Spanish and Swedish teachers’ perspective of teaching STEM and robotics in preschool – results from the botSTEM project

This article describes outcomes from the Erasmus + project botSTEM, involving a theoretical framework for Science, Technology, Engineering & Technology (STEM) and robotics and teaching activities for preschool teachers and teachers educating children 4–8 years old. Spanish and Swedish preschool teachers’ self-efficacy and views of teaching STEM and robotics are presented, using a mixed methodology based on a questionnaire and focus group interviews. The 3-year long project has improved the preschool teachers’ self-efficacy in STEM and robotics teaching, as described in a questionnaire answered by the preschool teachers after the project. Possibilities in STEM and robotics teaching experienced by them include an increase in children’s agency, knowledge and interest, and the obstacles are mainly structural or technical. Robotics teaching also supports children with special needs when interacting with peers. The results from the botSTEM project point to the benefit of supported long-term professional development for STEM and robotics teaching in preschools.

January 2022 Critical Care Case of the Month: Ataque Isquémico Transitorio in Spanish

No abstract available. Article truncated after 150 words. History of Present Illness: The patient is a previously healthy 61-year-old Spanish-speaking woman who was unable to speak after awakening. Per Emergency Medical Service she was found to be aphasic upon their arrival. While in the Emergency Room the patient was able to speak, alert and oriented x4, with all her symptoms spontaneously resolved. The patient denied fever, chills, blurred vision, headache or any history of migraines, TIA, or stroke. The patient had a similar event about two weeks earlier which also spontaneously resolved. During that time, the patient had a non-contrast CT head and an MRI of the brain, both of which were unremarkable. Her home medications include aspirin 81 mg and atorvastatin 40 mg daily. Past Medical History, Family History and Social History: The patient denies tobacco use or use of illicit drugs. She reports that she will occasionally drink alcohol. There is no family history of strokes. …

Algunas observaciones sobre el funcionamiento del adverbio dizque, un elemento de discontinuidad diacrónica y diatópica en español

Some Observations Regarding the Functioning of the Adverb dizque, an Element of Diachronic and Diatopic Discontinuity in Spanish. The adverb dizque lies at the core of a double discontinuity in the landscape of Spanish language. On the one hand, it marks a diachronic discontinuity, as its modal-epistemic and pragmatic values have developed significantly since the 13th century, when it was first registered in Old Spanish, with the evidential-reportative meaning that stems from its etymology. On the other hand, dizque is affected by a diatopic discontinuity, as it is becoming obsolete in the Iberian Peninsula, but is extremely productive in Hispanic American varieties. This paper traces the evolution of the modal and discursive values of dizque and observes its syntactic behaviour by means of a corpus analysis, concluding that, in today’s Hispanic American Spanish, this adverb has reinforced this position in the left periphery, either as a sentence modifier or as a constituent modifier, with clearly established syntactic peculiarities. Keywords: evidentiality, epistemic, syntax, pragmatics

On the origin of the Uruguayan voseo

This article is dedicated to the origin of the phenomenon of voseo in the Uruguayan Spanish. Description is given to the evolution of the use of pronoun ‘vos’ and the corresponding verb forms in the Old Spanish and classical Spanish language, as well as to specificity of the development of the forms of voseo in Latin America (namely the process hybridization of the paradigm). Special attention is given to the spread of this linguistic phenomenon in the Río de la Plata, which includes the territory of modern Uruguay, in the context of the history of colonization. The author examines the theory of the two “norms” (urban and rural) to clarify the correlation between ‘tú’ and ‘vos’ in the Uruguayan Spanish of the XVIII – XXI centuries. This article is first within the Russian Spanish studies to examine the forms of address in the Uruguayan Spanish from the diachronic perspective, as up to the present it has rarely become the focus of attention of the Soviet and Russian philology. The following conclusions are formulated: 1) the key factor in wide spread occurrence of voseo in the Spanish language of America lies in the specificity of assimilation of the Spanish language by autochthonous and mixed population; 2) unlike Spain and some regions of America, the forms ‘vos’ prevalent Río de la Plata with the beginning of colonization have not been displaced by the form ‘tú’ due ti peripheral location of the territory and remoteness from cultural centers of the empire; 3) at the same time, the presence of tuteo was more noticeable in the cities, which led to the formation of two “norms” in the region – rural, characterized by voseo; and urban tuteo, which was oriented towards Pyrenean norm.

