Original article

Methodological approach to the study of compound sentences

0000-0001-7910-3253Miriam Esther Dorta Martínez^{1  *}  , 0000-0003-3234-7175Zuleiny Meneses Martín¹  , 0000-0003-3990-6507Martha Antonia Souto Padrón¹ 

¹Universidad de Ciego de Ávila Máximo Gómez Báez, Cuba.

ABSTRACTS

Traditionally, the study of the compound sentence has been dominated by the syntactic dimension, due to the limited theoretical-methodological preparation of the teachers who teach Spanish Literature in pre-university. From the systematization of the educational theory and practice and with the use of the analytical-synthetic, inductive-deductive, observation and document analysis methods, the work proposes a methodological procedure and its exemplification for the study of the compound sentence from the semantic, syntactic and pragmatic dimensions. Its implementation has allowed the improvement of the study of the compound sentence in terms of communication.

Key words: Methodological approach; Teaching; Learning; Compound sentence; Communication

Introduction

Throughout history, the teaching of grammatical content has been carried out with the aim of providing the student with a body of norms and rules that he had to learn in order to speak and write correctly. This implied memorization and imitation of Latin models. Grammar, therefore, was assigned the function of regulating oral and written uses, hence it acquired a normative character, which was prescriptive and corrective, and that is why academic grammars are presented as ¨the art of writing and speaking correctly¨, which meant regulating speech based on literary texts that, even, were far behind in time.

Another approach that predominated was the productive one. It lasted until the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century. At this stage, the study of grammatical contents with a formal character was somewhat abandoned and oral expression in itself was exercised, which did not allow the student to acquire an adequate command of the language.

In the 20th century, the teaching of grammar has been based on a descriptive-synchronic approach, which originated as a result of the emergence of linguistics as a science. This approach is the one that predominates throughout this century in the teaching of grammatical content, even if it is a traditional, structural or generative and transformational grammar (^{Roméu, 2007}).

Towards the end of the 20th century, from the 1960s onwards, and so far in the 21st century, grammar has been nourished by the contributions of other sciences oriented towards communication, so it has evolved towards a grammar of discourse, which studies the grammatical structures in the different types of discourse, since its use depends on the meaning emitted by the speaker, and the context in which the communicative act is carried out. That is to say, the new approaches given by Textual Linguistics and the cognitive, communicative and sociocultural approach consider the semantic, syntactic and pragmatic dimensions for the study of grammar and language contents in general (^{Toledo, 2012}).

Teachers who teach the subject Spanish-Literature in pre-university courses have been trained with one or another approach, so it is necessary to update the grammatical contents in the light of the new postulates of linguistic science in order to improve their teaching-learning in terms of communication. Particularly, the content of the compound sentence is very complex for teachers, who do not feel completely prepared from the theoretical-methodological point of view to teach it as a function of communication.

The literature consulted shows that several authors have dealt with the topic of the compound sentence. Among them are: ^{Roca Pons (1966}); ^{Gili and Gaya (1974}), ^{Porro (1982}), ^{Cueva (1986)}, ^{Toledo (2014}), ^{López (2017}), ^{Dorta (2020}), among others.

The authors referred to above have provided us with the essential grammatical contents for the study of the compound sentence. Those mentioned from (1966) to (2017) have been based on the grammatical aspect fundamentally, that is, on the syntactic part; however, authors such as ^{Toledo (2014}) and his followers (2020) have incorporated the tools provided by discursive grammar, by studying these grammatical structures in the light of Textual Linguistics, in which the semantic, syntactic and pragmatic dimensions are integrated. Their study allows us to teach - learn in terms of communication. The aim is for the student to discover what the compound sentences in the text mean, what kind of sentence was needed to convey the message and with what communicative intention. The author ^{Roméu (2007}) provides the theoretical foundations of the cognitive, communicative and sociocultural approach to deal with grammatical contents as a function of communication.

Currently in the teaching-learning of the compound sentence in pre-university it is included in the Methodological Orientations in Improvement (2019) that grammatical contents are studied in terms of communication, but no methodological procedures are revealed for the study of the compound sentence as part of the preparation of teachers to teach this content and incorporate them into the real speech acts that students make in every context where they are. (^{Clavel et al, 2019})

Related to the topic, the following problematic is presented:

• Limited theoretical-methodological preparation of teachers who teach Spanish Literature in pre-university for the study of the compound sentence from the semantic, syntactic and pragmatic dimensions.

