Semantic Distinctions in Spanish Word Order

Semantic Distinctions in Spanish Word Order offers a unique analysis of Spanish word order and the intricate relationship between grammatical form and communicative function, challenging traditional syntactic constructs and the familiar Subject, Verb, and Object-based classifications that derive from them. Revealing underlying regularities in the Spanish language, this study argues that word order is not as flexible as previously thought and that differences in word order are functionally motivated rather than the result of stylistics or random variation. Through innovative methodologies and a meaning-based framework informed by William Diver's linguistic theory, the book sharply departs from prevailing paradigms, offering a unique perspective on how word order reflects the semantic organization of Spanish. Semantic Distinctions in Spanish Word Order will appeal to scholars, students, and educators in Spanish language, Hispanic linguistics, grammatical theory, and semantics. It also serves as a valuable resource for graduate and undergraduate courses, bridging the gap between theoretical insight and practical analysis.

Eduardo Ho-Fernández is Managing Member for Hispania Research, co-founding editorial board member of the multimedia journal Emerging Works in Diverian Linguistics, and has previously been a faculty member in Spanish at the City College of New York, USA. He earned his Ph.D. in Hispanic Linguistics (2020) from the City University of New York and was a doctoral and postdoctoral fellow with the Columbia School Linguistic Society in New York. He has also served as Chair of the University Seminar on Columbia School Linguistics.

1. Introduction 1.1 Preliminaries: Word Order, Linguistic Meaning, and Human Choice 1.2 Starting Point 1.3 Terminological Clarifications: Participants and Events 1.4 William Diver and the Columbia School of Linguistics 1.5 Traditional Non-Equivalents: Argument Structure 1.6 Data and Corpus 1.7 Book Structure 2. State of the Art: A Critical Review of Relevant Studies 2.1 Introduction 2.2 General Perspectives: All Languages 2.3 Specific Perspectives: Spanish 2.4 Universal vs. Language-Specific Approaches 2.5 The Hybrid Pragmatically Motivated Approach 2.6 Modalities of Attention and Choice of Word Order 3. The System of Participant Attentionworthiness: Two Participants, Both Realized 3.1 Introduction 3.2 Mechanism of the System 3.3 Data and Validation Procedures 3.4 The Simple PEP Word Order: Type A 3.5 The Simple PEP Word Order: Type B 3.6 Special Considerations: Complex PEP 4. The System of Participant Attentionworthiness: Two Participants, One Realized 4.1 Introduction 4.2 Data and Validation Procedures 4.3 The E P- Word Order 4.4 The P- E Word Order 5. The System of Event Attentionworthiness - Phase 1: One Participant 5.1 Introduction 5.2 Data and Validation Procedures 5.3 The E P= Word Order 5.4 The P= E Word Order 6. The System of Event Attentionworthiness - Phase 2: Two Participants 6.1 Introduction 6.2 Formation of Signals: EPP and PPE as avoidance of PEP 6.3 Data and Validation Procedures 6.4 The EPP Word Order 6.5 The PPE Word Order 6.6 Quantitative Evidence for EPP and PPE 7. Theory 7.1 Introduction 7.2 Traditional Categories 7.3 Typological Considerations 7.4 Language-Specific vs. Universal Features 8. Summary of the Analysis 8.1 Introduction 8.2 Grammatical Systems 8.3 New Communicative Rationale 8.4 Co-Reference and Grammatical Relations 8.5 Oppositions of Substance and Oppositions of Value 8.6 Semantic Categorization and Typological Considerations 8.7 Relation to Literary Analysis 8.8 Concluding Thoughts