Subject Area: Hispanic Studies

In this course we will compare and contrast how English and Spanish languages work as well as learn and understand grammatical and linguistic terms. We explore the similarities and differences in the organization of these two languages. The course covers phonology (the sound system), morphosyntax (grammar), and lexis (words and vocabulary). Under phonology we examine topics such as phonology vs. orthography, phonemes and allophones, vowels and syllables, and intonation patterns. Under morphosyntax we examine topics such as verb morphology, tense and mood, word order patterns, noun phrase syntax and morphology, pronouns, and complex sentence structure. Under lexis we examine words, their meanings, their usage, derivational morphology. In each of these major areas of coverage, we also explore the diversity of speech in the Spanish-speaking world, i.e., dialectal differences.