Our programs offer courses in Spanish Phonetics, Phonology, Syntax, Sociolinguistics, Pragmatics, Applied Linguistics, and Second Language Acquisition. In these classes, students explore how language is formulated and organized in our brains, what Spanish structures are possible and why, and how sounds are organized, produced, and perceived. Some of our classes also explore language production as social behavior, taking into account speakers’ intentions, the role of the interlocutor, Spanish variation and change over time, and the impact of language ideologies and attitudes on our societies. Finally, these approaches are applied to our understanding about how Spanish is acquired and taught in our classes that focus on pedagogical issues that arise in the field of teaching of Spanish as a second language and as a heritage language. 

Linguistics in Tucson

The University of Arizona has the highest concentration of linguists per student of any Research-1 University in the United States. Linguists are part of an increasing number of Departments and Programs including Linguistics, Cognitive Science, Spanish and Portuguese, English, French and Italian, Second Language Acquisition and Teaching (SLAT), Anthropology, to name a few-- and they form a tightly related resource for theoretical, applied and multidisciplinary studies. The University of Arizona is situated in the midst of Native American Territory and very close to the border with Mexico. Tucson hosts an extensive community of native speakers of Spanish making it a vibrant and endless source of linguistic reflection and research.

The Department of Spanish and Portuguese offers the Ph.D. with a major in Spanish - Hispanic Linguistics.

Books

  • Amaral, Patrícia; Ana Maria Carvalho. 2014. Portuguese/Spanish Interfaces. Philadelphia: John Benjamins Press.
  • Carvalho, Ana Maria, Rafael Orozco, Naomi Shin (Eds.) 2015. Subject Personal Pronouns in Spanish: a cross-dialectal perspective. Washington D.C.: Georgetown University Press.
  • Colina, Sonia. 2015. Fundamentals of Translation.  Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
  • Núñez-Cedeño, Rafael, Sonia Colina & Travis Bradley. Eds.  2014. Fonología generativa contemporánea de la lengua española. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.  411pp.

Journal Issues

Chapters & Articles

Language Acquisition and Teaching

  • 2021. Carvalho, Ana. How context of acquisition of previous languages influences third language pedagogy: Does one model fit all? Multilingualism and Third Language Acquisition. In Jorge Pinto & Nélia Alexandre (Eds.), Multilingualism and third language acquisition: Learning and teaching trends (pp. 49-68). Berlin: Language Science Press.

  • 2020. Picoral, Adriana & Carvalho, Ana. The Acquisition of Preposition + Article Contractions in L3 Portuguese among Different L1-Speaking Learners: A Variationist Approach. Language, 5, 45.

  • 2020. Sommer, Bruna; Carvalho, Ana; Picoral, Adriana. Portuguese Language Program Evaluation: Implementation, Results and Follow-up Strategies. Journal of Less-Commonly Taught Languages. 28, 1-50. 

  • Carvalho, Ana M; Michael Child. (2018) Expanding the multilingual repertoire:  Teaching cognate languages to heritage Spanish speakers. Handbook of Spanish as a Minority/Heritage Language. Edited by Kim Potowski. Routledge.

  • Colina, Sonia. 2019. “Incorporating syllable structure into the teaching of Spanish pronunciation” In Rajiv Rao, ed.  Routledge’s Advances in Spanish Language Teaching: Key Issues in the Teaching of Spanish Pronunciation: From Description to Pedagogy London, New York: Routledge.

  • Fernández, Julieta, & Gates Tapia, A. N. 2016. An appraisal of the language contact profile as a tool to research social engagement in study abroad. Study Abroad Research in Second Language Acquisition and International Education, 1(2), 248-276.

