Structure of Spanish

Course description

This course presents an overview of grammatical structures of Spanish. It is intended to introduce students to linguistic descriptions of Spanish and guide them as they develop metalinguistic knowledge of Spanish. Students will be introduced to core linguistic concepts and analytical tools to examine word and sentence structure.

Learning goals

By the end of this course, students will:

• Develop an understanding of the grammatical structure of Spanish.
• Build metalinguistic awareness of how Spanish works as a linguistic system.
• Learn to apply core concepts and tools from linguistic analysis to Spanish data.
• Strengthen analytical and critical thinking skills in the study of language.

Learning outcomes

By the end of the course, students will be able to:

• Define and explain key linguistic concepts related to morphology and syntax.
• Identify and describe major grammatical structures in Spanish, including word classes, verb conjugation patterns, and sentence types.
• Analyze the structure of Spanish words and sentences using appropriate linguistic terminology.
• Compare traditional grammar instruction with formal linguistic analysis.
• Apply analytical tools to evaluate Spanish grammatical structures in real examples.
• Reflect on their own language use with increased metalinguistic awareness.

Sample lecture notes

Lecture on Spanish inclusive morphology

Lecture on Spanish inflectional morphology

Lecture on Spanish word order

Sample assignments

In-class activity for syntactic functions

Research report