Notes, summaries, assignments, exams, and problems for Language

Language Functions in Communication

Referential Function: The act of communication focuses on the context, i.e., the topic or issue being referenced. Declarative sentences are used, and they can be affirmative or negative.

Poetic Function: Primarily used in literature. The act of communication focuses on the message itself, its provision, and how it is transmitted. Expressive resources such as rhyme and alliteration are employed.

Phatic Function: Consists of starting, stopping, continuing, or terminating communication. This involves salutations (Greetings, Hi, How are you?, etc.), farewells (Goodbye, See ya, Have a good time, etc.), and formulas to interrupt a conversation and then continue (Pardon me..., Wait a minute... As I was saying... We... Continue reading "Understanding Language Functions and Textual Cohesion" »

Novel Experimental: Renewal of the Novel

Most Important Innovations:

• Argument: Loses significance in some novels and completely disappears in others.
• Characters: The individual character returns, but always in conflict with itself.
• Structure: The external structure disappears, and the chapter introduces the sequence in internal chronological order.
• Point of View: The omniscient narrator returns and shares digressions. It reproduces the interior monologue of a character's thoughts as they arise in their consciousness. Digressions are comments the author makes about some fact or character.
• Language and Style: The imposing baroque language is inadequate to the poor reality the author tells. Concerning the style, the features are:
  • Risk variety of languages,

Understanding Language Functions

• Referential (Representative): Focuses on the context, conveying objective information about reality.
• Expressive (Emotive): Focuses on the sender, expressing emotions, attitudes, or subjective feelings.
• Conative (Appellative): Focuses on the receiver, aiming to influence or elicit a response from them.
• Phatic: Focuses on the communication channel, used to establish, maintain, or close communication (e.g., social greetings).
• Metalinguistic: Focuses on the code itself, using language to talk about language.
• Poetic: Focuses on the message for its own sake, emphasizing aesthetic or artistic qualities of the language.

Spanish Language Varieties and Dialects

Castilian Spanish: First appearances in the Glosas Emilianenses (... Continue reading "Linguistic Concepts and Literary Forms Explained" »

Jorge Manrique's Verses on His Father's Death

Verses on the Death of His Father Jorge Manrique is an elegy in which the painful experience of the disappearance of Rodrigo Manrique leads the poet to meditate on death. The couplets are placed within a long stream of literature that addresses the issue of death. Away from the coldness and the ornate cultist scholarship, such poems reflected the preoccupation with death and have a macabre vision of it that causes fear. It contains a number of ideas for consideration by the world as vanity: vanity, contempt of earthly life, the convention of the ubi sunt, the instability of fortune, and the relentless presence of death. The only lyrics are verses of the poem of the 16th to 24th. The couplets are... Continue reading "Analysis of Jorge Manrique's Poetry and Celestina's World" »

Interpretative Journalism

The News

Objective stories without comment or intervention of the issuer (impersonal), novel facts or events of general interest. Narrative. Variable length, short or long.

Structure

• Body of Headlines: Minor (title only) and highest (pre-title or subtitle). Summarize objectively.
• Input: The first paragraph, the key event. The 6 Ws, six questions to which the first paragraph has to answer. Sometimes highlighted with capital letters.
• Body of the News: Data development. Can take two forms:
  • Inverted Pyramid Structure: Data or ideas in order of importance, 1 being the most interesting.
  • Chronological Narrative: Progress chronologically from the beginning to the end.
  • Mixed Story: Mixture of the above.

The Feature

Broad, informative,... Continue reading "Journalism Genres: News, Opinion, and Hybrid Forms" »

Definition of Literary Arts

Literary manifestation is an art whose raw materials are the units of language. The writer manipulates these units to produce an aesthetic and emotional effect on the receiver. In other words, it includes texts that have been developed with an artistic intention.

Defining Elements of Literature

• Fiction: Refers to the peculiar relationship that literary works have with reality, verisimilitude.
• Aesthetic language: Used for creating impressions and emotions in the reader.

Functions of Literature

• Diversion/Entertainment: Reading is one of the usual distractions for many people.
• Transmission of Ideas/Didactic: Throughout history, literature has transmitted many ideas and has served speculative thought for improving society.
• Cause

Brand Identity and Company Image

A company's design reflects its technical and economic philosophy, and its image reveals its character and defines its mentality. The designer acts as the company's philosopher, visualizing its essence and highlighting its differentiating attributes within a consistent visual management system. Effective communication sets a company apart from the competition, leading to market gains.

Creative Design Process

To achieve a design solution, we'll follow Bruno Munari's problem-solving approach:

1. Problem Definition
2. Problem Elements
3. Data Collection
4. Data Analysis
5. Creativity
6. Materials & Technology
7. Experimentation
8. Models
9. Verification
10. Construction Drawings
11. Solution

Defining Identity

Identity encompasses the unique and non-transferable... Continue reading "Company Branding and Visual Identity" »

Life and Work of Antonio Machado

• Location
  Antonio Machado was born in Seville in 1875. He spent his youth in Madrid and studied at the Free Institution of Education. After a stay in Paris, he spent five years in Soria as a French teacher at the Institute. There, he discovered and identified with the Castilian landscape. He married Leonor there, and she died at a young age. He then moved to Baeza, Segovia, and finally Madrid. When the Republican army was defeated, he moved to France and died in Collioure, a small town near the Spanish border, in 1939.

Campos de Castilla (1912) signifies an encounter with Castile, the landscape of the highlands where he projected his state of mind and found expression in the national and historical reality of Spain.... Continue reading "Antonio Machado's Life and Poetic Inspiration in 'El Olmo Viejo'" »

Linguistic Terms Defined

Phrases

Phrases are combinations of words whose meaning is not equivalent to the sum of its elements. Examples include verbal (e.g., 'drinking are the winds'), nominal (e.g., 'another matter'), adjectival (e.g., 'mad'), and so on.

Proverbial Phrases

Proverbial phrases are groups of words with a unified meaning that refer to characters or events of historical or cultural tradition. Example: 'Rome was not built in one hour'.

Proverbs

Proverbs are full and independent constructs that express a thought, observation, or warning, generally with a judgmental tone. Example: 'He who rises early, God helps him'.

Features of Technical Language

• Precision and Monosemy: Each term must have a single meaning.
• Neutrality or Impersonality: No