Phonology and Phonetics

  • Colina, Sonia. (forthcoming). "Spirantization in Spanish: The Role of the Underlying Representation" Linguistics.
  • Colina, Sonia. (forthcoming). “Descripción fonológica de las paravocales del español”  Invited chapter to appear in Llisterri, Joaquim & Juana Gil,  Fonética y fonología descriptivas de la lengua española.  Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas.  Madrid, Spain.
  • Colina, Sonia. 2016. “On onset clusters in Spanish: voiced obstruent underspecification and /f/” In Núñez Cedeño, Rafael A. (ed.). The Syllable and Stress: Studies in Honor of James W. Harris. Boston: Mouton de Gruyter.107-137.
  • Colina, Sonia. 2016. “La sílaba”. In Gutiérrez-Rexach, Javier, ed.  Enciclopedia de lingüística hispánica. London, New York:  Routledge. 25-35.
  • Colina, Sonia. 2014. “Some Consequences of Language Design: Codeswitching and the PF Interface.”  In MacSwan, Jeff, ed. Grammatical Theory and Bilingual Codeswitching. Cambridge: MIT Press. With J. MacSwan.  185-210.
  • Colina, Sonia. 2014. “La teoría de la optimidad en la fonología del español” In Núñez-Cedeño, Rafael, Sonia Colina & Travis Bradley.  Fonología generativa contemporánea de la lengua española.  Georgetown: GUP.  291-317.
  • Colina, Sonia & Miquel Simonet. 2014. “Galician Coda Restrictions and Plural Clusters.”  Linguistics 52 (6): pp. 1433-1460.
  • Simonet, M. (2016) “The phonetics and phonology of bilingualism.” Oxford Handbooks Online (Linguistics). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. 
  • Nadeu, M.; Simonet, M.; Llompart, M. (2016) “Stressed postverbal pronominals in Catalan.” Probus: International Journal of Latin and Romance Linguistics, available online “ahead of print”.
  • Casillas, J.V.; Simonet, M. (2016) “Production and perception of the English /æ/-/ɑ/ contrast by switched-dominance speakers.” Second Language Research, 32: 171-191.
  • Díaz Granado, M.; Simonet, M. (2016) “Second language acquisition of Spanish /e/ and /ei/ by native English speakers.” Hispania, 98, 750-761.
  • Simonet, M. (2015) “An acoustic study of coarticulatory resistance in ‘dark’ and ‘light’ alveolar laterals.” Journal of Phonetics, 52, 138-151.
  • Cobb, K.; Simonet, M. (2015) “Adult second language acquisition of Spanish vowels.” Hispania, 98, 47-60.
  • Llompart, M.; Simonet, M. (2015) “Differential positional neutralization of back vowels in two Majorcan Catalan subdialects.” In The Scottish Consortium for ICPhS 2015 (Eds.), Proceedings of the 18th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences. Glasgow, UK. Paper 0781.
  • Casillas, J.V.; Díaz, Y.; Simonet, M. (2015) “Acoustics of Spanish and English coronal stops.” In The Scottish Consortium for ICPhS 2015 (Eds.), Proceedings of the 18th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences. Glasgow, UK. Paper 0924.
  • Simonet, M. Casillas, J.V.; Díaz, Y. (2014) “The effects of stress/accent on VOT depend on language (Spanish, English), consonant (/d/, /t/) and linguistic experience (monolinguals, bilinguals).” In Campbell, N., Gibbon, D., Hirst, D. (Eds.), Proceedings of Speech Prosody 7. Dublin, Ireland. p. 197-201.
  • Torreira, F.; Simonet, M.; Hualde, J.I. (2014) “Quasi-neutralization of stress contrasts in Spanish.” In Campbell, N., Gibbon, D., Hirst, D. (Eds.), Proceedings of Speech Prosody 7. Dublin, Ireland. p. 202-206.

