Spanish Language and Literature Notes
Uso de la Raya
La raya (—) is longer than a hyphen and is used primarily in dialogues to introduce character interventions and to delimit narrator's comments.
- Dialogues: Introduces character's speech and sets off narrator's interjections.
- Example: -¿Qué te pasa? -dijo Guille-, te noto triste.
- If the narrator's comment ends a character's speech, the closing dash is omitted: -Nada, estoy bien-respondió María.
- Incises: Delimits supplementary information within a sentence.
- Example: Las fotografías—procedentes de toda España—fueron seleccionadas por el jurado.
- If the incise is at the end, the closing dash is included: Se fue a vivir a Mondoñedo—pueblo natal de sus abuelos—.
La Raya y Otros Signos de Puntuación
- Punctuation rules when using the dash:
- Periods, semicolons, commas, and colons follow the dash: -Te lo advierto—le avisó—: no lo voy a permitir.
- Closing question marks, exclamation marks, and ellipsis marks precede the dash, separated by a space: -¿Han llegado los invitados? —preguntó. -Es que yo… —balbuceó.
Uso del Guion para Dividir Palabras
The hyphen (-) is used to divide words at the end of a line, following these rules:
- Syllabification: Words are generally divided by syllables: ac-/ción, cons-/tar.
- Vowel Sequences: Vowel sequences cannot be split unless one is part of a prefix: roe-/dor, re-/inventar, but not ro-/edor.
- Digraphs: The digraphs ch, ll, and rr cannot be divided: te-/cho, ca-/llar, ce-/rro.
- Letter 'x': If 'x' is followed by a vowel, the hyphen precedes it; if followed by a consonant, it follows: pró-/ximo, tex-/to.
- Single Vowels: A single vowel should not be separated: ami-/go, but not a-/migo.
- 'h' Intercalada: Words with an interpolated 'h' are divided as if the 'h' were absent, avoiding a consonant followed by 'h' at the beginning of the line: dehe-/sa, alha-/ja; but not de-thesa.
- Compound Words: Compound words with a hyphen repeat the hyphen on the next line: lógico-/-matemática, científico-/-técnico.
- Abbreviations: Acronyms, initialisms, and abbreviations cannot be separated: UNESCO.
El Guion en las Palabras Compuestas y Prefijadas
- Compound and prefixed words can be divided in two ways:
- By the usual syllabification: bie-/nestar, inte-/racción.
- Separating morphological components (prefixes, suffixes): bien-/estar, inter-/acción.
La ll y la y en los Parónimos
Paronyms are words that sound very similar but are spelled differently, often differing only in the use of the digraph "ll" or the letter "y." For yeísta speakers (who do not distinguish the sounds), these words are homophones.
- Common Paronyms with "ll":
- arrollo: Form of the verb arrollar.
- callado: Quiet, reserved. Form of the verb callar.
- calló: Form of the verb callar.
- halla: Form of the verb hallar.
- pollo: Young bird, especially chicken
- rallar: To grate something with a grater
- valla: Fence; advertising panel.
- Common Paronyms with "y":
- arroyo: Small stream.
- cayado: Staff, crook.
- cayó: Form of the verb caer (to fall).
- haya: Beech tree; form of the verb haber (to have).
- poyo: Bench, usually against a wall.
- rayar: To draw lines.
- vaya: Form of the verb ir (to go); interjection expressing surprise.
Parónimos y Homófonos
- Paronyms: Words that sound similar but are spelled differently.
- Homophones: Words that sound the same, whether spelled the same or differently.
Pronunciación de ll y de y
The grapheme 'll' represents the LL sound, while the consonant 'y' represents the Y sound. However, for most Spanish speakers, both are pronounced with the Y sound.
El Dígrafo ll
Words written with 'll':
- Words ending in -illo, -illa, and almost all ending in -ello, -ella: cuchillo, alcantarilla, camello, botella. Exceptions include leguleyo, peyorativo, plebeyo, epopeya, etopeya, onomatopeya…
- Verbs ending in -ellar, -illar, -ullar, and -ullir: selló, chillan, apabullas, engullia.
La Letra y
Words written with 'y':
- Words with the syllable yec: proyecto, inyección.
- Words with the syllable yer in any position, except at the end of a word: reyerta.
- Words beginning with the syllables ad-, dis-, and sub- followed by the Y sound: adyacente, disyuntiva, subyacer.
