyse the relations between vocabulary and grammar.
  20. Use the necessary resources, both digital and non-digital (data bases, text repositories, dictionaries, reference works), for the analysis of any document, spoken or written, from a linguistic point of view.
  21. Analyse different types of linguistic data.
  22. Appropriately use the different available formal and technical resources.
  23. Solve complex problems of linguistic analysis at any level and with the appropriate instruments.
  24. Plan work effectively, individually or in groups, in order to fulfil the planned objectives.
  25. Locate specialised and academic information and select this according to its relevance.
  26. Use the appropriate terminology in the construction of an academic text and in the transmission of their knowledge.
  27. Use traditional sources to obtain, classify, interpret and analyse relevant data related to the study of Spanish language and literature.
  28. Make linguistic predictions and inferences about the content of a text.
  29. Acquire in-depth phonetic knowledge so that it can be applied to other interdisciplinary fields.
  30. Describe the phonological system of Spanish on the basis of the distribution, relationships and articulatory and acoustic properties of its elements.
  31. Identify the constituents of a word and the levels at which they operate.
  32. Identify and describe the syntactic constructions of Spanish.
  33. Recognise acoustically and articulately the sounds and prosody of Spanish.
  34. Recognise the links between compositional semantics and other disciplines, both linguistic (syntax, lexicology, pragmatics) and non-linguistic (philosophy, logic, mathematics).
  35. Characterise linguistic phenomena taking into account the different levels of analysis.
  36. Justify by means of appropriate terminology the analysis of data from a linguistic point of view.
  37. Propose new ways of measuring success or failure in the implementation of proposals or innovative ideas.
  38. Make use of the knowledge acquired while respecting diversity of opinion and varieties of a language.
  39. Develop effective written work and oral presentations and adapted to the appropriate register.
  40. Strengthen the capacity of reading, interpretation and critical analysis of literary texts and language.
  41. Produce written and oral texts with correction rules.
  42. Analyze properties phonetic, phonological, morphological, syntactic, lexical and semantic language that current problems arise.
  43. Apply the principles of correctness required in the standard language and the different registers and variants.
  44. Identify and describe the processes of inflection, derivation, composition and lexicalisation.
  45. Analyse the syntactic structures of simple, complex, modalised and discursively marked clauses.
  46. Describe the process of creating combinatorial linguistic units.
  47. Analyze linguistic structures.
  48. Use technological resources (digital and audiovisual) to acquire knowledge and apply it in language and literature.
  49. Maintain an attitude of respect for the opinions, values, behaviors and practices of others.
  50. Write text commentaries from a critical standpoint.
  51. Plan, organise and carry out work in a team.
  52. Analyse the principles of lexical semantics that affect the internal structure of words and their syntactic combination.
  53. Distinguish between grammatical gender and natural gender.

Contents

The teaching team will provide students with a detailed course syllabus on the first day of class, but the subject is structured into three thematic blocks:


  1. The lexical layer of the sentence (9/10 sessions): predication, argument structure
  2. The inflectional layer of the sentence (13/14 sessions): case, the InflP (or IP), A-movement
  3. The discourse layer of the sentence (6/7 sessions): modality, left periphery, A'-movement

Learning activities and methodology

Title Hours ECTS Learning outcomes
Study of the course's contents 61.5 2.46 2, 3, 12, 20
Appointments 15 0.6 4, 12, 21, 37, 45
Assignments and exercises 10 0.4 1, 4, 12
Master classes, seminar sessions and teacher-led practices 52.5 2.1 3, 4, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 40, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 51
Assessment 6.5 0.26 1, 2, 5, 6, 9, 12, 18, 19, 21, 32, 34, 39, 41, 45, 50, 52, 53
The learning of this subject by the student is distributed as follows:- Directed activities (35%). These activities are divided into master classes and teacher-led practices and seminars, in which the theoretical explanation will be combined with the discussion of all types of texts.- Supervised activities (10%). These are tutorials programmed by the teacher, dedicated to the correction and commentary of problems in the different levels of linguistic analysis.- Autonomous activities (50%). These activities include both time spent on personal study and conducting reviews, assignments and analytical comments, as well as preparing oral presentations.- Evaluation activities (5%). The evaluation of the subject will be carried out through written tests.
- 15 minutes of a class will be reserved, within the timetable established by the centre/title, for the complementation by the students of the assessment surveys of the teaching staff's performance and the assessment of the subject\".
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