Sociolinguistics and Pragmatics

  • Asención Delaney, Y., & Fernández, J. (2016). Spanish speech acts. In Chapelle, C. A. (Ed). The encyclopedia of applied linguistics. Malden, MA: Wiley-Backwell.
  • Carvalho, Ana M., & Kern, J. 2019 (online)/2020 (print). On the permeability of tag questions in the speech of Spanish-Portuguese bilinguals. Pragmatics. http://doi.org/10.1075/prag.18068.car
  • Carvalho, Ana M. 2016. The analysis of languages in contact through variationist lenses: A case study. Cadernos de Estudos Linguísticos. Unicamp, Brazil. http://periodicos.sbu.unicamp.br/ojs/index.php/cel/article/view/8647467
  • Carvalho, Ana M.; Dante Lucchesi. 2016. Portuguese in contact. Handbook of Portuguese Linguistics, edited by W. Leo Wetzels, Sergio Menuzzi, and João Costa. Willey-Blackwell.
  • Carvalho, Ana M.; Ryan Bessett. 2015. Subject Pronoun Expression among Spanish-Portuguese bilinguals. In A. M. Carvalho, R. Orozco, N. Shin, eds. Subject Personal Pronouns in Spanish: a cross-dialectal perspective. Washington D.C.: Georgetown University Press. 275-315.
  • Carvalho, Ana M. 2014. Towards a sociolinguistics of the border. International Journal of the Sociology of Language. 227, 1–7.
  • Carvalho, Ana M. 2014. Sociolinguistic continuities in language contact situations: The case of Portuguese in contact with Spanish along the Uruguayan-Brazilian border. In P. Amaral and A. M. Carvalho, Portuguese/Spanish Interfaces. Philadelphia: John Benjamins. 263-294.
  • Fernández, Julieta, 2017. The language functions of tipo in Argentine vernacular. Journal of Pragmatics, 114, 87-103.

Translation and Interpretation and other areas

  •  4:169. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2016.00169Frontiers in Public Health and Harris F. 2016. "Addressing Hearing Health Care Disparities among Older Adults in a US-Mexico Border Community." Colina S.Ingram M., Marrone N., Sanchez D.T., Sander A., Navarro C., de Zapien J.G., 
  • Colina, Sonia & Angelelli, Claudia V. 2015.  “Translation and Interpreting Pedagogy” In Angelelli, Claudia V. & Brian James Baer, eds. Researching Translation and Interpreting.  London and New York: Routledge. pp. 108-117.
  • Colina, Sonia & Angelelli, Claudia. 2015. “T&I Pedagogy in dialogue with other disciplines.”  Introduction to Translation and Interpreting Studies 10 (1): 1-7.
  • Colina, Sonia & Venuti, Larry. 2016.   “A survey of translation pedagogies”, In Venuti, Larry ed. Teaching Translation, Teaching Translation: Programs, Courses, Pedagogies. London, New York:  Routledge. 203-215.
  • Colina, S. & Marrone, N., Ingram, Maia, Sánchez, D. 2016. “Translation Quality Assessment in Health Research: A functionalist alternative to back-translation” Evaluation and the Health Professions.  1-27. DOI: 10.1177/0163278716648191
  • Sánchez, D., Adamovich, S., Ingram, M., Harris, Frances P., de Zapien, J., Sánchez, A., Colina, S., & Marrone, N. 2017.  “The Potential in Preparing Community Health Workers to Address Hearing Loss.” Journal of the American Academy of Audiology. Jun;28(6):562-574. doi: 10.3766/jaaa.16045.
  • Kloehn, N., Leroy, G., Kauchak, D., Gu, Y., Colina, S., Yuan, N. P., & Revere, D. 2018. “SubSimplify - automatically generating term explanations in English and Spanish when expert and big data dictionaries are insufficient (preprint).”  Journal of Medical Internet Research, doi:10.2196/10779.
  • Coco, L., Colina, S., Atcherson, S., Marrone, N. 2017.  “Readability Level of Spanish-Language Patient-Reported Outcome Measures in Audiology and Otolaryngology.” American Journal of Audiology 26: 309-317.
  • Colina, Sonia. 2019. "Quality" Baker, Mona. Ed.  The Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies. 3rd Edition.