- Verb forms with the Y sound whose infinitive does not contain this sound: oyen, construyó, destruyen, huyeron, hayamos, yendo.
Yeísmo
Most Spanish speakers in Spain and America pronounce the digraph ll with the Y sound, i.e., the same way they pronounce the consonant y. This linguistic phenomenon is called yeísmo.
For yeísta speakers, words like rallar and rayar are pronounced the same.
El Género Lírico
The lyric genre consists of works, generally written in verse, that express feelings, ideas, or beliefs.
Lyric works are characterized by expressing a subjective point of view. Just as in the narrative genre the author tells a story through a narrator, in the lyric genre the poet expresses feelings and thoughts through the poetic voice that "speaks" in the composition.
However, it must be taken into account that the emotions transmitted by the poet are not always his own. In each poem, the poet constructs a voice that speaks for him, but that does not necessarily express what he feels or thinks at that moment.
La Versificación
Versification is the arrangement in verses that a poem adopts.
Versification gives the poem a characteristic rhythm that is achieved basically through three elements:
- La Medida de los Versos (Verse Meter): The number of syllables each verse contains, taking into account metric licenses.
- La Distribución de los Acentos (Accent Distribution): The arrangement of the phonic stresses of the verse.
- La Rima (Rhyme): The repetition of sounds at the end of the verses from their last stressed vowel.
La Prosa Poética (Poetic Prose)
Some lyrical compositions use prose instead of verse as a mode of expression. For this, stylistic resources are used that give the text the rhythm, musicality, and language typical of lyric poetry.
Lírica Popular y Culta (Popular and Cultured Lyrics)
According to their origin, lyrical works are classified into two large groups:
- Pertenecen a la lírica popular (Popular Lyrics): the compositions that have been transmitted orally from generation to generation. They are short songs, generally anonymous, simple, and easy to memorize.
- A la lírica culta pertenecen (Cult Lyrics): those poems written by an author. These works are usually signed and their style is elaborate.
El Verso Libre (Free Verse)
Free verse is used in poems that do not adhere to any regularity in syllable count, rhyme, or the distribution of verses into stanzas.
In free verse compositions, rhythm is achieved through devices such as the repetition of words, sentences, or syntactic structures.
Los Subgéneros Épicos (Epic Subgenres)
Epic subgenres are made up of narrative works in verse in which actions carried out by heroic characters are related.
The main epic subgenres are the epopee and the song of deeds.
La Epopeya (The Epic)
The epic is a narrative poem of great extension and solemn and elevated style that relates transcendental events for the history of a people.
The epic is often inspired by relevant historical events that have given rise to various legends spread orally. This legendary material is later collected and organized by an author.
These poems are starred by a heroic figure who embodies the values of the entire community (courage, honesty, strength, justice…).
It is common for fantastic characters and gods to intervene in them, and for them to include episodes of an extraordinary or wonderful nature.
The main Western epics are the Iliad and the Odyssey, attributed to the Greek poet Homer (9th century BC). They tell the vicissitudes of the heroes of the Trojan War.
Another fundamental epic is the Aeneid, the work of the Roman writer Virgil (1st century BC), in which the adventures of the Trojan hero Aeneas are narrated after the Trojan War.
Los Cantares de Gesta (Songs of Deeds)
The song of deed is a medieval epic poem, anonymous and of a popular character, composed to praise the feats of a historical or pseudohistorical character.
Songs of deeds were not composed to be read, but to be recited in the squares of the towns by the minstrels, people who had the office of telling stories.
The most important song of deed of the Castilian epic is the Poema de mio Cid (12th century). In it, the feats of the Burgalese hero Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar are related in his eagerness to restore his honor and obtain the pardon of King Alfonso VI, after having been unjustly banished from Castile because of the slander and intrigues of his enemies.
El Romance (The Romance)
Over time, the songs of deeds were fragmented: the preference that the people felt for some of the passages of these long epic poems caused the romances to emerge, a form of shorter narrative poetry, very popular during the Middle Ages.
The romance is a short narrative poem that probably has its origin in the fragments of the songs of deeds that the minstrels repeated at the request of the public.
From a formal point of view, the romance is composed of an indefinite series of octosyllable verses with assonant rhyme in the even verses.
Subgéneros Narrativos en Prosa (Narrative Subgenres in Prose)
The narrative subgenres in prose differ from each other by aspects such as the extension or the greater or lesser complexity they present. The two most important are the story and the novel.
