DEPARTMENT of SPANISH and PORTUGUESE Span 4215 Spanish in the United States Fall 2017
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DEPARTMENT OF SPANISH AND PORTUGUESE Span 4215 Spanish in the United States Fall 2017 Javier Rivas Office: McKenna Languages Bldg. 22 Phone number: (303) 492-6268 E-mail address: [email protected] Office hours: Wednesdays 2:00 – 3:30 and Fridays 11.00 – 12.30 or by appointment Class time and location: MWF 1:00 – 1:50 STAD 136C Course description Spanish is the second most used language in the United States, after English. In this country, Spanish and English have been in close contact for several centuries and, as a result, Spanish has undergone many changes. The aim of this course is to describe the linguistic characteristics of the different communities of Spanish speakers in the USA including, among others, Mexican, Cuban, Puerto Rican, Central American, as well as the traditional varieties of New Mexico and Louisiana. We will discuss how and to what an extent the contact between these varieties and the Spanish contact with English give rise to linguistic phenomena such as leveling, accommodation, code-switching, borrowing, simplification as well as phonological and grammatical convergence. We will take into consideration both linguistic and social factors that constrain the mechanisms of language change and its outcomes. The course will also be concerned with the relationships between language and identity, and with the role of Spanish in US education, media, and social institutions. Textbook Escobar, Anna María y Kim Potowski. 2015. El español de los Estados Unidos. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Other required readings All these readings will be posted on D2L. Students need to bring a hard copy of these readings to class. Aaron, Jessi & José E. Hernández. 2007. Quantitative evidence for contact-induced accomodation: Shifts in /s/ reduction patterns in Salvadoran Spanish in Houston. In Kim Potowski & Richard Cameron eds. Spanish in contact. Policy, social and linguistic inquiries. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins, pp. 329-343. Bayley, Robert & Otto Santa Ana. 2004. Chicano English: Morphology and syntax. A handbook of varieties of English: a multimedia reference tool. Eds. Bernd Kartmann, Edgar W. Schneider, Kate Burridge, Rajend Mesthrie & Clive Upton, vol. 2, 374-390. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Brown, Esther L. 2005. Syllable-initial /s/ in traditional New Mexican Spanish: Linguistic factors favoring reduction ahina. Southwest Journal of Linguistics 24/1/&2: 13-30. Gutiérrez, M. Elena & Mark Amengual. 2016. Perceptions of estándar and nonstandard language varieties: The influence of ethnicity and heritage language experience. Heritage Language Journal 13/1: 55-79. 2 Lynch, Andrew. 2009. A sociolinguistic analysis of final /s/ in Cuban Spanish. Language Sciences 31: 766-790. Otheguy, Ricardo & Ana Celia Zentella. 2012. Spanish in New York. Language contact, dialectal leveling, and structural continuity. Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press. [Chapter 10 “The grammars of bilinguals in New York]. Poplack, Shana. 1980. Sometimes I´ll start a sentence in Spanish Y TERMINO EN ESPAÑOL. Linguistics 18: 581-618. Silva-Corvalán, Carmen. 1994. The gradual loss of mood distinctions in Los Angeles Spanish. Language Variation and Change 6: 255-272. Silva-Corvalán, Carmen. 2015. Early bilinguals and adult heritage speakers: what are the links. Boletín de Filología L/1: 165-191. Torres, Lourdes & Kim Potowski. 2008. A comparative study of bilingual discourse markers in Chicago Mexican, Puerto Rican and MexiRican Spanish. International Journal of Bilingualism 12/4: 263-279. Wilson, Damián V. & Jenny Dumont. 2015. The emergent grammar of bilinguals: The Spanish verb hacer ‘do’ with a bare English infinitive. International Journal of Bilingualism 19: 444-458. Dictionaries of linguistic terms (not required) Alcaraz Varó, Enrique & María A. López Linares. 2004. Diccionario de lingüística moderna. 2nd ed. Barcelona: Ariel. Lázaro Carreter, Fernando. 1968. Diccionario de términos filológicos. 3rd ed. Madrid: Gredos. Trask, Robert L. 1997. A Student´s dictionary of language and linguistics. London: Arnold. Attendance Students are expected to attend class every day. Only three (3) absences are permitted. Beyond this, one (1) point will be deducted from your overall grade for each unexcused absence. Inappropriate use of technology during class will count that day as an unexcused absence. Inappropriate use of technology includes text messaging, emailing as well as any other activities using technology that are not directly related to the course. Grade breakdown Participation: 10% Hourly exams: 40% (20% each) Homework: 10% Final exam: 20% Position paper: 20% Participation Active participation is required for this course. You are expected to come to class prepared to be able to participate in class discussions. This entails to do the readings that are assigned for each day (see calendar