The objective of this work is to propose a methodological procedure and its exemplification for the study of the compound sentence from the semantic, syntactic and pragmatic dimensions.

Development

Communication, as a vital need of human beings, has always interested scientists, linguists and pedagogues. In school environments, the sender (the teacher) must transmit a certain message to the receiver (the student) in order for the communicative process to take place. In this interaction there is a teaching-learning process between sender and receiver or vice versa.

In order to carry out this act, man needs to use certain structures acquired as a child and perfected at different educational levels. One of them is the compound sentence, the content of which has been addressed by authors at different historical moments. However, in the school context, it is the teachers who teach the subject Spanish-Literature who are in charge of teaching the contents with a communicative perspective so that students can acquire this knowledge and use it in communication, for this reason they need a theoretical-methodological update on the subject.

The speaker uses the compound sentence according to the complexity with which he builds his speeches, since he does not always use simple sentences. There are situations in which the individual necessarily selects within the language these complex structures with which the individual manages to express what is desired based on the intention pursued and the aim to be achieved.

Several authors have dealt with the subject. Roca Pons defines the compound sentence as "the psychic unit formed by the so-called juxtaposed, coordinated or subordinate sentences, which corresponds to a unit of intonation" (Roca Pons, 1966, p. 158). Gili y Gaya emphasizes that "within a psychic sentence there can be one or several grammatical ones. When there is only one, we say that the sentence is simple. When the psychic sentence contains more than one grammatical sentence, we are in the presence of a compound sentence" (^{Gili and Gaya, 1974, p. 262}).

Alicia ^{Toledo (2014}), for her part, considers that in the psych sentence the speaker may employ one or several ideas, one or several grammatical sentences. If the psychological unit is produced from an idea: a grammatical sentence, then the psychological sentence is simple.

If, on the other hand, the speaker uses more than one grammatical sentence, more than one idea and they are separated by an interior pause or inflection, never descending, and they are closely related, then we can be sure that we are in the presence of a compound psychological sentence (^{Toledo, 2014}).

As can be seen, there are different criteria when defining the compound sentence. These authors Roca Pons and Gili and Gaya refer clearly to the syntactic dimension, i.e. to the formal part, the first one also points out the classification of the compound sentence. However, Alicia ^{Toledo Costa (2014}) takes into account the form (grammatical sentences, their relationship) and the content (ideas expressed) to convey the message. In addition, she characterizes each kind of compound sentence attending to the semantic, syntactic and pragmatic dimensions. That is to say, it approaches the study of this content according to the meaning it has in the text, the grammatical structure it adopts and the communicative intention it pursues according to the context. Thus, the criterion of this author is assumed because of her communicative perspective, which is closer to the real use that speakers make of the different kinds of compound sentences in the process of interchange among men.

When the speaker expresses Ideas, sentences can be related in different ways. These can be by juxtaposition, coordination and subordination. For the latter, there have been different classifications, however, we follow the criteria of: substantive, adjective and adverbial subordination, because we consider this nomenclature more accessible didactically and because it is the one used in higher secondary education (^{Toledo, 2014}).

The main characteristics of each kind of compound sentence are the following, integrating semantic, syntactic and pragmatic dimensions, (^{Toledo, 2014}).

Juxtaposition:

It expresses the movement, the vehemence felt before the fact that is being reported, the facts are expressed in a continuous way, the text is more agile, fluid and dynamic. Asyndetic relation (without conjunctions), no formal nexus, semantic relation between sentences, contextual dependence, they keep certain syntactic independence. They are used by the speaker according to the communicative intention and the context where the speech act takes place, it seeks to move, persuade, convince. Punctuation marks help to give intonation to the text but do not indicate inter-relational relationships.

Coordination:

The speaker may express ideas by a simple addition, either affirmative or negative; it may be that in these judgments differences are expressed that are sometimes contradictory; on the other hand, it may happen that the ideas that are exposed express partial or total opposition between them; it may be that the speaker expresses a contrariety or contradiction, depending on the type of coordinating conjunction used (copulative, adversative or disjunctive).

