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  CATALAN:

  A COMPREHENSIVE GRAMMAR

  Catalan: A Comprehensive Grammar is a complete reference guide to modern Catalan grammar, presenting an accessible and systematic description of the modern language.

  The Grammar reflects the current reality of Catalan by acknowledging regional diversity and features Balearic and Valencian varieties alongside the language used in the Barcelona region.

  The combined specialist knowledge of the author team ensures a balanced coverage of modern Catalan.

  Features include:

  comprehensive coverage of all parts of speech

  a wealth of authentic examples illustrating language points

  attention to areas of particular difficulty for those whose first language is English

  full cross-referencing

  detailed index

  Catalan: A Comprehensive Grammar will remain the standard reference work for years to come.

  Max W. Wheeler is Reader in Linguistics at the University of Sussex.

  Alan Yates is Tiles Balears’ Professor of Catalan at the University of Sheffield.

  Nicolau Dols is Professor Titular d’Escola Universitaria at the University of the Balearic Islands.

  CATALAN:

  A COMPREHENSIVE

  GRAMMAR

  Max W. Wheeler, Alan Yates and

  Nicolau Dols

  First published 1999

  by Routledge

  2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon , Oxon, OX14 4RN

  Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada

  by Routledge

  270 Madison Ave, New York NY 100 16

  Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group

  © 1999 Max W. Wheeler, Alan Yates and Nicolau Dols

  Transferred to Digital Printing 2006

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

  British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

  A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

  Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

  Wheeler, Max.

   Catalan: a comprehensive grammar / Max W. Wheeler, Alan Yates and Nicolau Dols.

    p. cm.—(Routledge grammars)

   Includes bibliographical references and index.

   1. Catalan language—Grammar. I. Yates, Alan. II. Dols.

  Nicolau, 1967–. III. Title. IV. Series.

  PC3823.W44 1999    98-47194

  449′.982421—dc21

  Publisher's Note

  The publisher has gone to great lengths to ensure the quality of this reprint

  but points out that some imperfections in the original may be apparent

  We dedicate this volume to the memory of Joan Gili (1907–1998)

