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

Don Quixote: A Literary Masterpiece by Cervantes

Don Quixote is the most famous and celebrated work of Miguel de Cervantes. It tells the adventures of Alonso Quijano, a gentleman from La Mancha who, driven mad by excessive reading, decides to embark on a quest for adventures similar to those of the characters in chivalric novels.

External Structure

The work is divided into two parts:

• Part 1: Titled The Ingenious Hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha, it consists of fifty-two chapters. It recounts the first two sallies of Don Quixote:
  • Don Quixote is knighted by an innkeeper and returns home after being beaten.
  • He finds a squire, Sancho Panza, and they travel together to the Sierra Morena in La Mancha. This part includes famous episodes like the windmills,

Children's Literature: Foundations and Impact

Children live in a world surrounded by signs and symbols, and they begin to understand narratives long before they decode the alphabet. Children's literature (LI) encompasses any demonstration or activity based on written or oral narratives. In the 20th century, writers like Charles Perrault and the Brothers Grimm paved the way for emphasizing the educational enjoyment derived from children's literature.

Types of Children's Literature by Creator

• Literature created for children: Specifically written for the child reader.
• Literature adapted for children: Works not originally intended for children but modified for their enjoyment.
• Instrumental literature: Primarily used for educational purposes.
• Literature

Privacy Protection

The information society reveals vast amounts of personal data through networks. Consequently, numerous companies gain access to this data, including information about our tastes and hobbies. This information can be illegally sold to third parties, and sometimes legal vacuums exist.

Crimes Against Privacy

• Logging onto another person's computer without permission.
• Unauthorized data transfer interception.
• Email address harvesting.
• Electronic harassment.

European Legislation

"Data collection should be clear, legitimate, and never excessive in relation to its intended purpose."

• Data must be accurate and up-to-date.
• Data controllers should allow users to correct or remove their data.
• Identifying data should not be kept longer than necessary.

Servuction: Core Concept in Service Delivery

Servuction refers to the development of a process and the organization of physical and human elements within the client-company relationship, aimed at delivering excellent service.

Key Resources for Service Excellence

Human Resources: Staffing and Expertise

The proposed dishes must be prepared by the company's staff; therefore, it is crucial to ensure they are adequately trained and authorized. The number of employees and their organizational structure are also vital. For instance, it's impractical to design menus with an extensive variety of food if the establishment lacks sufficient or appropriately skilled staff.

Physical Resources: Tools and Infrastructure

Essential tools, machinery, and materials... Continue reading "Servuction Principles: Resources & Gastronomic Service Design" »

Linguistic Concepts: Morphology and Parts of Speech

Morphology: The Study of Words

Morphology is the discipline that studies the word, its structure, its smallest constituent units (morphemes), their classes, and the mechanisms available in a language to create new words.

The Noun

Defined from different points of view:

• Morphological: Noun morphemes accept gender and inflectional number.
• Syntactic: Functions as the core of a Noun Phrase (NP).
• Semantic: A word class for persons, animals, objects, or concepts.

Types of Nouns: common, proper, concrete, abstract, individual, collective, countable, uncountable, animate, and inanimate.

The Adjective

Can be defined according to:

• Morphological: Adjective morphemes accept gender, number, and degree.
• Syntactic: Functions

Textual Elements and Properties

Text Unit

The text is the maximum unit that transmits a coherent message.

Consistency (Coherence)

Consistency (Coherence) is the property of the text that allows us to identify the topic of a text and also summarize its contents.

Topic

The topic is the central idea sustained as a thread among all the particular ideas of each paragraph.

Cohesion

Cohesion is the property of the text that allows us to connect the sentences that make it up.

Proceedings of Cohesion

1. Repetition of words: Words are repeated to facilitate the understanding of the meaning.
2. Substitutions: Abuse of the repetition of words is a symptom of poor vocabulary, so replacements are used. There are two types:
   • Pronoun: Words are replaced by personal pronouns,

Antonio Machado: Life and Literary Context

The poet Antonio Machado was born in Seville, the Andalusian capital, in 1875. He studied in Madrid at the Institución Libre de Enseñanza (Free Institution of Education), where he developed a deep appreciation for nature and Spanish traditions. While in Paris, he encountered important Symbolist poets who significantly influenced his style.

Upon his return to Spain, Machado taught at an institute in Soria, where he met and fell in love with Leonor Izquierdo. Tragically, she died after only three years of marriage. The poet, deeply affected, left Soria and his memories behind, moving to Baeza (Jaén). Later, he alternated between Segovia and Madrid until the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War. A staunch... Continue reading "Antonio Machado's Duero Poem: Analysis of Landscape and Castile" »

1. The Text and Its Properties
Maximum unit of linguistic communication. It is characterized by its intentionality, reflecting a conscious effort by the issuer, including its text that sends a complete message that will be recognized by the issuer.
Features:
- Adaptation to the specific communicative situation in which to perform communication.
- Consistency in terms of contents, i.e., one-way and complete.
- Cohesion in their way. The issuer shall ensure the proper reception of the message using the necessary language procedures for the text to be correct and orderly.
2. Coherence
Consistency: A property that ensures the unity of the text from a semantic point of view. A text can be synthesized in one main idea that summarizes the overall content.... Continue reading "Understanding the Properties of Text and the Cantar de Mio Cid" »

Education and Describing People

Education Vocabulary

• Behave: Behavior
• Cheat: Copying
• Fail: Suspend
• Learn: Learn
• Leave: Leave
• Pass: Approve
• Review: Review
• Start: Go
• Study: Study
• Take: Take
• Boarding School: Internal
• Graduate: Graduate
• Head Teacher: Head
• Nursery School: Nursery
• Primary School: Primary School
• Private School: Private School
• Pupil: Student
• Professor: Professor
• Religious School: Religious School
• Secondary School: Secondary School
• Student: Student
• Uniform: Uniform

Describing People Vocabulary

• Tall: High
• Slim: Delgado
• Short: Low
• Overweight: Gordo
• Height: Height
• Well Built: Good Body
• Blonde: Blonde
• Pony Tail: Coleta
• Long Wavy Hair: Long Wavy Hair
• Gray Hair: Gray Hair
• Beard: Beard
• Curly: Curly
• Shoulder Length: Shoulder Height
• Bald: Calvo
• Mustache: Bigote
• Straight Dark Hair:

La Galatea

In 1585, Miguel de Cervantes published the first part of La Galatea, a pastoral novel whose central theme is love, presented through various cases. The narrative is set in a confined space and unfolds over a very short period (e.g., Erastro and Elicio's love for Galatea on the banks of the Tagus, over ten days).

Key Elements of La Galatea

• Interpolated Stories

  The work includes cases of love experienced by other shepherds, such as two pastoral, one tragic, and one Byzantine courtly love story.

• Poems

  Although primarily prose, the work incorporates a variety of love poetry, including praises and descriptions characteristic of the author's era.

• Debates

  The novel features philosophical debates about love.

Unfinished Nature

La Galatea is an unfinished... Continue reading "Cervantes' Literary Masterpieces: La Galatea & Exemplary Novels" »