  • Aldrich, A. C. (2017). Con respecto al estudio de la OPC en español como segunda lengua. The Arizona Working Papers in Second Language Acquisition and Teaching, 24, 77–90. The University of Arizona Interdisciplinary Ph.D. Program in Second Language Acquisition and Teaching (SLAT), University of Arizona.
  • Bessett, Ryan M. Forthcoming (accepted). “Testing English influence on first person singular “yo” subject pronoun expression in Sonoran Spanish.” Issues in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics series, edited by Jonathan E. MacDonald. John Benjamins.
  • Bessett, Ryan M. 2015. “The extension of estar across the Mexico-US border: Evidence against contact induced acceleration.” Sociolinguistic Studies 9(4), 421-443.
  • Bessett, Ryan M., Joseph V. Casillas, and Marta Ramírez Martínez. Forthcoming, March 2017. “Language Choice and Accommodation: Casual Encounters in San Ysidro and Nogales.” Spanish in Context 14(1).
  • Bessett, Ryan M. and Sonia Colina. Forthcoming, December 2016. “Depalatalization in the synchronic and diachronic phonology of Spanish”. Borealis – An International Journal of Hispanic Linguistics.
  • Campbell, T. M. (2011). Critical commentary [Review of the poem hijo-puta, by F. Blackbourn]. Divergencias: Revista de estudios lingüísticos y literarios, 9(2), p. 40. http://divergencias.arizona.edu/volumen-9-numero-2-invierno-2011
  • Campbell, T. M. & Brock, S. (2014). The current state of Tucsonan Spanish. Divergencias: Revista de estudios lingüísticos y literarios, 12(2), pp. 25-43. http://divergencias.arizona.edu/volumen-12-n%C3%BAmero-2-invierno-2014
  • Carvalho, Ana M. and Ryan M. Bessett. 2015. “Subject Pronoun Expression among Spanish-Portuguese Bilinguals.” In Subject Pronoun Expression in Spanish: A Cross- dialectal perspective, edited by Ana M. Carvalho, Rafael Orozco, and Naomi Lapidus Shin. Washington, 143-165. D.C.: Georgetown University Press.
  • Casillas, Joseph V. & Bessett, Ryan M. 2013. Cuadro de los rasgos distintivos y los alófonos del español [Table]. In Fonología generativa contemporánea de la lengua Española, edited by Rafael A. Núñez Cedeño, , Sonia Colina., and Travis G. Bradley. Georgetown University Press. Retrieved from https://github.com/jvcasillas/rasgos_distintivos
  • Fernández-Cordero, J. & Fernández-Flórez, C. (2016), Preliminary results on the attitudes toward  different Spanish varieties: a bilingual perspective. Todas as Letras: Dossiê Percepções Sociolinguísticas e Atitudes,  18, 1-16.
  • Kern. J. (2014). Como in commute: The travels of a discourse marker across languages. Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics, 7(2). 279-298.
  • Kern, J. (2017). Unpacking the variable context of quotatives in the Spanish of the U.S. Southwest. Spanish in Context, 14(1).
  • Kim, Juli. 2015. “Cortesía y formas de tratamiento: los pronombres de segunda persona, en español y en portugués”, Sincronía, 68, , (http://sincronia.cucsh.udg.mx)
  • Ortin, R. and Fernández-Flórez, C. (2018). Transfer of Variable Grammars in Third Language Acquisition. International Journal of Multilingualism, Routledge, 15(4), 1-17.
  • Ramírez, Marta and Miquel Simonet. Submitted. “Language Dominance and the Perception of the Majorcan Catalan /ʎ/−/ʒ/ contrast.” International Journal of Bilingualism. Under review. First submission: 5 September 2016.
  • Ramírez, Marta and Miquel Simonet. Submitted. “Acoustics of Majorcan Catalan /ʒ/ in native and nonnative speech.” Journal of the International Phonetic Association. Under review. First submission: 26 April 2016.
  • Rockey, C., Tiegs, J., & Fernández, J. (2020). Mobile Application Use in Technology-Enhanced DCTs. Calico Journal, 37(1), 85-108.
  • Rodriguez-Guerra, M. (2019). Book Review: C. Elizabeth Goodin-Mayeda: Nasals and nasalization in Spanish and Portuguese. Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics, 12(1), 241-246.
  • Suárez-Palma, Imanol (2016). ¿Existe la Gramática Universal? Divergencias, 14(1), 15-29.
  • Villa-García, Julio and Imanol Suárez-Palma. 2016. Early Null and Overt Subjects in the Spanish of Simultaneous English-Spanish Bilinguals and Crosslinguistic Influence. Revista Española de Lingüística Aplicada/Spanish Journal of Applied Linguistics (RESLA/SJAL) 29 (2), 350-395.

