1. Approximately how many distinct cases are marked on regular nouns?

(We will come

back to pronouns!)

There are no cases that exist for regular nouns. There is just one case that is used in all settings

of a noun. For instance, a noun such as ‘casa’- house does not permit any distinct case marking.

In its place, prepositions may be used.

2. If the language you selected has little or no case (like English): see if you can find out

whether this was always true or whether an earlier stage of the language had case marking.

If your language has two or more cases: what are the cases, and how is case generally

expressed in this language (prefixes, suffixes, vowel changes inside the root, handshapes,

motion paths, etc.)?

As earlier mentioned, the language selected was Spanish. The language has a case system for

pronouns which is not followed strictly. There are four cases in Spanish. They are;

 Nominative case. In this case, the noun or pronoun works as a sentence’s subject. For

example, in English the word “Man” can be used to show a nominative case in the

following sentence. ‘The man is going home.’ In Spanish, an example of nominative

cases includes; el- He.

Ella- She.

Nosotros/nosotras- we.

vosotros/vosotras- You.

An example in a sentence is Nosotros comemos siempre. – We always eat.

 Accusative case. In the accusative case, the nouns used are direct objects. This means that

they are the direct recipients of the action of the verb. Examples of pronouns that are used
 in the accusative case include:

Me- me

Te- you

Lo- him

La-her

Nos- us

Os- you

Los- them (masculine)

Las- them (Feminine)

An example as used in a sentence is Mi hermana nos enseña- My sister teaches us.

 Dative case. In the dative case, nouns are used to refer to indirect objects. The nouns do

not directly receive the action of a given sentence. An example in English is “I talked to

him”. In this sentence, “him” is the noun in the dative case since the action of “talking to”

is received by “him”.

In Spanish, the pronouns using the dative case are as follows:

Me- me

Le,se- him, her, it, you

Nos- us

Les, se- you

Les, se- them

An example as used in a sentence is “Mi hermans le escribe- My sister writes to him.

  Possessive case. The possessive case is used to show objects that are owned by someone

else. In this case, the pronouns are gendered. This means that it is important to take note

of the person being referred to. Examples of pronouns used in this case are:

Tuyos/tuyas- yours

Mío, mía- mine

Nuestro/nuestra-ours

Vuestro/vuestra- yours

Suyo/suya- their

An example of the use of the possessive case in a sentence is “los libros son suyos”- The

books are theirs.

3. How many different grammatical genders can there be on nouns? If the language does

not really have grammatical gender, does it have different classes of nouns that all have

slightly different sets of inflectional markers? (Note that grammatical gender is not the

same thing as human gender, but that you can discuss inflection for different human

gender categories if you would like.)

In Spanish, nouns are divided according to their gender. The genders in reference are

masculine and feminine (Molnar, Banon, Mancini, & Caffarra, 2020). However, the

genders do not necessarily reflect on human gender. While el hombre is masculine, la

mujer is feminine. However, words such as la gente or la persona have the feminine

grammatical gender “la” but can be used to describe either a man or a woman. Examples

of nouns that are masculine in nature include: el, los, un and unos. Nouns that are

feminine include: la, las, una and unas.

4. If the language you selected has little or no grammatical gender (like English): see if you

can find out whether this was always true or whether an earlier stage of the language had

gender marking. If your language has two or more grammatical genders: what are the

genders, and how is gender generally expressed in this language (prefixes, suffixes, vowel

changes inside the root, handshapes, motion paths, etc.)?

As earlier mentioned, the Spanish language is made up of two genders; masculine and feminine

(Molnar, Banon, Mancini, & Caffarra, 2020). Nouns in Spanish can be distinguished based on

their gender in a number of ways. The first is by looking at the word that they end in. For

example, words that ends in ‘o’ are generally masculine (Carrero, 2016). Examples include; el

carro- the car, el estado- the state. However, there are exceptions to this rule. Words such as la

moto- the motorcycle and la radio- the radio end in ‘o’ but are feminine. Nouns ending in ‘ma’

are also masculine. An example is el problema- problem. Additionally, nouns ending in ‘r’ such

as el motor- motor are masculine. Nouns that represent males, days of the week, months of the

year as well as compass directions are also masculine (Vamos Academy, 2020).

