Understanding and Teaching the Indirect Object in Spanish

Description

Understanding and Teaching the Indirect Object in Spanish presents an easy-to-understand approach to all aspects of direct and indirect objects in Spanish. Distinguishing between direct and indirect objects can pose challenges for learners and is almost impossible to do using the tools that linguists have traditionally used. This book offers two simple, all-encompassing inferences that allow learners to tackle this area of language by intuitively inferring the distinction, as native speakers do, between verber and verbed. This book will be of interest to teachers and learners of Spanish and other second languages, as well as linguists interested in argument structure, second language acquisition, second language teaching or pedagogy, and multilingualism. Cover Half Title Series Title Copyright Dedication Contents List of tables Acknowledgements 1 Subject and direct object or verber and verbed? 1.1 Native speakers are computing verber and verbed, not subject and direct object 1.2 How verbed reveals a difference that subject hides 1.3 Sentences with three participants 1.4 Verbees in Spanish (and other languages) that are not expressed as verbees in English Notes References 2 Distinguishing some direct objects from an indirect object can be a puzzle; distinguishing a verbed from a verbee is an inference that always works 2.1 Introduction 2.2 Distinguishing some direct objects from an indirect object can be a puzzle; distinguishing a verbed from a verbee is an inference that always works 2.3 False verbees, true verbees, dialectal leísmo, and general leísmo: everything is connected 2.4 In the classroom 2.5 Conclusions 2.6 Exercises Notes References 3 Against the need for 11 or more types of sentences with an indirect object in Spanish and in other languages 3.1 Eleven types of sentences with a dative (an indirect object) in Spanish 3.2 The verbee in three-participant sentences and in two-participant sentences 3.2.1 Sentences with verber, verbed, and verbee 3.2.2 Sentences with verber, [verbed], and verbee 3.2.3 Sentences with verbee and verbed (verberless sentences) 3.3 Types of sentences with a dative (an indirect object) in four other languages 3.3.1 Types of sentences with an indirect object in Latin (Van Hoecke 1996: 3–37) 3.3.2 Types of sentences with an indirect object in Portuguese (de Andrade Berlinck 1996: 119–151) 3.3.3 Types of datives with an indirect object in French (Melis 1996: 40–51). Three-term constructions 3.3.4 Types of sentences with an indirect object in Polish (Rudzka-Ostyn 1996: 341–394) 3.4 Connecting verber, verbed, and verbee in Polish, in Italian, and in other languages 3.5 In the classroom 3.6 Conclusions Notes References 4 A pronoun does not double its indirect object; the latter drops when it is known information in postverbal position 4.1 Does a pronoun “double” its indirect object or does the indirect object drop when it is known information? 4.2 Indirect object pronoun doubling turned upside down 4.3 Is accusative a (personal a) the same as the a that introduces an indirect object? 4.4 Postverbal verbee drop (when known information/world knowledge) encompasses several rules of indirect object pronoun “doubling” 4.4.1 Three rules of indirect object doubling with a pronoun in Gutiérrez Ordóñez (1999) 4.4.2 Rules of indirect object (and direct object) pronoun doubling in RAE/ASALE (2010) 4.4.3 Other rules of indirect object pronoun “doubling” 4.5 Some evidence against the distinction between argumental and non argumental indirect objects 4.6 Verbee drop in the classroom 4.7 Conclusions 4.8 Exercises (answers provided) Notes References Index