- El cuento (The short story) is distinguished by its brevity, the simplicity of its structure, the schematic nature of the characters, and a simple narrative framework.
- La novela (The novel) is distinguished by its wide extension, the complexity of its structure, the possibility of including diverse elements, the depth in the treatment of the characters, and a developed narrative framework.
El Cuento (The Short Story)
Two kinds of stories are usually distinguished: the traditional and the modern.
Traditional stories are anonymous and are transmitted orally until someone collects them in writing.
The intention of traditional stories is to entertain and offer a teaching. Within this class of stories, two types can be established:
- Cuentos maravillosos (Wonderful stories): narrate extraordinary events starred by fantastic beings.
- Cuentos realistas (Realistic stories): relate verisimilar events starred by everyday beings.
Modern stories are original creations of an author that are transmitted in writing and reflect the artistic originality of their creator.
Modern stories present a greater complexity in the plot and in the treatment of the characters. They are usually classified by the type of contents they address: there are fantastic, costumbristas, terror stories…
El Microrrelato (The Micro-story)
The micro-story is a narration with an extremely brief plot that leads to a rapid outcome.
The micro-story raises a situation of great intensity or very suggestive, without presenting a narrative framework or characterizing the characters.
La Novela (The Novel)
The novel is characterized by its complexity and its great freedom: it admits all kinds of narrators, characters, plots, and formats.
In a novel, different kinds of texts can appear: letters, speeches, reports, poems, advertisements… They can also include references to other existing literary texts: this phenomenon is called intertextuality.
What is specific to the novel is its ability to combine all these elements and subordinate them to a precise end: the creation of a complete and autonomous fictional world, which is embodied in a coherent and organized work of art.
Principales Formas del Discurso de la Novela (Main Forms of Novel Discourse)
The three main forms of discourse that appear in the novel are narration, description, and dialogue.
- Mediante la narración (Through narration), the events starred by the characters are told. It is, generally, the basic form of discourse in the novel, and the one that serves as a framework for the others.
- A través de la descripción (Through description), the narrator presents the characteristic features of characters, spaces, or objects, in order for the reader to form a precise image of them. Description abounds in novels, since it allows depth to the characters and richness to the narrative framework.
- El diálogo se emplea (The dialogue is used) to give the floor to the characters and reproduce their conversations. This form of discourse offers the reader the opportunity to better know the character of the characters and to notice what their attitude is towards the different events that make up the plot.
El Tiempo en la Narración (Time in Narration)
In addition to the narrator and the characters, the time and space in which the action is situated are key elements of literary narrations, that is, the set of facts that are narrated in a story.
The time of the narration refers to two aspects: the external time, that is, the time or historical time in which the events occur, and the internal time, which refers to the duration of the story and the order in which the events are presented.
The internal time of the narration encompasses all the events that occur from the beginning of the story to its end. The duration of these events may vary and the authors have different narrative procedures that allow them to lengthen or shorten the action of their story. Among them, the following stand out:
- La elipsis: (Ellipsis) consists of ceasing to narrate some facts because they are not relevant or because the author prefers to omit them.
- El resumen (The summary): consists of narrating in a highly concentrated manner events that cover a wide period of time.
- La pausa (The pause): consists of inserting passages in which elements of the narration are presented that do not have a temporal development. Thus, it is possible to resort to this procedure, for example, to describe the characters, the places in which the events take place, objects…
As for the development of the action, the facts are usually presented in chronological order, although it can be altered with some of these resources:
- La anticipación (The anticipation): facts that will occur in the future are presented, that is, in a later moment of the story.
- La retrospección (The retrospection): facts that occurred in an earlier moment of the story are presented.
El Espacio en la Narración (Space in Narration)
The space of the narration is the place or set of places where the action takes place.
In a narrative work, various types of spaces can be distinguished, which are grouped in pairs of opposites based on different criteria:
- Espacio variable (Variable space): The action takes place in different areas or places, which implies a displacement of the characters.
- Espacio único (Unique space): The action takes place in a single place and, therefore, there is no displacement of the characters.
- Espacio exterior (Exterior space): The action takes place in an open place, for example, a natural place.
- Espacio interior (Interior space): The action takes place in a closed place, for example, in a house or in a room.
- Espacio real (Real space): The action takes place in a place that exists in reality.
- Espacio fantástico (Fantastic space): The action takes place in a place invented by the author.