Continuous assessment activities

Title Weight Hours ECTS Learning outcomes
Linguistic reflection exercise (Block 1) 35% 1.5 0.06 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10, 11, 12, 15, 16, 17, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52
Linguistic analysis exercise (Block 2) 45% 1.5 0.06 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 51, 52, 53
Test exam (Block 3) 20% 1.5 0.06 3, 4, 7, 8, 9, 12, 13, 17, 18, 21, 23, 24, 28, 32, 34, 35, 36, 37, 42, 45, 46, 47, 48, 51

1. Continous assessment

The subject is assessed through three activities that will take place in class. Each activity relates to a different thematic block. The structure of each exercise will be explained in class a couple of weeks before the activity's date.


1.1. Assessment criteria

To pass the course, after completing the four assessable activities mentioned above and after applying the percentages indicated above, the student must obtain a final grade equal to or greater than 5. If the final grade is...

  • Less than 3.5, the student will receive a failing grade.
  • Between 3.5 and 4.8, the student will be eligible to retake the course.
  • The student will receive a grade of not assessable as long as they have not submitted more than 1/3 of the assessment activities.


1.2. Re-evaluation criteria

Students who obtain a final grade between 3.5 and 4.8 and who have completed two-thirds of the aforementioned assessment activities may retake the subject on the date scheduled by the Faculty, where they will take the test(s) / exam(s) they failed. In this case, students can only obtain a grade of 5.

Students who pass the subject will be allowed to retake the retake to improve their grade. Therefore, they will waive their previous grade, and the grade obtained in the retake will be their final grade.


1.3. Linguistic errors

In order to pass the exam, mastery of the normative is considered essential; therefore, when evaluating the activities mentioned above, spelling errors, incorrect use of punctuation, lexical errors and morphosyntactic errors will be penalized (-0,25 points).


1.4 Review procedure for evaluable evidence

After the publication of the gradingof theevaluable activities mentioned above, the teacher will inform the students through Moodle of the day and time for the review of such activities.


1.5 Misconduct in assessment activities

In the event of a student committing any irregularity that may lead to a significant variation in the grade awarded to an assessment activity, the student will be given a zero for this activity, regardless of any disciplinary process that may take place. In the event of several irregularities in assessment activities of the same subject, the student will be given a zero as the final grade for this subject.


1.6 Artificial Intelligence

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 evaluated with a 0 and not being able to be recovered, or greater sanctions in serious cases.


1.7 Erasmus Students

Erasmus students who request to advance an exam must present the teacher with a written document from their home university justifying their request.


2. Single assessment

Assessment activities Weight
Linguistic reflection exercise 35%
Linguistic analysis exercise 45%
Test exam 20%


Everything established in points 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 1.5, 1.6 and 1.7 of the previous section is also applicable to the single assessment. The date for the single evaluation will coincide with the date of Exam 2 of the continuous assessment. The teacher will communicate to the student the date for the single assessment through Moodle at the beginning of the course.


Bibliography

Bosque, Ignacio and Violeta Demonte (eds.) (1999): Gramática descriptiva de la lengua española. Calpe. 3 vols. Madrid: Espasa.

Bosque, Ignacio and Javier Gutiérrez-Rexach (2009): Fundamentos de sintaxis formal. Madrid: Akal.

Brucart, José María (2000). “L’analisi sintàctica i la seva terminología en l’ensenyament secundary”. In Macià, J. y Sola, J. (eds.), La terminologia lingüística en l’ensenyaament secundari. Propostes pràctiques, 163-229. Barcelona: Graò.

Demonte, Violeta (1989). De las estructuras a la rección. Madrid: Síntesis.

Di Tullio, Ángela (2009). Manual de gramática del español. Buenos Aires: Waldhutter Ediciones

Gallego, Ángel J. (ed) (2015). Perspectivas de sintaxis formal. Madrid: Akal.

Hernanz, Mª. Luisa y José María Brucart (1987): La sintaxis, I. Principios teóricos. La oración simple. Barcelona: Crítica.

Rodríguez Ramalle, Teresa María (2005): Manual de Sintaxis del Español. Madrid: Castalia.

Software

Does not apply.

Course groups and languages

The information provided is provisional until November 30. After this date, you will be able to consult the language of each group through this link. To access the information, you will need to enter the course CODE