There is the presence of a formal nexus to establish the relation (coordinating conjunctions), semantic relation between the sentences, contextual dependence, they are indispensable to achieve the intentional unity of meaning, they keep certain syntactic independence, they are functionally equivalent, they are used by the speaker according to the communicative intention and the context where the speech act takes place.

Subordination:

Expresses a quality, a note, a detail referred to a noun that due to the complexity of what is being communicated or because of the sender's preferences an adjective is not used, but this type of structure (adjective subordinate); substantive subordinates refer to abstract notions, in particular to facts, contingencies or states of affairs to which the speaker cannot refer, either because of the complexity of what he expresses or because he does not wish to name them by means of a noun of the language. Adverbials modify qualitatively and quantitatively the main sentence, the same as an adverb or equivalent locution, they do not affect only the verb but the whole sentence, they are subordinated to the main sentence by means of adverbs, adverbial locutions or conjunctive nexuses.

The three types of sentences have contextual and syntactic dependence, they depend on the main sentence, generally they can be replaced by a noun, an adjective, or an adverb or adverbial locution; they can perform the functions of a noun (nouns), they are introduced by grammatical nexuses, generally: that, subordinating conjunction, who relative pronoun and interrogative pronouns and adverbs. (Subordinate nouns). Adjectives are introduced by relative pronouns; they can also use relative adverbs, but they must have an antecedent. In adjectives, relative pronouns have a syntactic function just as a noun does.

The three types of sentences are used by the speaker according to the communicative intention and the context in which the speech act takes place.

The methodological procedure for the study of the compound sentence, taking into account the semantic, syntactic and pragmatic dimensions, is presented below.

• Selection of texts that demonstrate the grammatical structure of the compound sentence.

• Silent reading by students to familiarize themselves with the text.

• Identification of the words that constitute lexical unknowns.

• Comprehensive reading, with the objective of appreciating the meaning of the text, what it communicates, what ideas are expressed, what are the semantic nuclei.

• Recognition of grammatical sentences through which ideas are expressed.

• Identification of the ideas that contain more than one grammatical sentence and the relation between them (it can be asyndetic relation or with formal nexuses between grammatical sentences).

• Meaning in the text of the ideas expressed in the compound sentences.

• Communicative intention with which the text was written, contribution of the compound sentences to the purpose of the text, according to the context and the person to whom it is addressed.

• In inter-oral relations by juxtaposition:

• Determination of the ideas that are expressed, how they follow one another, their significance.

• Relation of the ideas in an asyndetic way (without grammatical nexuses).

• The existing relationship of ideas within a period and between period and period when there is a period.

• Determination of the communicative intention according to the message to be transmitted and the context where they are used.

In interorational sentences by coordination:

• Relation of ideas by the presence of grammatical nexuses (the coordinating conjunctions).

• Meaning that coordinating conjunctions contribute to the comprehension of the text, depending on whether they are:

Copulative: conjunctions whose elements are added together.

Adversatives: They oppose each other in different ways, they contradict each other.

Disjunctive: They alternate with each other or lend themselves to a choice.

Determination of the communicative intention according to the message to be conveyed and the context where they are used.

In interorational sentences by subordination:

• Determination of the whole idea expressed by the statement.

• Identification of the subject-predicate of the whole statement, of the whole sentence composed by subordination.

• Determination of the main and subordinate sentence.

Identification of the nexus that introduces it or non-personal forms with which it can be constructed.

To determine the noun subordinate:

• Substitute a noun. Meaning of the noun in the text.

• Determine whether the same communicative effect is achieved with the noun as with the subordinate.

• Interchange with the pronoun the

• Substitute the demonstratives this, that

• Identify the conjunctive nexuses: what (announcing, subordinating conjunction), relative pronoun who, interrogative pronouns and adverbs (who, what, how, when, where, how much), the conjunction if, the infinitive (when it is not part of the verbal construction).

To determine the function:

• Locate the subordinate's position: whether it is in the subject or in the predicate.

• Analyze whether it is the one being talked about in the sentence. The whole subordinate can function as the subject or if it complements a noun within the subject.

• If it is in the predicate, attach it to the verb of the main sentence as it corresponds to the direct, indirect, circumstantial, agent, etc. complements.

• If the predicate is nominal, determine if the subordinate is the attribute.

To determine the adjective subordinate:

• Exchange for an adjective or participle in adjective function. Significance of this in the text.

