Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 1988. / Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 449-459).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2005. / Title from first page of PDF file. Document formatted into pages; contains xviii, 197 p.; also includes graphics Includes bibliographical references (p. 188-197). Available online via OhioLINK's ETD Center

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1973. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliography.

Thesis (M.A.)--Miami University, Dept. of Spanish and Portuguese, 2003. / Title from first page of PDF document. Includes bibliographical references (p. 65-66).

The phenomenon of /s/ weakening is common among many varieties of Spanish, from Latin America to southern Spain (Lipski (2011), Samper Padilla (2011)). This project will focus specifically on coda /s/ weakening in Andalusian Spanish, the social factors that influence it, and the language ideologies surrounding the dialect. Previous research has found that social factors influencing /s/ weakening include social class, gender, and education level (Lipski (2011), Samper Padilla (2011), Holmquist (2008), Terrell (1981), Fontanella de Weinberg (1973)). Studies on /s/ weakening in Andalusian Spanish have mainly focused on the functional compensation for the loss of /s/, but little research has been found on the social factors conditioning /s/ weakening in Andalusian Spanish (Rincon-Perez (2015), Carlson (2006), Ranson (1993), and more). This study will examine how the social factors of gender and class influence the presence of /s/ weakening in participants from Granada. Traditionally in studies of /s/ weakening, the discussion of variation has been limited to the categories of retention, aspiration, or deletion. However, this approach does not fully encompass the entire possibility of variety for /s/ because not all tokens of /s/ are equal in strength. By using the acoustic measurements of center of gravity (COG) and duration as continuous variables, /s/ weakening can be analyzed more precisely and comprehensively (Erker (2010), File-Muriel & Brown (2011)). Data for this research project was gathered in person from ten university-aged Andalusian Spanish speakers (5 female, 5 male) in Granada, Spain. Participants completed a demographic survey, reading passage, and participated in a thirty-minute sociolinguistic interview which included questions about participants’ language ideologies. Data was analyzed by measuring the duration and COG of all tokens of coda /s/ in participants’ speech using a Praat script. Statistical analysis was performed in RBrul to determine the relevant social and linguistic factors influencing /s/ weakening. Results showed that there was a significant correlation between duration and social class, as well as between duration and token position in word and phrase. No significant correlation between COG and any of the social or linguistic variables was found. The language ideologies of participants were also analyzed, and the results revealed that participants were generally aware of their distinctive dialect and its negative perceptions and that the majority of participants said that they had been judged for the way that they talked. These results are mostly consistent with the previous research, but the lack of correlation between COG and any of the variables was surprising.

The goal of this dissertation is to explore the use of transgressive language in the works of Juan Goytisolo and Zoé Valdés. This study examines the socio-political and cultural contexts in which the narrative of both authors develops, as well as the textual devices employed by these writers for undermining the "official history" imposed by the dictatorial regimes in Francoist Spain and Castro's Cuba. Furthermore, this dissertation argues that the deconstructing strategies in Goytisolo and Valdés mark their literary trajectory. Their vindicatory standpoints seek an alternative discourse of national identity. The function of language in demythifying and recodifying hegemonic discourse is examined in Goytisolo's trilogy Señas de identidad, Reivindicación del conde don Julián, and Juan sin tierra; and the novels of Zoé Valdés La nada cotidiana and Te di la vida entera. The parallelisms in the literary works of Goytisolo and Valdés are established by contrasting the authors' revisionist approach to history, the self-reflexivity of their novels, the sexual referent, and the use of irony and parody. The theoretical framework incorporates poststructuralist theorists such as Todorov, Foucault, Lacan, Barthes, Derrida, and Kristeva; the psychoanalytical theory of Freud; and the feminist theories of Cixous and Irigaray. The comparative approach of this study and the interplay of power, politics, aesthetic creation, and author's psychology provide an illuminating perspective that could be of interest to individuals from a variety of disciplines.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / El método de enseñanza de uso común en el aula de hoy, el comunicativo, se ve frecuentemente con algunas ciertas incongruencias. Esto a veces llega a ser una fuente de frustración para el/la profesor/a que quiere transmitir el lenguaje de una manera efectiva, pero que lo ve difícil a causa de lo que parece, según muchos, una falta de información muy clara acerca de cómo y cuándo enseñar las formas gramaticales. Las investigaciones ofrecen puntos de vista muy opuestos: hay mucho debate acerca de si se debe enseñar la gramática en primer lugar; y si se enseña, ¿cómo se enseña para alcanzar el producto final de un grupo de estudiantes que usa la lengua con fluidez? ¿Existe alguna fórmula mágica, algún método eficaz para contestar estas preguntas a la satisfacción de los que requieren evaluar algo tan difícil de medir? En búsqueda de alguna respuesta concreta, aquí se va a investigar dos modelos comunicativos de la enseñanza de la gramática: uno que aparece frecuentemente en los libros de textos comunicativos, y uno de llegada más recién- el de la Instrucción Basada en el Procesamiento del Input (IBPI) de Bill VanPatten (1996, 2004a, 2004b, 2005). Las metas de esta investigación son dos. Primero, se va a demostrar las diferencias metodológicas entre la IBPI y la instrucción comunicativa estándar con lecciones explícitas. Además, se va a explorar la eficacia de estos dos métodos pedagógicos en la enseñanza de un punto gramatical con un estudio piloto de pequeña escala.

Spanish infinitive sentences are independent syntactic structures whose verb is an infinitive. Although they are very common in popular speech, most grammar books do not even mention them; there is no study extant which deals with them exclusively or analyzes them as sentences; and no accurate classification of them exists. Studies which include infinitive sentences are of two types: (1) those that do not consider them sentences because the notion sentence requires a verb capable of expressing person and number information; and (2) those that treat them as sentences but without analyzing them, that is, without saying what makes them sentences or what the requirements for sentencehood are. In both types, classification is arbitrary and idiosyncratic. Two current analyses of these structures, one structural and one generative, are shown to be inadequate in accounting for them. Under the structural analysis, these sentences are treated as dependent structures whose "marked" intonation permits them to function independently. As to the generative analysis, it treats them as subordinated structures whose embedding sentences--either higher performatives or reconstructed matrices based on discourse--are deleted. Both analyses are shown to be ad hoc and devoid of empirical content. A study is needed that can determine whether these structures are sentences and that can classify them rigorously and precisely. This dissertation offers a (language-particular) syntactic-composition analysis. Proposing new definitions for verb, sentence, and other related notions which are free of the problems that have beset previous studies, it shows that infinitives are capable of expressing person, number and other notions, and that infinitive sentences are sentences. It also classifies those sentences formally--by means of intonation--and presents spectrographic evidence demonstrating that they are grouped into discrete classes on the basis of purely formal features. The formal classification shows that infinitive sentences are as systematically related as are non-infinitives, thereby achieving two important generalizations: a unified treatment of all Spanish verbs and all Spanish sentences.

The purpose of this investigation is to determine the extent and nature of criticism in the plays of Jacinto Benavente. Source material included the writings of such prominent critics of Spanish literature as Walter Starkie, Federico de Onis, Richard Chandler, Kessel Schwartz, Emiliano Diez-Echarri, Jose Franquesa, Federico Sainz de Robles, and Valbuena Prat. Twenty plays which best exemplify Benavente's criticism of society were selected from the dramatist's 172.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, Dept. of Romance Languages and Literatures, June 1999. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.