  CONTENTS

  Preface

  Acknowledgements

  Map of Catalan-speaking areas and dialects

  PART I. NOUN PHRASE CONSTITUENTS

  1 Gender of Nouns

  2 Plural of Nouns and Formation of Derived Nouns

  3 Articles

  4 Adjectives

  5 Comparison

  6 Demonstratives

  7 Possessives

  8 Miscellaneous Adjectives and Pronouns (Quantifiers and Indefinites)

  9 Nominalizations Via Articles

  10 Numerals

  11 Personal Pronouns (Stressed)

  12 Pronominal Clitics (Weak Object Pronouns)

  PART II. ADVERBS, PREPOSITIONS, AND CONJUNCTIONS

  13 Adverbs and Adverbials

  14 Prepositions

  15 Conjunctions

  PART III. VERBS

  16 Morphology of the Verb

  17 Use of Indicative (Non-continuous) Verb Forms

  18 Progressive Constructions and Other Verbal Periphrases

  19 The Subjunctive

  20 The Infinitive

  21 Participles

  22 The Gerund

  23 Pronominal Verbs

  PART IV. SENTENCE TYPES: SIMPLE AND COMPLEX

  24 Interjections and Ideophones

  25 Simple Sentences and Grammatical Relations

  26 Negation

  27 Interrogation and Exclamation

  28 Imperative Utterances

  29 Passive and Impersonal Sentences

  30 Copular Sentences (ser, estar, etc.)

  31 Relative Clauses

  32 Complement Clauses

  33 Adverbial Clauses

  34 Conditional Sentences

  PART V. INFORMATION STRUCTURE AND WORD ORDER

  35 Cleft Sentences

  36 Word Order

  37 Spelling, Accent Rules, and Punctuation

  Further Reading

  Bibliography

  Index

  PREFACE

  This book is designed to provide an up-to-date, systematic description of the morphology and syntax of the modern standard Catalan language. In preparing it we have had in mind the needs of pre-university and university students, teachers, translators and those with a private or professional interest in the language as it is currently used by Catalan speakers in educated conversation and in the normal range of written registers. We note with pleasure the appearance of Jenny Brumme’s Praktische Grammatik der katalanischen Sprache (Wilhelmsfeld: Egert, 1997); we coincide with the aims and scope of this work in offering a substantial grammar of Catalan, in a language other than Spanish or Catalan itself, designed expressly for non-natives. Brumme’s work was published when the present volume was in the final stages of preparation, so we have been unable to make use of it in our own work. We have, of course, relied considerably on the extensive existing literature on Catalan grammar, though we have developed some topics which have not previously been covered in depth. We have also given particular emphasis to areas of usage which are likely to be difficult for users starting from English.

  One assumption with which we have worked is that those who use this book, whether for reference or for systematic study, will already have acquired some basic familiarity with Catalan, either through immediate contact and ‘total immersion’ or, more probably, through working with various methods (in the medium of English, Spanish or Catalan itself) for induction in the language. This Comprehensive Grammar is thus conceived as an extension or complement to a fairly wide repertoire of basic study materials, a sample of which is provided in the Further reading list. Another, related, assumption is that users of this book will be acquainted with basic traditional grammatical concepts and terminology; we aim to explain any more specialized concepts and terms as we go along. Such explanations can be located via the index.

  Catalan is a member of the Romance family of languages which are modern forms of the Latin language which spread from Rome to much of Europe in the wake of the Roman empire around the beginning of the common era. As its geographical position might suggest, Catalan shares several features with its nearest Romance neighbours: Italian, Sardinian, Occitan, Spanish, while being distinct in several respects from all of them. The map on page xviii shows where Catalan is spoken and identifies the main dialect divisions. The second section of this Preface briefly discusses ‘normative’ and ‘standard’ Catalan in relation to the position of the language in the twentieth century and insofar as these important concepts affect criteria and procedures followed in the body of this book. We do not attempt to supply here any history of Catalan as a member of the Romance family of languages, or any discussion of the mightily complex issues of Catalan
as a stateless language in post-Renaissance Europe, in contact/conflict with more powerful linguistic neighbours (primarily Spanish, but also French, and Italian). These sociolinguistic and politico-linguistic factors have been of great moment in shaping the historical evolution of Catalan and, especially in the twentieth century, in affecting the politics associated with community self-awareness centred in linguistic difference.

  The territories where Catalan is natively spoken are:

  (1) The Principality of Andorra.

  (2) In France: almost all of the département of Pyrénées-Orientales.

  (3) In Spain:

  (i) Catalonia (under the autonomous government, the Generalitat, of Catalonia), except for the Gascon-speaking Val d’Aran.

  (ii) The eastern fringe of Aragon.

  (iii) Most of the Comunitat Valenciana, excepting some regions in the west and south which have been Aragonese/Spanish-speaking since at least the eighteenth century.

  (iv) El Carxe, a small area of the province of Murcia, settled in the nineteenth century.

  (v) The Balearic Islands: Majorca and Minorca (Balearic stricto sensu), Ibiza (Eivissa) and Formentera (strictly Illes Pitiüses).

  (4) In Italy: the port of Alghero in Sardinia.

  A conservative estimate of the number of native speakers of Catalan is about 6.5 million (based on the 1991 census in Catalonia, Valencia, and the Balearics, with estimates for the remaining territories). Within Spain a further three million claim to understand Catalan. Partly as a result of the incorporation of Catalan locally into the education system, there are within Spain increasing numbers of second-language speakers.