below) and to complete the homework. Homework You will turn in four (4) homework assignments throughout the semester. You will have at least 4 days to complete them. Please make sure you do these assignments individually. Any academic dishonesty will be reported (see Honor Code below). Please use a word processor, select Times New Roman 12 pt. as your font, and double space throughout. There will be fixed deadlines to turn these homework assignments in. These 3 dates will be announced in class. Late homework will not be accepted unless accompanied by written documentation of an excused absence. However, in order to make up for last-minute unforseen events, you may turn in late work once during the whole semester. In order to receive credit, this late work needs to be turned in at the beginning of the next class. Position paper Students will write a 5-page long (aside from cover page and list of bibliographical references) paper in Spanish where you will need to provide a critical approach to the topic of subject pronominal expression in US Spanish. Apart from the information that appears in the textbook on this topic, you will use other sources (academic journals, books) to complete this project. You will type this assignment using Time New Roman 12 and double space. Your final grade will be based on both content and use of Spanish. You will turn in a first draft of the paper and a final version on the dates marked on the course calendar (see below). You will receive detailed instructions on how to complete this assignment in class. Exams There will be two (2) hourly exams. Their dates are marked on the calendar. In addition, at the end of the semester we will have a final comprehensive exam on the date assigned by the university. Apart from the readings, the exams will also be based on the handouts and PowerPoint presentations the professor uses in class as well as on your class notes. Make-ups As indicated below, the time of the final exam may only be changed when you have three or more exams scheduled for that same day. If this is your situation, you must make arrangements with me for rescheduling by Friday November 3, 2017. Make-ups for other exams will only be given for official conflicts or verified medical reasons, and arrangements must be made with me prior to the exam. Final grade Your final grade will be based on the following percentages: 94-100%= A 88-89%= B+ 78-79%= C+ 68-69%= D+ 00-59%= F 90-93%= A- 84-87%= B 74-77%= C 64-67%= D 80-83%= B- 70-73%= C- 60-63%= D- University and Department Policies (1) Add / Drop / Waitlist - If you are waitlisted for this class, it is IMPERATIVE that you familiarize yourself with departmental policies and deadlines. For this, please visit http://www.colorado.edu/spanish/resources/dropadd-policy (2) Pre-requisites not met - If your instructor informs you that the system has flagged you because you do not meet the pre-requisites for this course, you should meet in person with Javier Rivas, the associate chair for undergraduate studies, or the coordinator for your class level. If you fail to do so, you may be dropped from the class. Your instructor will inform you of the date and time to meet with the associate chair or the coordinator for your class. 4 (3) Honor Code – All students enrolled in a University of Colorado Boulder course are responsible for knowing and adhering to the academic integrity policy (http://www.colorado.edu/policies/academic-integrity-policy). Violations of the policy may include: plagiarism, cheating, fabrication, lying, bribery, threat, unauthorized access to academic materials, clicker fraud, resubmission, and aiding academic dishonesty. For details on these violations, students must go to http://honorcode.colorado.edu/student-information and read the links “What is a violation?” “Standards of Academic Integrity,” “Understanding and preventing plagiarism,” and “Citation guide and plagiarism information.” All incidents of academic misconduct will be reported to the Honor Code Council ([email protected]; 303- 735-2273). Students who are found responsible for violating the academic integrity policy will be subject to nonacademic sanctions from the Honor Code Council as well as academic sanctions from the faculty member. Additional information regarding the academic integrity policy can be found at the http://www.colorado.edu/honorcode (4) Final Exams - Final exams are to be taken on the day determined by the university and the department. No excuse such as family meetings, employment, or travel will grant an exception to this. If you have three or more final exams on the same day, you are entitled to arrange an alternative exam time for the last exam or exams scheduled on that day. If you have two final exams scheduled to meet at the same time, you are entitled to arrange an alternative exam time for the later course offered that day or week. To be eligible to re-schedule a final exam, you must provide evidence of either of these situations and make arrangements with your instructor no later than Friday November 3, 2017.