Manuel Delicado Cantero

Prepositional clauses in Spanish : a diachronic and comparative syntactic study

This study examines the properties behind the evolution of clauses introduced by prepositions in Spanish, including clausal nominality, argumenthood and preposition optionality. It devotes special attention to the nature and constraints of comparable constructions in other past and present European languages, particularly Portuguese, French, and Italian.

First things first: exploring Spanish students' attitudes towards learning pronunciation in Australia

ABSTRACT The number of Spanish students in Australia is increasing. This growth coincides with a period of revival in the teaching and learning of pronunciation in the foreign language classroom. However, unlike their peers in the UK and especially in the US, no specific materials are available for Australian students. In order to assist them, the first essential step must be examining their attitudes and beliefs, which is necessary to recognise the ways in which they conceive of learning pronunciation and thus shape further work, as the literature has long established. Therefore, we analyse here the results of an anonymous survey distributed among Australian university students of Spanish. The results show positive attitudes and loci of control towards the subject but also reveal the need for strengthening awareness and a number of tensions where action is still needed in order to ensure adequate pedagogical procedure for pronunciation success.

Clausal Substantivization in Spanish: Syntax and Constraints

The nominal distribution of finite clauses in many languages has been explained by positing a nominal projection of some sort on top of the (verbal) CP. Additional evidence of such nominality has been drawn from the fact that in many of those languages a determiner can indeed top the CP projection (D + CP), thus creating a DP. In standard Spanish, speakers may optionally add such a determiner under certain semantic circumstances. Spanish finite clauses in principle fall under such a syntactic account. However, despite their nominal distribution, a constraint remains which apparently challenges such generalization. Finite clauses introduced by the complementizer que (‘that’)—que-clauses—may not combine with a determiner in spite of meeting all expected requirements. This paper offers a revision of the nominality of the Spanish finite que-clause. Special attention is devoted to the role of the determiner, arguing for a differentiation between the general nominality of finite clauses and the optional creatio...The nominal distribution of finite clauses in many languages has been explained by positing a nominal projection of some sort on top of the (verbal) CP. Additional evidence of such nominality has been drawn from the fact that in many of those languages a determiner can indeed top the CP projection (D + CP), thus creating a DP. In standard Spanish, speakers may optionally add such a determiner under certain semantic circumstances. Spanish finite clauses in principle fall under such a syntactic account. However, despite their nominal distribution, a constraint remains which apparently challenges such generalization. Finite clauses introduced by the complementizer que (‘that’)—que-clauses—may not combine with a determiner in spite of meeting all expected requirements. This paper offers a revision of the nominality of the Spanish finite que-clause. Special attention is devoted to the role of the determiner, arguing for a differentiation between the general nominality of finite clauses and the optional creation of a DP (D + CP) in certain contexts in Spanish. Furthermore, the paper includes an analysis of the unexpected constraint in prepositional contexts in terms of strict adjacency, which makes it possible to account for the lack of the D layer while retaining the nominality of que-clauses in Spanish.

La enseñanza de la pronunciación del español en Australia: creencias y actitudes de los profesores (Teaching of the pronunciation of Spanish in Australia: beliefs and attitudes of teachers)

Tras anos de desatencion en la metodologia y en las aulas, la ensenanza y el aprendizaje de la pronunciacion estan viviendo un retorno a las aulas acompanados de un creciente interes en la investigacion (Gil Fernandez 2007, 2012). En Australia, en comparacion con otras lenguas —especialmente las asiaticas— de mayor tradicion en la educacion, el espanol no ha gozado de una gran presencia y tampoco ha recibido la atencion necesaria en la investigacion pedagogica, incluidas las opiniones y necesidades de los docentes. En este articulo ofrecemos un estudio de las creencias y las actitudes de profesores australianos de espanol como lengua extranjera (ELE) en relacion con la ensenanza de la pronunciacion. Los datos proceden de profesores de varios niveles educativos y de diferentes estados o territorios australianos. En el estudio mostramos que a la comunidad docente no solamente le interesa la pronunciacion, sino que tambien ha recibido algun tipo de formacion. Tambien establecemos una comparacion con las conc...

Romance Linguistics in the Pacific: Variation in Time and Space

This special issue includes selected peer reviewed proceedings of the workshop Romance Linguistics in the Pacific: variation in time and space, part of the Australian Linguistic Society Conference held in December 2011 at the Australian National University in Canberra. We would like to take this opportunity to thank the participants and the audience for their comments and suggestions. We are also grateful to the editor of AJL, Keith Allan, for giving us this opportunity. The workshop brought together specialists from both sides of the Pacific working on a variety of topics within Romance Linguistics, ranging from phonological analysis to syntax and discourse. The rationale behind this workshop was to celebrate the establishment of a research group in the field at the School of Language Studies at the ANU, in particular Hispanic Linguistics. This special edition marks the launch of the Romance Linguistics in the Antipodes (RomLA) virtual research centre, which aims to provide a platform for researchers in Australia and New Zealand, and to facilitate collaborations and networking with colleagues outside of Oceania. The papers are organized in alphabetical order, which coincidentally allows us to organize the papers according to theoretical frameworks and/or topics. In the first paper, Delicado Cantero addresses clausal substantivization in Spanish. After introducing a formal syntactic account of finite clauses and clausal nominalization in Spanish, a language where a DP may optionally top a CP in certain contexts, the author concentrates on two main issues. The first is the unexpected constraint barring the combination of prepositions and clauses introduced by determiners. While DPs make typical prepositional complements, BD CP in Spanish results in ungrammaticality if selected by a preposition. Building on the weak nature of the Spanish complementizer que and on interpolation tests, the author argues for the application of strict adjacency between P and C, thus blocking a potential DP projection. The author goes on to argue against the need for the determiner layer*a DP*in creating a nominal (finite) clause, and supports a differentiation between the nominality of the (finite) clause and the projection of an additional DP, labelled clausal substantivization.