Catalan Language and Literature: A Comprehensive Guide

Posted on May 6, 2024 in Social sciences

Catalan Language and Literature

Vocabulary and Grammar

Basic Definitions

Machete: A long and heavy knife used mostly in Latin America to cut sugar cane, clear forests, etc., as a weapon.

Entrenched: A social problem of difficult solution.

Unsanitary: Not healthy.

ILO: International Labor Organization.

USA: United States.

UNICEF: The UN section that takes care of childhood.

STERILE: A plant that does not bear fruit.

ERADICATE: To disappear.

Skepticism: The attitude of not believing.

Lexical Categories

Lexical categories are sets of lexical units that share certain formal and functional properties.

  • Substantive: Designates concepts, people, animals, or objects. They vary in gender and number. They have specific and collective forms.
  • Adjective: Expresses a quality that accompanies the noun. Agrees in gender and number. It is usually placed after the noun. There are 2 types:
    • Specificative: Narrows and specifies the meaning of the noun referred to.
    • Explanatory: Gives non-essential information about the noun.
  • Pronouns: Replace a noun. There are several classes:
    • Demonstrative
    • Possessive
    • Numeral
    • Quantitative
    • Indefinite
    • Interrogative
    • Relative
    • Personal
  • Determiner: Usually goes before the noun and specifies it. May appear alone or in combination. They are classified into seven groups:
    • Articles
    • Demonstrative
    • Interrogative
    • Possessive
    • Indefinite
    • Quantitative
    • Numeral

Some determiners have the same form as their pronouns but perform a different function:

  • Determiners accompany the noun.
  • Pronouns replace the noun.
  • Verb: Expresses a state, action, or process.
  • Adverb: An unchangeable grammatical category; it has no morphemes of gender, number, or person. The adverb modifies the verb, an adjective, or another adverb.
  • Preposition: An unchangeable grammatical category. It serves to link two words or phrases.
  • Conjunction: An unchangeable grammatical category. It links two elements within a sentence that are syntactically equal. It can be coordinating or subordinating.
  • Interjection: An unchangeable grammatical category expressing subjective values. They have an emphatic character, so they have an exclamatory or interrogative intonation. There are two types:
    • Proper: They are monosyllabic.
    • Improper: They are common language words.

Word Formation

  • Empowerment: Is to convert a word in any grammatical category into a noun; it is called substantivation.
  • Differentiation: A process that allows us to obtain new words from the same family by combining lexemes with affixes.
  • Lexeme: The word that gives the basic meaning.
  • Derivative Morpheme: Particles that are added to the lexeme to modify its meaning.
  • Grammatical Morphemes: They mark gender and number in nouns and adjectives and verb endings.
  • Suffixes: They are more numerous and go after the lexeme; they can change the part of speech.
  • Prefixes: They go before the lexeme. They do not change the category of the primitive word. They come from a preposition or adverb, another stem adapted from Greek or Latin.
  • Infixes: They lie between the lexeme and the suffix.
  • Pseudoderivatives: Words that come directly from the Latin lexeme, not from the primitive Catalan word.

Syllables and Diphthongs

  • Syllable: The sound or group of sounds of a word uttered in one breath.
  • Syllabic Separation:
    • The double L separates into two syllables without a hyphen.
    • No letters should be left at the beginning or end of a line.
    • If the word is compound or has a prefix, we must respect the elements that comprise it.
    • Only separate the digraphs -rr, -ss, or -ix.
    • Consonant clusters are also separated.
  • Diphthongs: A group formed by a vowel and a Y or U that are pronounced in one syllable.
  • Hiatus: The union of an increasing and decreasing vowel in the same syllable.

Literature

Ramon Llull

Life

Ramon Llull was born in Mallorca in 1232. We know many details of his life thanks to his contemporary biography, narrated by Llull and transcribed by a disciple. We know from this work that until the age of 30, his life was spent at court, married with 2 children. In 1265, several apparitions led him to leave everything behind and embark on a path of veneration of God. He began a stage of intellectual training in the defense and spread of the Christian faith. He traveled to North Africa and various European cities with 3 objectives: the conversion of infidels, the writing of books based on Christian ideology, and the creation of schools and monasteries to train future missionaries. He died in 1316 at the age of 83 or 84.