Feminine nouns can also be identified in a number of ways. Nouns typically ending in ‘a’ such as

‘la camisa’- shirt are feminine. Nouns that also end in ‘cion’ or ‘sion’ are known to be feminine.

An example is la conversación- conversation. Nouns also ending in ‘dad’ or ‘tad’ are classified

as feminine. An example is La ciudad- the city. Nouns also ending in ‘umbre’ are feminine. An

example is la costumbre- tradition. Lastly, nouns which refer to females are regarded as

feminine.

5. Describe the pronouns of this language, or the closest equivalent. What kinds of

distinctions do they show? Are there different pronouns for different cases? For different

grammatical and/or human genders? How many different numbers have distinct
pronouns? Is there a difference having to do with animacy (different forms for entities that

are alive), or with clusivity (separate forms for ‘we-including-you’ and ‘we-excluding-

you’)?

Pronouns in Spanish are classified as subject, direct object, indirect object and prepositional. The

pronouns are divided into first person, second person and third person. In the third person, the

pronouns differ depending on the grammatical gender. This means that there are masculine and

feminine pronouns. Pronouns in Spanish also differ in terms of animacy since direct object

pronouns can be used in place of people or objects while indirect object pronouns are only used

when referring to a living thing.

6. How is a noun made plural? Is singular marking the default, or is there one set of

inflectional markers for singular and a different set for plural? Is there a third option (such

as dual for only two of something)? Are there any other interesting aspects to number

marking on nouns?

Nouns in Spanish are in singular by default. However, to convert them to plural, there are a

number of rules to be followed. The first is that nouns that end in vowels are converted to plural

by adding ‘s’ to the end of the noun (Lleo, 2006). For example, ‘correo’ is converted to plural by

adding ‘s’ to the end making it ‘correos’. The second rule is that articles defining the noun also

change when a noun is converted from singular to plural. Masculine nouns with the article ‘el’

change and become ‘los’. Feminine nouns with the article ‘la’ change and become ‘las’ (Lleo,

2006). For example, ‘el correo’ becomes ‘los correos’ while ‘la mesa’ becomes ‘las mesas’. The

third rule involves adding ‘es’ to the end of a noun that is ending in a consonant (Lleo, 2006).

For instance, ‘la facultad’ becomes ‘las facultades’ while ‘el amor’ becomes ‘los amores’. The

last rule involves nouns ending in ‘z’. For these nouns to be made plural, ‘es’ is added to the end
and the ‘z’ is removed and replaced with ‘c’. For instance, ‘el pez’ becomes ‘los peces’ (Vamos

Academy, 2020).

8. What kinds of affixes are found in this language? Does it have prefixes, suffixes,

circumfixes, infixes, anything else?

Spanish just like English is made up of two types of affixes; prefixes and suffixes. Spanish

borrows heavily from the English language which in turn got its affixes from the Greek

language. Some of the most common prefixes include; ‘ante’- before, ‘anti’- against, ‘auto’- self

and ‘cent’- hundred (Erichsen, 2019). Suffixes on the other hand are words that cannot be used

independently. They are broken down into two; flexive suffixes and derivative suffixes. Flexive

suffixes refers to the changes that occur when the gender of a noun, pronoun is changed or when

a verb is conjugated. Examples include ‘gato vs gata’. Derivative suffixes on the other hand refer

to suffixes that are used to create a new word. For instance ‘ado’ is added to ‘estudiante’ to

change the meaning from student to student population.

10. Does the language use reduplication? (Hint: See the instructions to the proposal stage.

Reduplication is about doubling the form of a word to convey slightly different

information.) If so, does it have partial reduplication, total reduplication, or some of both?