 

2020 Hispanic Linguistics Welcome Happy Hour

screen grab of a Zoom meeting

Admission

The applicant must hold, or anticipate completing by the time of admission, an M.A. degree from an accredited U.S. college or university or the equivalent degree from a university outside the U.S., have a minimum grade point average of 3.4 on a 4-point scale in the M.A. in Spanish, and meet the general requirements of the Graduate College.

Procedure for consideration

External M.A. candidates
See Application Checklist 

Internal M.A. candidates
For admission to the Ph.D. program all internal M.A. candidates who wish to continue for the Ph.D. at the University of Arizona will be considered by the Graduate Studies Committee to ensure equitable treatment for all students. In their deliberations, the Graduate Studies Committee will give strong consideration to the report of the student's M.A examination committee, which specifically addresses the student's potential as a Ph.D. candidate. The Graduate Studies Committee will also consider the student's academic record (GPA, course work) and any pertinent information from the student's file. The student must also provide the following:

  • Three letters of reference, at least one of which must be from a professor who did not serve on the student's M.A. examination committee
  • Curriculum Vitae
  • Statement of purpose written in Spanish by the student
  • A writing sample in Spanish
  • Graduate College Online Admission Application

This procedure will ensure that each student will be considered fully and fairly. Admittance into the program will not be solely dependent upon performance on an isolated examination. In addition, this process closely parallels that followed by all other incoming Ph.D. candidates. (approved by unanimous vote of the faculty on 5/4/95)

Requirements

Upon entering the Ph.D. program, the student establishes their degree study program in consultation with the Director of Graduate Studies. The student must complete the following:

  • A diagnostic qualifying oral interview during the first semester of study.
  • 51 graduate units of course work (up to 15 units of course work may be transferred from the M.A.). A minimum of six units must be 600-level seminars.
  • Present reading knowledge of one foreign language, other than English or Spanish, appropriate to the field of specialization (see page 13 for detailed information regarding the foreign language requirement).
  • Pass a comprehensive examination, partly written and partly oral, which will include primary and secondary areas within the declared major field of study.
  • Complete 18 doctoral dissertation units, write and defend a dissertation.

In addition, all Graduate Associate Appointments (GAs) in Spanish and Portuguese are required to complete a language teaching methodology course (SPAN-581A) before or during their first semester of classroom teaching. This course counts as one of the student’s electives for the Ph.D.

Qualifying Oral Interview

During the first semester of studies at the University of Arizona, all incoming Ph.D. students participate in the diagnostic oral qualifying interview. Each student, working in collaboration with the Director of Graduate Studies, proposes two topics that represent knowledge in the relevant major and that reflect the student's academic preperation from the M.A. In addition, the student will submit a writing sample (that is, a Masters-level term paper written in Spanish)  to the Director of Graduate Studies no later than three weeks prior to the date of the Qualifying Oral Interview. The writing sample will be read by the members of the Qualifying Oral Interview and will be discussed with the student during the interview. The interview lasts a minimum of one hour and a maximum of two hours. The interview starts with a brief fifteen-minute presentation by the student on the two chosen topics. During the interview, the committee, established by the Graduate Studies Committee, will question the student on these topics. The purpose of this interview is to assess a student’s strengths and weaknesses so that s/he can be effectively mentored.

