Four Dichotomies in Spanish: Adjective Position, Adjectival Clauses, Ser/Estar, and Preterite/Imperfect

Luis H. González is Professor of Spanish and Linguistics at Wake Forest University. He completed his Ph.D. at the University of California, Davis. His main areas of research are semantic roles, case, reflexivization, clitic doubling, differential object marking, dichotomies in languages, Spanish linguistics, and second language learning. He is the co-author of one book and the author of three other books: Gramática para la composición. 2016. 3rd ed. Washington: Georgetown University Press. A Spanish advanced grammar and writing textbook, now in its third edition. Co-authored with M. Stanley Whitley. Cómo entender y cómo enseñar por y para. 2020. London: Routledge. https://www.routledge.com/9780367688295 Four Dichotomies in Spanish: Adjective Position, Adjectival Clauses, Ser/Estar, and Preterite/Imperfect. 2021. London: Routledge. https://www.routledge.com/9780367517281 The Fundamentally Simple Logic of Language: Learning a Second Language with the Tools of the Native Speaker. 2021. London: Routledge. https://www.routledge.com/9780367347819

1. Adjective position: why having a ‘guapo novio’ does not raise any eyebrows, but having a ‘novio guapo’ might 2. Whole/part matters: nonrestrictive and restrictive adjectival (relative) clauses 3. Estar expresses a change of state; learners already have ser in their native language 4. The preterite is like entering or leaving a room; the imperfect is like staying in it