LYING, SWEARING, AND BREAKING THE RULES: AN INTRODUCTION TO THE LINGUISTIC STUDY OF SPANISH
Introduction to the basic concepts of linguistics as a discipline and explore real-world Spanish use (e.g., blogs and vlogs, language corpora, press, film, recorded conversations, class visitors, etc.) and how that use varies across regions, speakers, and communicative contexts. Through examination of how different Spanish speakers deploy language in contexts such as confronting social taboos, expressing humor, being polite (or impolite), persuading particular audiences, and negotiating individual and cultural identities, students will gain a foundational understanding of several areas of linguistic study, including phonetics/ phonology, morphosyntax, pragmatics, sociolinguistics, language ideologies, and language variation and change.
Prerequisites & course information
Requisites: SPANISH 226 or concurrent enrollment, or SPANISH 311 or concurrent enrollment Course Designation: Core GenEd - Humanities & Arts Breadth - Humanities Frgn Lang - 5th + semester language Level - Advanced L&S Credit - L&S Liberal Arts and Science Repeatable for Credit: No Last Taught: Fall 2026 Learning Outcomes: 1. Demonstrate understanding of linguistic, pragmatic, sociolinguistic, and stylistic features of written and spoken Spanish, understand how they influence meaning, and apply these features in level-appropriate ways in writing and speech. Audience: Undergraduate 2. Demonstrate awareness of the social, cultural, and linguistic diversity that characterizes the Spanish-speaking world. Audience: Undergraduate 3. Apply basic methods of linguistic analysis to understand the structure and communicative intent of various written and oral Spanish texts. Audience: Undergraduate Learning Outcomes: 1. Demonstrate understanding of linguistic, pragmatic, sociolinguistic, and stylistic features of written and spoken Spanish, understand how they influence meaning, and apply these features in level-appropriate ways in writing and speech. Audience: Undergraduate 2. Demonstrate awareness of the social, cultural, and linguistic diversity that characterizes the Spanish-speaking world. Audience: Undergraduate 3. Apply basic methods of linguistic analysis to understand the structure and communicative intent of various written and oral Spanish texts. Audience: Undergraduate
Sources
- Course catalogue ↗2026-2027