• Determine if the same communicative effect is achieved with the adjective as with the subordinate.

• Identify the nexuses: what, who, whom, which, whose (relative pronouns), relative adverbs (as, when, where, how much) that introduce it.

How much: some authors consider it relative adverb (^{Toledo, 2014}) and others, pronoun (^{López, 2017}).

Search for the noun to which the relative pronouns or adverbs reproduce, i.e. the antecedent. Meaning in the text.

For the determination of the function of the relative pronoun:

• Perform the syntactic analysis of the subordinate grammatical sentence.

For the determination of the adverbial subordinate:

• Exchange for an adverb or adverbial locution. Significance of this in the text.

• Determine if the same communicative effect is achieved with the adverb or adverbial locution as with the subordinate.

• Determine the qualitative or quantitative relationship it establishes in relation to the main sentence.

• Identify the introductory links: adverbs, adverbial locutions, conjunctive links or non-personal forms of the verb.

Determination of the communicative intention with which noun, adjective or adverbial subordinates are used according to the message to be conveyed and the context in which they are used.

Examples in different texts:

Text I

1. Read carefully the text Until tomorrow, by Jaime Lopera Gutiérrez and Martha Inés Bernal Trujillo.

Until tomorrow

The mom and dad were watching TV. When she said:

-I'm tired; it's late and I'm going to bed.

First, she went to the kitchen to prepare the sandwiches for the next day. She took the meat out of the freezer for the next day's dinner, checked to see if there was enough cereal left, filled the sugar bowl, put the spoons and breakfast dishes on the table, and got the coffee pot ready. Then she put the wet clothes in the dryer, the dirty clothes in the washing machine, ironed a shirt and sewed on a button, picked up the toys, charged the phone and put away the phone book. She watered the plants, tied the garbage bag and laid out a towel. She yawned, woke up and went to the bedroom.

Jaime Lopera Gutiérrez and Martha Inés Bernal Trujillo

1. Silent reading.

2. Determine the words whose meaning you do not know.

3. What ideas are expressed?

4. What feeling did you get from the way the events are expressed?

5. What inter-relational relationships has the author used to achieve this? Give examples.

6. Which of them predominates?

7. Do you think there is a link between this inter-relational relationship and the author's communicative intention?

8. Reread the text. Locate the sentences in which the mother does the chores in the kitchen. What inter-orational relation has been used? With what purpose does she do it?

9. Do you agree with the authors' opinion about the activities performed by women? Does it seem to be similar to the tasks performed by Cuban women? Express your opinion in written form.

1. Check if it was necessary to use sentences composed by juxtaposition and coordination. What was the intention?

Text 2

- Read the following literary text carefully:

"The little boy had been talking to me. He was a little boy, not yet six years old.

I had taken out the wheel and he, with his little face full of curiosity, was asking me what was this or that thing that you only see when you take a wheel out of your car.

And I was telling him what each thing was and what it was for when the mother's scream burst out:

Rolando!" and the child shuddered.

I looked at the woman standing at the door of her house. She had a head full of metal that gathered her hair".

Story: The metals, by Onelio Jorge Cardoso

1. Silent reading.

2. Determine the words whose meaning you do not know.

3. 3. What is the plot of the story?

4. What is the above text about?

5. What ideas are expressed?

6. Locate the ideas in which more information is provided about the little boy, such as what the man wondered and what the mother used the metals for.

7. 7. Do you think this information is necessary, why, and through what type of grammatical sentences are these ideas expressed?

8. Do you agree with the mother's treatment of the child?

9. How do you think mothers should act in the education of their children?

10. Why does the story have the name: The metals?

11. In the noun subordinate clause. Determine the nexus that introduces it. What significance does it have in the text?

12. What contents do the adjective subordinates express? Locate the relative pronoun, say to whom it refers and the meaning it brings to the text.

13. What is the name given to the word that the relative pronoun reproduces? What does it contribute to the understanding of the text?

With what intention did the author use each of the subordinates in the previous text?

Think of yourself as a close relative of that child and you saw the attitude assumed by the mother.

What advice would you give her? Express it in writing.

1. a) Observe if a compound sentence was used. Say what was the communicative intention.

Text 3

Girls should know what boys know, so that they can talk to them as friends when they grow up (...)