  STATUS OF CATALAN

  The status, situation, and prospects of the Catalan language are significantly different in each of the territories enumerated above, though each of those in Spain shares, in some way, the consequences of Catalan’s having been for centuries an oppressed minority language. For a multiplicity of reasons, cultural decline and loss of prestige affected Catalan from the sixteenth century onwards. The defeat of the Catalans in the war of the Spanish Succession (1714) initiated a series of measures extending throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, imposing the use of Spanish in public life, for example, in accounts, in preaching, in the theatre, in the criminal courts, in education, in legal documents, in the civil registers, on the telephone. In the twentieth century these measures were mostly repeated, and supplemented by the imposition of Spanish in the catechism, by prohibition of the teaching of Catalan, and by sanctions against persons refusing to use Spanish. The Second Republic (1931-39) to a large extent removed these restrictions, but Franco’s victory in the Spanish Civil War was followed in 1940 by a total ban on the public use of Catalan. This ban was subject to a series of relaxations from the 1950s onwards, allowing (subject to censorship applied generally in Spain) the publication of increasing numbers of Catalan books from the 1960s, though Catalan remained excluded from nearly all public institutions until Spain’s adoption of a democratic constitution in 1978.

  That constitution enjoins respect for and protection of Spain’s ‘other’ languages, and opened the way for statutes of autonomy in the various regions. In the early 1980s, Catalonia, Valencia, and the Balearics obtained their respective autonomy statutes, involving coofficiality for Spanish and Catalan. All of these statutes promote ‘language normalization’, the goal of which is universal bilingualism without diglossia. In Catalonia the expressed aim of the Generalitat goes much further than this: to make the local language the normal medium of public life, with Spanish having a secondary role as an auxiliary language, or a home language for its native speakers. In Valencia and the Balearics, the de facto policy has been to promote effective knowledge of Catalan and to enhance its status, although complex socio-political factors, differentially in each area, continue to hinder progress towards full and normal integration of Catalan in public life.

  In Catalonia, Catalan is co-official and its knowledge and use are actively promoted by the autonomous government and by local government. Teaching of Catalan is obligatory in all schools, and primary and secondary education through the medium of Catalan reaches in the 1990s about 60 per cent of the population. The provision includes, since 1993, some Catalan immersion programmes in Spanish-speaking suburbs. There are two Catalan-language television stations, with wide audiences, and numerous radio stations. Catalan is still clearly in a minority position in the periodical press, in advertising, in cinema/video, and in the administration of justice, but a gradual advance is noted here too. The January 1998 Language Normalization Act is designed to build upon progress achieved under the previous Act of 1983, especially as regards extending the use of Catalan in the commercial and judicial fields, where the predominance of Spanish has been obstinate.

  In the Aragon fringe, Catalan has no official status, though the Aragonese autonomy statute speaks of protection and support of minority languages. In the towns and villages in question there are many cultural associations promoting Catalan (not necessarily by that name), and in many cases the local administration supports Catalan teaching in schools. Radio and television from Catalonia are accessible, of course. Language shift (except through emigration) is minimal.

  The language situation in the Community of Valencia is extremely complex, politically, culturally, and geographically. Catalan has been strongest in the countryside and among the urban working classes. The language policy of the Generalitat Valenciana, responding to popular pressure, has largely concentrated on education, and Catalan is available in around 80 per cent of state schools. A shortage of teachers has hindered advance here up to now. Teaching through Catalan is available in a minority of schools. A Valencian state television station broadcasts bilingually. Catalan is quite prominent in cultural life; it is present in administration and in commerce, and there is evidence of popular demand for, and expectation of, a greater use of Catalan.

  Though the Balearic Islands Council passed a linguistic normalization law in 1986, relatively little has been done to put it into effect. Spoken Catalan is predominant except in Palma and in Ibiza (Eivissa), where immigration is highest, and where there is recent evidence of some inter-generational language shift to Spanish. Catalan has some place in local broadcasting, TV and radio, and Catalan television stations from the mainland have a wide following. Since 1996 there has been a Palma-based Catalan-language daily newspaper, with a wide distribution, and outside Palma the local press is largely Catalan. In schools, Catalan as a subject is widely available, responding to pressure from parents and from local administrations (though in Ibiza one fifth of pupils does not receive the prescribed hours of Catalan teaching). In 1990–91 17 per cent of pupils had Catalan as their medium of education, in whole or in part; this trend is strongest in Minorca. In advertising and commerce Spanish predominates, but with Catalan increasing its role somewhat.