Ph.D. Coursework

In consultation with the Director of Graduate Studies, the student selects one primary field of study from the following areas:

  1. Medieval, Renaissance, and Golden Age Spanish literatures and cultures
  2. Eighteenth through twenty-first century Spanish Literatures and cultures
  3. Spanish American literature and cultures from the Pre-Columbian period to Independence
  4. Nineteenth through twenty-first century Spanish American literatures and cultures
  5. Border Studies
  6. Luso-Brazilian and Hispanic literatures and cultres
  7. Language Structure I
  8. Language Use I

In addition to the primary field, the student selects two secondary areas of study from the following:

  1. Thirteenth-century through eighteenth-century Spanish literatures and cultures
  2. Nineteenth through twenty-first century Spanish literatures and cultures
  3. Pre-Columbian through eighteenth-century Spanish American literatures and cultures
  4. Nineteenth through twenty-first century Spanish American Literatures and cultures
  5. Mexican and Mexican American Literature and cultures
  6. Luso-Brazilian literatures and cultures
  7. Literary and cultural theories
  8. Language Structure 2
  9. Language Use 2

At least 18 units must be taken in the primary field of study and 6 units in each of the two secondary areas of study. The remaining 18 units are electives. If the student elects their area in one of the Spanish Peninsular Primary Areas, at least one of the secondary areas must be in Latin American literatures and cultures and vice versa. Similarly, in Hispanic Linguistics, if the student elects their Primary Area in Language Structure, at least one of the secondary areas must be Language Use, and vice versa.

Foreign Language Requirement

In addition to the above requirements, all students entering the Ph.D. in Spanish program are required to pass a proficiency exam in a language other than English or Spanish prior to taking their comprehensive exams.

(Approved: April 5, 2002)

It is a necessary academic requirement that all Ph.D. candidates in Spanish demonstrate "reading knowledge" of a natural language other than Spanish and English, preferably a Romance language (otherwise, a language that has a direct bearing on the candidate's research and/or studies). The level of proficiency expected is that of passing an advanced 300-level grammar and writing course with a grade of B or higher.

The candidate must meet this language requirement BEFORE--and as a condition towards--taking the written Comprehensive Exams.

The foreign language requirement may be met in one of the following ways:

  • For students who complete the requirement at the University of Arizona: Successful completion of course work to the advanced level in a language other than English or Spanish, with an average grade of B or higher. The course work must include a 300-level intermediate/advanced grammar course taught and examined in the target language (typically xxxx-325 or 305, depending on the department).*
  • For students with course work in a language other than English or Spanish from an accredited institution: The student will meet with the Graduate Advisor to determine whether or not the course work satisfies the foreign language requirement. The Graduate Advisor may require, at his/her discretion, that the student take additional course work and/or pass a proficiency exam in the language of choice. The format and content of the exam will be determined in conjunction with the Graduate Advisor and a qualified instructor of the chosen language.
  • Students who are native speakers of a language other than English and Spanish may have this requirement waived with the approval of the Graduate Advisor.

*Note: Students that enter the Ph.D. program in Hispanic Literature without any formal instruction in a language other than English or Spanish may complete the foreign language requirement in two semesters if they choose to study Portuguese. In this case, the student must complete the following courses with an average grade of B or higher:

  • PORT-305: Portuguese for Spanish Speakers
  • PORT-325: Intermediate Grammar and Conversation
  • PORT-305 and PORT-325 reflect the minimum course work required to complete the foreign language requirement. An exam or term paper may NOT be used in lieu of one of these courses. However, the student may substitute a 400- or 500-level Portuguese course for PORT-325 with the permission of the Portuguese Advisor and the Graduate Advisor.