What is reduplication used for: inflectional morphology, derivational morphology, or some

of both? Which parts of speech is it used for (adjectives, adverbs, etc.)? If it is derivational,

does it ever change the word class? If it is inflectional, which features can be expressed by

reduplication?

Reduplication in Spanish is not commonly used. Unlike in English where reduplication is

common to show authenticity of a statement, in Spanish it does not have any documented use.

However, Mexican-Spanish people make use of reduplication for the sole purpose of making a
verb more intense (Stolz, Stroh, & Urdze, 2011). An example is ‘luego luego’- later later. This is

used to mean immediately.

11. Which tense distinctions can be found in the inflection on verbs? (Reminder: English

does not have future tense marking on verbs at all, so we have to use modal verbs such as

‘will’ and ‘be going to’ in order to talk about the future – but we do have a tense distinction

between present and past.)

Various tense distinctions can be found in the inflection on verbs in the Spanish language.

Tenses in Spanish include; present simple tense, past preterite tense, past imperfect tense, future

inflection and conditional future/ past future. In present simple tense for instance, the verb hablar

undergoes various changes depending on the case. It is conjugated as yo hablo, tú hablas, él

habla, nosotros hablamos, vosotros habláis and ellos hablan.

In the past preterite tense, the changes to the verb hablar are as follows; yo hablé, tú hablaste, el

habló, nosotros hablamos, vosotros hablasteis and ellos habalron. Looking at the examples given

on the two tenses, there is a clear distinction between the usage of the verb in present tense and

in past tense.

12. How is tense conveyed? Prefixes, suffixes, vowel changes, handshapes, motion paths,

etc.?

Tense in Spanish is conveyed by changing the suffix of a verb. In the present tense for instance,

verbs ending in –AR are conjugated by adding the following suffixes; yo (o), tú (-as), él/ella (-a),

nosotros (-amos), vosotros(-áis) and ellos (-an).

13. Does the vocabulary of the language contain loanwords? If so, what are the languages it

has borrowed them from? Is there a historical or sociological explanation?

The vocabulary of the Spanish language contains loanwords. These were borrowed mainly from

Latin, Arabic, as well as Visigoth. Spanish was able to borrow from Roman in the period

between 510 BC and 476 AC where Vulgar Latin experienced evolution into a continuation of

similar varieties which facilitated the rise of other languages across Europe such as Spanish

(Soto-Corominas, Rosa, & Suarez, 2018). Spanish was also able to borrow from Arabic during

the Islamic conquest of the Peninsula that took place in 711AD. The presence of the Arabs and

their cultural and linguistic influence had a great impact on the language spoken with a bit of

morphology being taken from Arabic and included in Spanish (Soto-Corominas, De la Rosa, &

Suarez, 2018; Penny, 2002).

14. Does definiteness (e.g. ‘the’ rather than ‘a’ in English) play a role in the morphology of

the language? If so, how is this distinction expressed?

Definiteness plays a huge role in the morphology of Spanish. The language is based on four

distinct forms of definite articles. They are; el, la, las and los. These forms are majorly dependent

on the gender of the noun being referred to. For instance, el is used to describe masculine words

that are in singular form. Examples include; ‘el ,libro’- the book and ‘el vaso’- the glass. ‘La’ is

used for feminine words that are in singular form. Examples include; ‘La casa’- The house and

‘la mesa’- the table. ‘Los’ is used to represent masculine words that are plural in nature.

Examples include ‘Los libros’- the books and ‘los colores’- the colours. Lastly, ‘las’ is used for

feminine words that are plural in nature. Examples include; ‘las casas- The houses and ‘las

puertas’- the doors.

15. Is there a demonstrative word (e.g. ‘this’, ‘those’) that is the same as a definite article?

(Hint: the English definite article is ‘the’.)

Spanish has three demonstrative words that are the same as definite articles. These words are;

‘este’ – this, ‘ese’- that, ‘aquel’- that one over there. As with all other articles in Spanish, these

demonstrative words are affected by the gender of the noun being represented. For example;

‘este libro’- this book and ‘esta pluma’- this pen. In their plural form, the statements would have

been as follows; ‘estos libros’- these books and ‘estas plumas’- these pens.