  In Valencia and in the Balearic Islands, there is in some sectors a preference for using the terms ‘valencià’ and ‘mallorquí’, respectively, to refer to the variants of the language used there. This feature (which we refer to again below in discussing normative and standard Catalan) is susceptible to political manipulation, and it strongly affects debate on the linguistic unity of the Catalan-speaking territories.

  In Andorra, Catalan has always been the sole official language, though until recently secondary education was provided by the French and Spanish states, in their standard, monolingual, model. Spanish-speaking immigrants account for almost 40 per cent of the population of about 50,000. Spanish and French are widely used in commerce, but Catalan predominates in other areas of public life. In 1993 Andorra adopted a new constitution, and the government has been pursuing an active ‘Andorranization’ policy, involving education through a medium of Catalan.

  The status and position of Catalan in North Catalonia is closely parallel to that of the other traditional minority languages in France. Language shift was all but universal after the Second World War, so that most native sp
eakers are over fifty years old. Catalan has at best an occasional, decorative, role in public life. In primary schools, some 30 per cent study Catalan (as a foreign language), and some 15 per cent in secondary schools.

  In Alghero, in 1987, it was estimated that about 58 per cent of the population of 37,000 understood alguerès. However, inter-generational language shift to Italian is proceeding apace, despite the recent declaration of co-officiality for Catalan and Italian in the city. Stimulated in part by Catalan revival further west, a certain pro-Catalan cultural movement can be observed, evident in local associations and local television and radio. As elsewhere in Italy, the local language has no official role in the education system.

  DIALECTS

  Though there are significant dialect differences in Catalan, the dialects are to a very high degree mutually intelligible. They are conventionally divided into two groups, on the basis of differences in phonology as well as in some features of verb morphology; there are some interesting lexical differences, too. The eastern dialect group covers North Catalan (including rossellonès in French Catalonia), Central Catalan (in the eastern part of Catalonia), Balearic, and alguerès (in Alghero). The western group consists of North Western (NW) Catalan (western and southern Catalonia and eastern Aragon) and Valencian. The principal dialect divisions are shown in the map on page xviii.

  NORMATIVE AND STANDARD CATALAN

  A unified literary Catalan koine had already become well established by the fifteenth century. With the subsequent cultural decline in the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries, awareness of the conventions of this koine, and of the linguistic and cultural unity of the Catalan territories it reflected, was gradually dissipated, so that, by 1800 or so, writers had in mind only a regionally limited audience for works in a local idiom. One of the goals of the nineteenth-century Renaixença (’Rebirth’) movement was the restoration or reconstruction of a Catalan standard language. The standardization process crystallized in the work of Pompeu Fabra (1868–1948), whose orthographic norms (1913), grammar (1918), and dictionary (1932) were immediately adopted by official institutions in Catalonia, and quickly became accepted elsewhere. The bases of Fabra’s standard Catalan were the medieval koine, current educated usage in Catalonia, particularly in Barcelona, the contemporary dialects, and the removal of ‘barbarisms’. Fabra’s intention was that the standard language should be open to development, and to further incorporation of non-Barcelona usage, but the circumstances of the Spanish Civil War (1936–39) and the Franco period (1939–75) had the effect of turning Fabra’s works into an orthodoxy, deviation from which was regarded by Catalan nationalists as unpatriotic. It is only since the 1980s that the Institut d’Estudis Catalans and associated institutions have regained the authority to expand and modernize standard Catalan, introducing recommendations for terminology, for spoken usage in the mass media, and for regional parastandards.