A project about the marker "se"

Introduction

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The Spanish marker "se" is one of the most used words in Spanish and yet one of the hardest for non-native speakers to use correctly. It can have over 12 different functions but traditional grammars and text-books refer to 'se' as a reflexive pronoun (= himself / herself / themselves). Cognitive linguists point out that the reflexive function is just one of many, and not the most common one. Most of the time 'se' is used as a middle voice with various functions: to signal self-benefit, a change of physical state, mental state or location, the unexpectedness of the action, among others. Often an action is marked with 'se' because the speaker is adding meaning to the utterance through that 'se', indicating unexpectedness, achievement or some other nuance. Other actions require 'se' and without it the sentence will sound odd to a native speaker (I am avoiding passing judgement on what is grammatically correct and what is not). The optional 'se' is very hard to master for language students, as it is seldom taught or explained. This is not surprising as it is difficult to explain and its use depends on how the speaker is conceptualizing the situation. 

 

To try to understand how 'se' is used, I have been studying how native Spanish speakers gesture with 'se' (Lopez-Ozieblo, 2018 and 2020). I believe that these gestures could help us to explain the various functions of 'se' to learners of Spanish. To test this idea, I am working with various teachers and academics to develop teaching material which is the backbone of  an online "se" course. We are proposing various studies to explore what works and what does not (more information on those projects coming soon). See below for examples taken from the course: 

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The "se" course 

 

This is a project for Spanish students who want to learn more about the use of "se". In Spanish we use the marker “se” very often, for example:

 

- ¿Cómo se llama? Se llama Pablo. (What is his name? His name is Pablo.)
- Se levanta a las ocho todos los días. (He gets up at eight every day.)
- Se vende piso. (Apartment for sale.)
- Se ven todos los días. (They see each other every day.)
- Pablo se queja (complain) por todo. (Pablo complains about everything.)
- Pablo no va a salir, se va a quedar en casa viendo la tele. (Pablo is not going out, he is going to stay at home watching TV.)
- Se comió toda la pizza él solo. (He ate all the pizza by himself.)
- Pablo se fue a su casa. (Pablo went home.)

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In these phrases "se" has different functions. Do you know what the phrases mean? Do you know why we use "se" in these cases?

In this online course, we will present the different uses of "se". Many Spanish speakers don't use “se” correctly, they don't know when to use it or how to use it. Many times the use of "se" is related to the viewpoint of the person who is speaking, that is why it is so difficult to use it correctly.

 

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