16. In English, inflectional affixes are all suffixes, and derivational affixes are mostly

suffixes with some prefixes. What about your language? Does the inflection pattern differ

from the derivation in terms of the kind of morpheme (by position – prefixes, suffixes,

circumfixes, infixes, other).

In Spanish, the derivational affixes and inflection affixes are mostly similar to those found in

English (McIntosh, 2016). The derivational affixes found in the Spanish language are suffixes

added to the stem of noun to give it a new meaning. For instance, ‘vaso’ is the stem of the noun.

‘ote’ is added as a suffix to change its meaning from glass to big glass. Inflectional affixes on the

other hand are suffixes that are added to the end of a noun to change its gender. For example,

‘gata’ refers to cat in feminine. By replacing the ‘a’ at the end with ‘o’, it now becomes

masculine.

17. What are some word-formation processes used for derivation and/or coining new

words? Are there attested examples of affixation, back-formation, conversion, blends,

compounds, and so on?

Some of the word formation processes used in Spanish includes derivation, compounding,

clipping, borrowings, blending and back formation. An example of derivation can be seen in the

borrowing of the word ‘mécontentement’ which is a French word. The Spanish version of the
word is ‘descontento’ as opposed to ‘mecontantemiento’ since the prefix ’mé’ has no defined

meaning in Spanish.

An example of compounding can be seen where words of similar categories are compounded

together. Speakers of Spanish choose phrases such as ‘chivo expiatorio’ which means scapegoat

or words derived from others such as ‘ganadero’ for cattleman.

Clipping is also used to create new words in Spanish. Examples of clipped words include; foto,

tele, frigo and uni (Pena, 2010).

Borrowing is common among languages with languages tending to borrow terms that they lack

from other languages. Spanish speakers borrow some words such as ‘okay, cool and bye’ from

English in their day to day conversations. Lastly, blending involves combining two words to

form a single word. In Spanish, words such as Tex-Mex (Texas + Mexico) are a good example of

blending (Pena, 2010).

References

Carrero, T. G. (2016). The Acquisition of Grammatical Gender in Spanish as a Second

Language. West Virginia University.

Erichsen, G. (2019, July 3). Building Your Vocabulary: Prefixes. Retrieved from Thought Co.:

https://www.thoughtco.com/common-spanish-prefixes-3079599

Lleo, C. (2006). Early Acquisition of Nominal Plural in Spanish. Catalan Journal of Linguistics.

McIntosh, A. J. (2016). An examination of the morphological fields of ‘inflection’ and

‘derivation’ within the Spanish and English languages, and a consideration of the

reliability of the distinctions between the fields. Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University.

Molnar, M., Banon, J. A., Mancini, S., & Caffarra, S. (2020). The Processing of Spanish Article–

Noun Gender Agreement by Monolingual and Bilingual Toddlers. Language and Speech.

Pena, M. d. (2010). English- Spanish contrastive analysis on word-formation process.

Universidad de Quintana Roo.

Penny, R. J. (2002). A History of the Spanish Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University

Press.

Soto-Corominas, A., De la Rosa, J., & Suarez, J. L. (2018). What Loanwords Tell Us about

Spanish (and Spain). Digital Studies/le Champ Numérique, 4.

Soto-Corominas, A., Rosa, J. d., & Suarez, J. L. (2018). What Loanwords Tell Us about Spanish

(and Spain). Digital Studies/Le champ numérique.

Stolz, T., Stroh, C., & Urdze, A. (2011). Total Reduplication: The Areal Linguistics of a

Potential Universal. Berlin: Akademie Verlag.

Vamos Academy. (2020, May 11). NOUNS AND GENDER IN SPANISH. Retrieved from Vamos

Academy: https://vamospanish.com/discover/spanish-grammar-nouns-and-gender/
Vamos Academy. (2020, May 13). Plural Nouns. Retrieved from Vamos Academy:

https://vamospanish.com/discover/plural-nouns/