Work

He was a versatile writer. He wrote in Latin, Arabic, Provençal, and Catalan.

  • Philosophical and Scientific Prose: Tree of Science.
  • Narrative Work: Life of Peers, Blanquerna, and Book of Wonders.
  • Poetical Work: Voice of Ramon and Desconhort.
  • Mystical Work: Book of Hesitation to God, Book of the Lover and the Beloved, and Tree of the Philosophy of Love.

The Four Great Chronicles

Narratives in prose, written to be read or recited, are extensive and explain historical episodes, usually war-related, to explain contemporary events to the author. The facts are usually related to kings who intend to justify their political decisions.

Chronicle or Book of the Deeds of James I (1244-1274)
  • Biographical in form, it narrates the exploits of King James I, the conquest of Valencia and Mallorca.
  • It also details the king’s personal life.
  • The king probably supervised the writing because it is very detailed and credible.
  • Popular and colloquial language.
Chronicle of Bernard Desclot or Book of King Peter (1283-1288)
  • The protagonist is King Peter the Great.
  • Focuses on the conquest of Sicily and the French invasion of Catalonia.
  • It seems that it was written by a royal treasurer named Bernard Escriva.
  • Emphasizes rigor and objectivity.
Chronicle of Ramon Muntaner (ca. 1328)
  • Explains the events that cover from 1208-1328.
  • Ramon Muntaner is the protagonist, explaining the events, especially the Catalan expedition to the East led by Roger de Flor.
  • Work written to be read aloud, with a lively and colloquial language.

Francesc Eiximenis

Life and Works

Born in Girona around 1327. He was the son of a wealthy bourgeois family dedicated to trade, but at a young age, he joined the Franciscan order. He obtained the title of master in theology. He died in Perpignan in 1409, surrounded by honors.

His work is extensive, with a clearly educational and informative purpose. He uses simple and direct prose, with long and detailed arguments accompanied by examples and funny anecdotes, always religious or moralistic.

He was one of the most widely read medieval writers, and his work was translated into several languages.

Linguistic Concepts

  • Diglossia: Occurs when two different languages are used for different functions.
  • Bilingualism: The use of two or more languages alternately. There are three classes:
    • Individual bilingualism: When a person is capable of using two or more languages in the same conditions.
    • Social bilingualism: When two or more languages, native and foreign, are used in a state or city.
    • Territorial bilingualism: When the geographical space of a country is divided into two or more areas. Each territory has an official language.
  • Minority Language: A language that has few speakers and is used in a limited sphere of society. Minority languages are in a vulnerable situation due to the influence of another language.

Sentence Structure

  • Phrase: A structured set of words characterized by an element that acts as the core. They are classified into:
    • Noun phrase: The core is a noun.
    • Adjective phrase: The core is an adjective.
    • Adverbial phrase: The core is an adverb.
    • Verb phrase: The core is a verb.
    • Prepositional phrase: When preceded by a preposition.
  • Compound Words: Consist of new words formed by joining two or more lexemes. Compound words belong to three grammatical categories: nouns, adjectives, and verbs.
  • Juxtaposition: The action of joining two or more grammatical elements without changing any of their forms.

Accentuation and Orthography

  • Graphic Accent: The sign used to mark the stressed vowel of a word.
  • Acute Words: Are accented if they end in -a, -e, -i, -o, -u, -as, -es, -is, -os, -us, -en, -in. The tonic syllable is the last one.
  • Grave Words: Are not accented if they end in any of the above endings. The tonic syllable is the penultimate one.
  • Esdrújulas Words: Are always accented. The tonic syllable is the antepenultimate one.
  • Diaeresis: A graphic sign placed on the U to indicate that these vowels must be pronounced differently from how they appear.