The Spanish Lexicon: A Comprehensive Guide
1. The Spanish Lexicon
The set of words that shaped our language is called the Spanish lexicon. Its origin and other aspects of grammar are studied by lexicology (the study of the lexicon).
1.1 The Word as a Linguistic Sign
The verbal code that humans use to communicate consists of a series of units called linguistic signs.
A linguistic sign is made up of:
- Signifier: This consists of a chain of articulated sounds, represented in writing by a string of graphemes. Example: “table”
- Meaning: This is the concept or idea. Example: “a piece of furniture consisting of…”
Characteristics of the linguistic sign:
- Arbitrariness: The string of graphemes “t”, “a”, “b”, “l”, “e” is conventional and could be formed by another string of sounds.
- Immutability for the speaker: The speaker of a language cannot alter the signifier or meaning.
- Mutability over time: Linguistic signs evolve over time, and therefore, their meanings can vary.
1.2 The Double Articulation of Language: Phonemes and Monemes
Monemes: Minimal units equipped with meaning. They constitute the first articulation of language. Example: niñ-o-s (niñ -> young person; o -> male gender; s -> plural number)
Phonemes: The smallest units of speech. Example: /n/ /i/ /ɲ/ /o/ /s/
1.3 Monemes and Their Classification
Lexeme: The moneme that contains the lexical meaning of the word.
Morpheme: The moneme that is attached to the lexeme to give grammatical meaning to the word (gender, number, person, etc.). Example: niñ (lexeme -> young person); o-s (morphemes that provide the grammatical meaning of the word -> gender and number)
Classes of morphemes:
- Free or independent: These morphemes are not attached to lexemes. Example: The day -> The article (The) precedes the lexeme (day). Chocolate with churros -> The preposition (with) accompanies the lexemes but is not attached to either of them.
- Bound or dependent: These must join the stem and are individually devoid of meaning.
- Inflectional: Attached to nouns, adjectives, and verbs without changing their lexical meaning. In the case of nouns and adjectives, they provide gender and number, and in the case of verbs, they provide mode, tense, aspect, number, and person.
- Derivational: These bind to the lexeme and modify its lexical meaning. They can also be called affixes.
- Prefixes: Appear in front of the lexeme.
- Suffixes: Appear behind the lexeme.
3. Semantic Level
Meaning of words:
- Denotation: Literal meaning of the word.
- Connotation: Derogatory meaning we give to a word.
Semantic Phenomena:
- Polysemy: One signifier with different meanings.
- Synonyms: Different signifiers with the same meaning.
- Antonyms: Opposing meanings.
- Homonymy:
- Homographs: Spelled the same but have different meanings.
- Homophones: Pronounced the same but have different meanings.
- Paronymy: Words that resemble each other in spelling and sound.
Semantic Changes:
- Historical factors: New meanings of words due to the passage of time.
- Social factors: Rejection of words that have unpleasant connotations for speakers. Example: “cancer” -> terminal illness.
- Linguistic factors: Semantic change caused by the spread of meaning between two words that always appear together. Example: “a postcard” -> a postcard; “coffee cut” -> a cut.
- Psychological factors: Semantic changes that originate in a mental association.
- Metaphor: An element receives the name of another by similarity. Example: “Spider” -> bug or lamp; “lynx” -> wily feline animal.
- Metonymy: An element takes the name of another even though there is no similarity. Example: “He drank the whole bottle” -> Indicates that he consumed its total content.
4. Semantic and Lexical Fields
Semantic field: Words that share a common semantic feature (seme). Example: brown, green, red, blue, black -> COLOR.
Lexical field: Words related to the same lexeme. Example: milk, dairy, pig.
5. Sentences
- Simple sentences
- Compound sentences:
- Juxtaposed: Antonia runs, showers, eats breakfast, washes dishes, and goes to work.
- Coordinate:
- Copulative: and, e, neither -> Come and eat.
- Disjunctive: or, u -> Do you study or watch television?
- Adversative: but, however, although
- Distributive: now…now… / some…others… -> Some are silent, others speak.
- Explanatory: i.e., that is -> She got a 5, i.e., she passed.
- Subordinate:
- Substantive: Can be replaced by a noun -> Introduced by conjunctions.
- Adjective: Can be replaced by an adjective -> Introduced by relative pronouns or adverbs.
- Adverbial: Introduced by adverbs.
6. Dialogue
Oral Gender
- Exchange of information between two or more partners.
- Spontaneity and improvisation.
- Natural syntactic structures and vocabulary are used.
Conversation
- Spontaneous exchange between more than one person.
- The topic is not fixed.
- Colloquial language is used.
Discussion Group (Tertulia)
- Planned meeting between several people.
- The topic is fixed and previously planned.
- Participants are usually experts in the field.
- Specific vocabulary related to the field is used.
In a story, characters can intervene directly or through the narrator. There are different styles:
- Direct style: Reproduces the literal words of the characters, usually introduced by quotation marks or a colon.
- Indirect style: The narrator uses their own words to reproduce what the characters say. Example: (He said, she answered…).
- Free indirect style: The narrator doesn’t use dashes or reporting verbs but repeats the words of the characters.