00 Method

A Taxonomic Atlas of Spanish · Book 2 · Volume 00: Method§

Nine documents. The same language as Book 1 (claude/grammar/spanish/claude/grammar/), cut along a different axis — and the axis that turned out to work.

0Why a second book§

Book 1 is organized by primitive (one of the five basic jobs any language does: name a thing, describe an action, assign a quality, connect things, point at things): ENTITY, then how you point at entities, then how you qualify them, then the verb in three passes. That organization answers "how does Spanish express X?"

It doesn't answer the question that was actually blocking you: "what kind of thing is this, and what else is like it?"

The Glossary+ (spanish/14-GLOSSARY.md) solved that with two moves — sorting terms by kind and drawing trees. This book builds the whole grammar on those two moves.

Neither replaces the other. Book 1 explains why the subjunctive appears after para que. Book 2 shows you the complete inventory of what can appear in that slot, and where the subjunctive sits in the total form-space of the verb.

Use this book when you want the map of a whole system. Use Book 1 when you want to understand one mechanism.

1The six kinds★★★ frequency 3 of 3, daily§

The load-bearing distinction. Grammar terminology fails learners because it names things at six different levels of abstraction and never says so. Sort by level and the pile becomes six shelves:

1.1The rule that resolves most confusion§

Terms of different kinds cannot be compared, only related.

"Is a past participle an adjective?" compares a FORM to a CLASS — malformed. The well-formed version: can a word in participle FORM belong to the adjective CLASS? Yes. When? Book 1, 10 §4.

"Is este a determiner or a pronoun?" compares two CLASSes, but the answer is a FUNCTION fact — it depends on whether a noun follows.

"Is the subjunctive a tense?" compares a value of one FEATURE (mood) to a different FEATURE (tense). No.

1.2Every word is describable at all six levels at once§

Cerrada in la puerta cerrada:

      CLASS ──────► adjective (behaving as)
      FORM ───────► past participle of cerrar
   FUNCTION ──────► attributive modifier of "puerta"
                    (attributive = sitting inside the noun phrase,
                     describing the noun directly)
   FEATURES ──────► feminine · singular
  OPERATION ──────► agreement (features copied from "puerta")
CONSTRUCTION ─────► (none — bare modification)

And me in se me rompió el vaso, which fills all six:

      CLASS ──────► pronoun
      FORM ───────► clitic
                    (clitic = a small unstressed pronoun that can't stand
                     alone and must lean on a verb: me, te, lo, le, se)
   FUNCTION ──────► dative — the affected party
                    (dative = the "to/for whom" role)
   FEATURES ──────► 1st person · singular
  OPERATION ──────► convoy ordering (se must precede 1st person)
CONSTRUCTION ─────► the "se me" no-fault template

Six labels, one syllable, zero contradiction.

2How to read a tree★★★ frequency 3 of 3, daily§

Every tree uses four relations. They look identical in plain text, so they're marked:

2.1Two words used constantly in this book§

Open class (a category that accepts new members — new nouns and verbs enter Spanish every year, so you can never finish the list).

Closed class (a category with a fixed membership that essentially never grows — there are 23 prepositions in Spanish and there will be 23 tomorrow).

That's the completeness this book offers over Book 1: you can count the prepositions of Spanish. You cannot count the nouns.

3The master tree★★★ frequency 3 of 3, daily§

All of Spanish, one page. Every subsequent volume expands one branch.

4The volumes§

5The completeness claim, honestly stated§

What this book can be complete about: closed classes. Exactly 23 prepositions (two archaic), a fixed set of coordinating conjunctions, a countable pronoun paradigm (paradigm = the complete set of forms one word can take — all the shapes of hablar, or all the shapes of el), a finite determiner inventory, an enumerable set of verb-form slots, eight clause functions, fifteen features. Those lists are finished.

What it cannot be complete about: open classes. For nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs the trees are structural — they enumerate the kinds, not the members.

What it deliberately omits: frequency-weighted teaching, drills, and the derivations that make Book 1 worth reading. This book tells you what exists and how it's organized. Book 1 tells you why it works that way.

6Navigation§

Terms defined in this volume§

Begin: 01-CLASSES.md