The Golden Age, by José Martí

1. Silent reading.

2. Determine the words whose meaning you do not know.

3. What is the text about?

4. Do you agree with this Marti's criterion?

5. How is it evidenced in our country?

6. Through which subordinate sentences are these ideas expressed?

7. What kind of compound sentence does the author use to establish the equality between boys and girls? What nexus does he use?

8. According to the meaning in the text, how would you classify the rest of the subordinate clauses?

9. What contribution do these compound sentences make to the understanding of the text? What was the author's communicative intention?

10. Would you like to participate in a contest whose theme is: Girls and boys in Cuba...?

1. If the answer is positive, write a text that expresses the ideas you have in this regard. Tell your classmates if you needed to use any of the compound sentences studied, explain what type it is and with what intention you did it.

2. The previous examples show the methodological procedure used for the study of compound sentences. The integration of the semantic, syntactic and pragmatic dimensions is evident.

3. With the use of the methods and techniques employed, it could be seen that the main difficulties that teachers had when teaching the contents on the compound sentence are: they made the analysis at the level of sentences, they did not use the text as a basic category to exploit the potentialities it offers in terms of comprehension and construction processes; limited knowledge of the theoretical and methodological foundations provided by discursive grammar to discover the functionality of these structures in the text, so that the analysis generally focused on the syntactic dimension and not on the semantic and pragmatic ones. Poor development of skills to use a methodological procedure in the recognition and explanation of each of the classes of compound sentences as a function of communication.

4. As part of the improvement of pre-university teachers, the methodological procedure was implemented in the study of the compound sentence to a group of 36 teachers, from January to March 2020 in the province of Ciego de Avila.

• The main results obtained are the following:

• Theoretical-methodological updating of the fundamentals of discourse grammar, in the light of Textual Linguistics and the cognitive, communicative and sociocultural approach.

Teaching materials that allow the acquisition of didactic models of how to treat the compound sentence from the semantic, syntactic and pragmatic dimensions according to the processes of comprehension and textual construction.

Compendium of activities aimed at the selection of texts that show a wealth of compound sentences to explain this content in terms of communication and the elaboration of communicative situations for textual construction, in which it is verified which structures have been necessary to use in order to transmit the message.

Conclusiones

Textual linguistics and the cognitive, communicative and sociocultural approach are the basis of a discourse grammar, which constitutes the theoretical and methodological foundation for the study of the compound sentence. This has the text as its center and its analysis is based on the meaning, on the different structures it adopts and on the communicative intention with which they are used.

The proposed methodological procedure and the exemplification contribute to the improvement of the study of the compound sentence as a function of communication.

The teachers acquired the methodological procedure for the improvement of the study of the compound sentence from the semantic, syntactic and pragmatic dimensions.

Referencias bibliográficas

Clavel, M.; Delgado, A.; Guevara, G.; Montaño, J.; & León, B. (2019). Orientaciones metodológicas décimo grado. Pueblo y Educación.

Cueva, O. de la. (1998). Manual de Gramática Española (t. 2). Pueblo y Educación.

Dorta, M.; Rodríguez, Y. & Souto, M. (2020). La enseñanza- aprendizaje de la oración compuesta mediante un texto literario. Educación y Sociedad, 18 (1). Universidad Ciego de Ávila. ISSN: 1811-9034

Gili, R. y Gaya, S. (1974). Curso superior de sintaxis española. La Habana: Edición revolucionara.

López, J.A (2017). Compendio de gramática española y apuntes sobre redacción. Pueblo y Educación.

Porro, M. (1982). Sintaxis del español contemporáneo. Pueblo y Educación.

Roca, J. (1966). Introducción a la Gramática (t .2). Edición revolucionaria.

Roméu, A. (2007). El enfoque cognitivo, comunicativo y sociocultural en la enseñanza de la lengua y la literatura. Pueblo y Educación.

Toledo, A.; Ferrer, G.; Torres, Y.; Martely, L. & Curbelo, C. (2012). Gramática Española Contemporánea. De la gramática de la lengua a la gramática del discurso. (t.1). Pueblo y Educación.

Toledo, A. (2014). Gramática Española Contemporánea. De la gramática de la lengua a la gramática del discurso . (t.3). Pueblo y Educación.

Received: March 24, 2022; Accepted: July 20, 2022

^*Autor para la correspondencia: [e-mail]