Resultatives and low depictives in English

We argue against a purely semantic account of the Unique Path Constraint (Goldberg, Adele. 1991. It can’t go down the chimney up: Paths and the English resultative. In Proceedings of the seventeenth annual meeting of the Berkeley, 368–378. Linguistics Society), i.e., the constraint that there can only be one result state in a single clause, and in favor of a syntactic restriction regarding event structure. We propose, following Mateu, Jaume & Víctor Acedo-Matellán. 2012. The manner/result complementarity revisited: A syntactic approach. In M. Cristina Cuervo & Yves Roberge (eds.), The end of argument structure? Syntax and semantics, 209–228. New York: Academic Press, that structurally there can only be one result predicate per clause since the little v head selects for one result predicate as its complement. In order to make our claim, we provide novel data that violate the Unique Path Constraint defined as a semantic constraint. Further, we analyze examples that at first blush pose a problem for the present account as they appear to involve two result phrases, e.g., shot him dead off the horse. We argue, however, that the second result phrase is not syntactically a result, but rather constitutes a case of what Acedo-Matellán, Víctor, Josep Ausensi, Josep Maria Fontana & Cristina Real-Puigdollers. forthcoming. Old Spanish resultatives as low depictives. In Chad L. Howe, Timothy Gupton, Margaret Renwick & Pilar Chamorro (eds.), Open romance linguistics 1. Selected papers from the 49th linguistic symposium on romance languages. Berlin: Language Science Press have called low depictives, which join the syntactic derivation through a low applicative head.

Old Basque had */χ/, not /h/

The sound change from Latin /f/ to Old Spanish and Gascon /h/ has often been attributed to stratal influence from Basque. The motivation would be that Old Basque lacked /f/, and instead had a phoneme /h/, with which bilingual speakers replaced it when speaking in Romance. However, this hypothesis presents several difficulties. Most importantly, Navarrese Romance preserves Latin /f/, and in Basque itself, /f/ is adapted as /b/ in loanwords from Latin and Romance, not as /h/. Here we will argue that Old Basque had neither /f/ nor /h/. Instead, modern Basque /h/ derives from older */χ/. Medieval data will play an important role in establishing this. This hypothesis explains a number of morphophonological alternations, as well as some puzzling aspects in the treatment of aspiration in Romance borrowings, and it also makes it more difficult to hold to the stratal hypothesis for the Romance change /f/ > /h/.

Examining the Adoption and Diffusion of Ecclesiastical Gallicisms in Old Spanish

The presence of multiple loanwords in the Ibero-Romance of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries demonstrates language contact. Teasing out the nature of the relationships that resulted in the adoption and spread of these borrowings is difficult due to the limitations of the evidence, found only in written registers produced by those with access to education. This helps explain the catalogue nature of most historical borrowing studies about Spanish. This paper argues, however, that an inferential network analysis of the extant data on ecclesiastical loanwords that entered the lexicon through contact with Gallo-Romance speakers elucidates their adoption and spread, moving beyond the list. Using five borrowings as illustrations (capiscol, chantre, fraile, maestre, and monje), it asserts that their diffusion was facilitated and influenced by both the strong and the weak ties that developed inside and outside religious institutions, which left a lasting mark on the Spanish lexicon.

Phlebosclerotic colitis in a non-Asian patient: a case report

Background Phlebosclerotic colitis is a rare condition with a high mortality. It has been seen almost exclusively in Asian patients who are ≥ 60 years old, with a slight male predominance. Although it predominantly affects the right colon and seems to be related in some cases to using natural herbal medicines, neither its etiology nor its pathogenesis are known. Case presentation We present an extremely rare case of a 62-year-old Spanish white man patient of non-Asian ethnicity with no history of using natural medications, who was diagnosed with phlebosclerotic colitis of submucosal veins. Conclusion To date, this is the only case reported in Spain, and only the second reported for Europe, in the literature. Due to the nonspecific symptoms and insidious radiological findings of this disease (both in early and mild stages) as well as exclusive submucosal involvement presented here, it is necessary that the treating physician has a high level of suspicion for its diagnosis.

Cohesion in the Narrative Writing of Young EFL Learners: Correct and Incorrect Use of Local Cohesive Ties

This study examines the correct and incorrect use of local cohesive ties and local cohesion errors in the written narratives of eleven- to twelve-year-old Spanish learners of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) at different proficiency levels. The study was carried out with pairs who collaboratively wrote a narrative text in response to a picture prompt. The young learners’ written texts were examined to identify their correct and incorrect use of four categories: lexical, referential, conjunctive and temporal cohesion. The results show that higher and lower proficiency learners are significantly different in their use of the causal conjunction because, personal pronouns and noun phrases containing possessive, definite, indefinite and zero determiners. The two groups also differ in their incorrect use of pronouns, simple verb forms and noun phrases containing definite, indefinite and zero determiners. Attention is drawn to the need to explore the diversity in young learners’ use of cohesion and some pedagogical implications are drawn.