Notes, summaries, assignments, exams, and problems for Arts and Humanities

Understanding Parts of Speech

Parts of speech are words classified into different groups based on their function and allowed inflections. They can vary to express, through inflections, gender and number.

Variable Parts of Speech

• Adjectives
• Nouns
• Pronouns
• Determiners
• Verbs

Invariable Parts of Speech

• Adverbs
• Prepositions
• Conjunctions

Noun Classification

Adjectives

Adjectives are words that express qualities or properties of nouns.

Degrees of Adjectives

• Positive: The basic form (e.g., beautiful).
• Comparative: Expresses comparison:
  • Superiority (e.g., more than)
  • Inferiority (e.g., less than)

Sculpture

Key Features

• Stone (royal) and wood (private) materials
• Predominantly free-standing or almost in the round
• Frontal view design
• Statism (lack of movement)
• Arms arranged along the body with fists (block statues)
• Expressionless faces, distant gaze (hieratic)
• Idealized, proportionate representation

Painting

Mural Painting

• Mixed technique (cool and tempera)
• Decorated tomb interiors (e.g., Valley of the Kings)
• Iconography: afterlife and real-life scenes
• Mythology, royal life, daily life themes
• Flat, intense colors (preference for warm tones)
• Precise drawing, gridded surfaces
• Combined perspective and profile view
• Juxtaposed figures, sense of physicality
• Lack of three-dimensional perspective
• Scenes structured by logs (bands with rows of characters)

Santa Maria Novella

Leon Battista Alberti, 1456-1470

(Bows and a decorative circular window in the middle)

The facade consists of two spirals that connect the central body with the sides, thus giving proportion and harmony to the work, which is, after all, the main feature of the Renaissance. Using a classical pediment is another element taken from the repertoire offered by antiquity. Alberti reworked this repertoire with great freedom. To achieve a harmonious relationship between the width of the lower body and the much narrower upper body of this facade, the architect designed the two scrolls already mentioned, which had a great impact on sixteenth-century religious architecture.

Note the use of many geometric shapes in the work, such as the... Continue reading "Santa Maria Novella: A Renaissance Facade in Florence" »

Textual Genres

Textual genres encompass various forms of communication, each characterized by distinct features and purposes. These include:

• Description
• Narration
• Explanation
• Reasoning
• Prediction
• Instruction
• Rhetorical talk and text

Informal Record

Colloquial

• Theme: General
• Channel: Oral
• Intentionality: Subjective
• Degree of formality: Low

Formal Records

Standard

• Topic: General
• Channel: Written / Oral
• Intentionality: Objective
• Degree of formality: Medium

Scientific and Technical

• Focus: Specialized
• Channel: Written or oral
• Intentionality: Objective
• Degree of formality: High

Literary

• Topic: General
• Channel: Written
• Intentionality: Subjective
• Degree of formality: High

Literary Analysis of Broken Mirror

Broken Mirror is a novel divided into three parts, narrating the beginning... Continue reading "Textual Genres and Literary Symbolism in Broken Mirror" »

English Affixes

Suffixes

Noun Suffixes (added to nouns)

• -eer: profiteer, lanceer
• -er: teenager
• -ess: hostess, priestess
• -ette: cigarette, kitchenette
• -let: booklet
• -ian: politician, technician
• -ion: companion
• -ist: pianist, guitarist, violinist
• -age: wastage, mileage
• -dom: kingdom
• -ery: slavery
• -hood: adulthood, neighborhood
• -ism: criticism, terrorism
• -ship: friendship, sportsmanship, leadership

Noun Suffixes (added to verbs)

• -ant: assistant, consultant, informant
• -ee: employee, trainee
• -ent: respondent, dependent
• -er: singer, painter, dancer, printer, computer
• -or: conqueror, visitor
• -age: linkage, carriage
• -al: dismissal, survival, proposal
• -ance: attendance, performance
• -ion: protection, conversation, decision
• -ence: existence, persistence, preference
• -ing: building,

Journalism: Definition and Key Concepts

Journalism is the collection and treatment of written, oral, visual, or graphic information in all its forms and varieties. A journalist is a person professionally engaged in a newspaper, an audiovisual medium, a literary work, graphic information, or creating opinion.

Classification of Journalistic Genres

News Genres

In news genres, the journalist tries to express information of general interest or specific to any group of people in an impersonal way, adjusted to reality. The most used forms are the story, the chronicle, and the report.

The News

The news is the main informative subgenre. It is characterized by a complete yet brief presentation of a current fact of interest, carried out with objectivity. The... Continue reading "Journalistic Genres: News, Features, Editorials, and Interviews" »

Baroque Sculpture: Main Characteristics

• Triumph of Realism: The goal was a specific and individualized realism, without sacrificing formal correctness. Depending on trends, it could be natural realism or a more idealized, heroic realism.
• Theatrical and Bombastic Language: Dynamic and expressive, aiming to impress, move, or persuade through emotions and feelings:
  • Interest in expressing feelings and passions in a heightened, theatrical, and dramatic way.
  • Figures in attitudes of great dynamism, projected outward, describing unstable positions.
  • Diagonal compositions prevail. Robes swell and wave.
• Pictorial Conception: Interest in visual values, chiaroscuro effects, pretense of qualities, and merging the figure with the environment through light and the

Understanding Newspaper Articles

Newspaper articles are primarily intended to report on events and issues of interest to the public.

Key Features

Newspaper articles include heterogeneous information, entertainment, and opinion sections.

The medium (newspapers, magazines, radio, and television) shapes the message.

They combine verbal, photographic, and graphic codes.

The language used in newspaper articles serves several functions:

• Representative: Covering current topics.
• Appellate: Presenting opinions.
• Poetic: Using resources to capture the reader's attention.

Language Resources

Morphosyntactic Level

• Correct use of the imperfect subjunctive.
• Use of the past perfect indicative.
• Abundance of verbal phrases.
• Use of longer words.
• Direct quotations.
• Frequent use

Types of Textual Coherence (According to T. Van Dijk)

Coherence refers to the semantic relationships that make a text meaningful and unified. T. Van Dijk identifies three primary types:

1. Linear, Sequential, or Local Coherence

   This type of coherence holds between the propositions expressed by sentences or sequences of sentences connected by semantic relationships.

2. Global Coherence

   Global coherence is determined by the macro-textual structure. It characterizes the text as a whole, in terms of sets of propositions and complete sequences.

3. Pragmatic Coherence

   Pragmatic coherence occurs in the permanent adaptation between the text and its context. This includes the specific conditions of the communicative partners, communicative intent, time, place, and

Caravaggio: Master of Naturalist Realism

Caravaggio represented the most determined opposition to Mannerism through a style rooted in naturalist realism.

Iconographic Revolution: Triumph of Naturalism

• Caravaggio adopted visible reality as his sole model, depicting it without idealization. His human types were often vulgar, popular models drawn from real life.
• Actions and scenes in his paintings were depicted as daily events, often with a demystifying and irreverent tone.
• Severe and unembellished naturalism applied to all subjects: religious, mythological, folkloric, and still life.
• Perfect rendering of qualities and textures.
• His compositions were simple and sober, predominantly asymmetrical and diagonal. Figures were arranged in dynamic attitudes