Language Fundamentals: Grammar, Speech, and Poetic Devices

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)
  • Equality (e.g., as...as)
• Superlative: Expresses the highest or lowest degree:
  • Absolute (e.g., very, -ísimo)
  • Relative (e.g., the most, the least)

Adjectives can have a specifying or explanatory value when accompanying a noun.

Determiners (Attached to the Noun)

• Articles: (e.g., the, a, an)
• Demonstratives: (e.g., this, that, these, those)
• Possessives: (e.g., my, your, his, her, its, our, their)
• Numerals: (e.g., cardinal, ordinal, multiplicative, partitive, collective)
• Indefinites: (e.g., a, an, another, few, many, some, any, something)
• Relatives: (e.g., who, whose, what, which)
• Interrogatives & Exclamatives: (e.g., which, what, how many)

Pronouns

Pronouns substitute nouns and refer to the three grammatical persons (first, second, and third).

Forms of Speech

Forms of speech are ways to communicate verbally, either orally or in writing.

Narrative

Verbal reproduction of a series of events.

Description

Painting with words, objective or subjective, representing the characteristics of a reality.

Types of Description

• Technical/Advertising Description: Objective.
• Literary Description: Subjective.
• General Description: Can be objective or subjective.

Exposition

Presenting a number of ideas about a topic in an orderly manner.

Argumentation

Presenting evidence and reasons to defend an opinion.

Descriptive Process

• Observation
• Selection
• Ordering
• Wording

Description of Characters

• Physical traits
• Psychological traits
• Portrait (combination of physical and psychological)

Description of Landscape

• Location
• View
• Impression

Poetic Forms and Devices

Metric Syllable (Sílaba Métrica)

The unit of measurement for a verse.

Prose

The natural, linear way to write.

Verse

Lines that are measured by the number of syllables.

Types of Verse by Length

• Arte Menor (Minor Art): Up to 8 syllables or less.
• Arte Mayor (Major Art): More than 8 syllables.

Vocabulary is specifically chosen for musicality and rhythm (repetition of sounds). Rhyme can be:

• Consonant Rhyme: All sounds (vowels and consonants) match from the last stressed vowel.
• Assonant Rhyme: Only vowel sounds match from the last stressed vowel.

Verse often employs a distinct, more elaborate aesthetic language.

Sinalefa

When the last vowel of a word and the first vowel of the following word form a single metric syllable.

Synaeresis

Gathering two members of a hiatus within a word into a single syllable.

The Stanza (La Estrofa)

A set of two or more lines with a rhythmic structure.

Common Stanza Forms

• Tercet: A stanza of three heroic verses with consonant rhyme (ABA, BCB, CDC).
• Quatrain: A stanza of four verses with consonant rhyme (ABBA).
• Cuaderna Vía: A stanza of four Alexandrine verses (14 syllables) with a single consonant rhyme (AAAA).

The Poem

A literary work composed of verses.