THE CONSTRUCTION

OF PHRASE AND HARMONY

G ONZALO MARTIN VIVALDI1

We have said that, in Spanish, the construction of the sentence is not subject to fixed rules,
but rather enjoys freedom and flexibility, and that the order of the words is governed more
by psychological interest than by the grammatical-syntactic structure; Therefore, apart from
the studied rules of syntactic and logical construction, it is now convenient to take into
account the rules concerning the harmony of the sentence.

First rule: Give priority to the shortest complement.

EXAMPLE: "Correct your writings with the utmost attention", instead of "Correct,
with the utmost attention, your writings."
The student will observe that, in this case, the rule of harmony has coincided with the
syntactic order of the sentence, since we have placed immediately after the verb "correct",
the direct object, "your writings".

Exercises
According to this rule, correct the following sentences by writing them again. Do not
alter the phrases you think are correct:

1. Correct any errors you may have had in your writings with the utmost attention.
2. Isabel I of Castile gave examples of great fortitude of mind to the Spanish.
3. This book has a series of very interesting examples in its pages.
4. My father bought a very elegant racing car from Luis.
5. The woodcutter cut a huge and voluminous oak trunk in fifteen minutes.

Second rule (complement to the previous one): You should not end a sentence with the
shortest expression.

EXAMPLE: "I have classified all the stamps you gave me by country", instead of: "I
have classified all the stamps you gave me by country."
 Exercises
According to this rule, correct the following sentences by writing them again:
1. He told him not to enter the warden's house.
2. He has become rich: he is one of the great fortunes of the city today.
3. I'm in a hurry: my wife is waiting for me to go to the theater at seven.
4. In the distance, the sea; and , on the blue surface of the waters, the "snipes" could be
seen.
5. I have studied the entire orography of the country by region.

Third rule: Avoid cacophony, monotony, useless repetitions, assonances and consonances.
a) Cacophony: Unpleasant repetition of the same or similar sounds.
EXAMPLE: The scorching rigor of the heat caused me great pain.
b) Monotony: Frequent use of very few words; vocabulary poverty.
EXAMPLE: "I TAKE CARE OF my children. OF the beauties of Don Quixote, OF
hunting, OF politics...,". The appropriate and correct thing - to avoid all these
prepositions OF, so repeated - is to say: "I TAKE CARE OF my children, I STUDY
the beauties of Don Quixote. DIPPER . I DEDICATE myself to politics...".
c) Repetitions:
d) Assonances and consonances: Prose has its rhythm; but assonances and
consonances must be avoided in it, that is, what is called "rhyme" in verse. Short,
almost symmetrical rhythmic periods "that sound like verse" must also be avoided
in prose.
EXAMPLE OF CONSONANCE: "A harmonious SOUND reached my EAR ."
VERSE RHYTHM EXAMPLE: "The hidden birds chirped - in the dark tops of the
trees." (Inclan Valley)
Another example from Valle Inclán when, in "Autumn Sonata", he writes, in prose,
the following rhythmic stanza, with assonances: "the voice of an old man - who
sang a song - and the wheel of a mill - resonated behind."2

Exercises
In the following sentences, underline cacophonies, elements that produce monotony,
and assonances. Separate the periods with verse rhythm with slashes (/).
1. Carmen's wheelbarrow did not fit in the cabin.
2. It is sad to think that Pedrito does not perceive the danger of playing ball in the
street.
3. According to you, I should not support Luis, because he has surely made a mistake
when selecting his seed tests.
4. Anyone can become a great man, without being endowed with great talent or
superior ingenuity, as long as he has sound judgment and a well-organized head.
 5. There is natural talent and acquired talent; talent for the sciences and talent for the
arts. And also the talent to live without hitting.
6. To relieve the taxpayer, it is necessary to make big cuts and big reductions in
budgets; and it is also convenient to give the people great facilities for trade and for
the founding of large industries.
7. "Seeing her discussing the conditions of a racehorse, you didn't know if she was a
leather-scratched lady, or an adventurer." (Valle Inclán: "Sandalwood Chest".)
8. "On the golden afternoons, walking in the sunshine and during the long nights,
under the tremor of the spilling candle." (Valle Inclán: "The Carlist War".)
9. "With how much pain now, pious things, I leave you to make the place where I was
born old and sad!" (From Ricardo León.)
10. "Before I left, I felt a breath of terror pass over my forehead." (From Ricardo León,
in "Sentimental Comedy".)
For Albalat, harmony lies "in the musical sense of words and phrases and in the art
of combining them in a way that is pleasant to the ear."

There is no doubt that, compared to those who maintain that everyone writes as they
want (impressionist romanticism), it remains true that harmony is the great secret of great
writers, an essential quality of the art of writing. Our Cervantes is a good example of this.
And as a demonstration, just reread D.'s speech. Don Quixote to the goatherds (ch. XI of
part I of the immortal work), where the depth of thought is expressed in phrases of clean
and musical harmony:

...In the cracks of the rocks and in the hollows of the trees, the solicitous
and discreet bees formed their republic, offering to any hand, without any
interest, the fertile harvest of their sweetest work...
Everything was peace then, all friendship, all concord; The heavy share of
the curved plow had not yet dared to open or visit the pious bowels of our
first Mother, who, without being forced, offered in all parts of her fertile
and spacious womb what could satisfy, sustain and delight her. the
children who then owned it.

Harmony - according to Albalat - is based on the genius of the language, on the

demands of the ear, which also has its taste as the imagination has its own.

And from this author is the rule that we give below:

"You must abstain from all harshness in sound, from all stumbles, from all marked
dissonance, unless, to maintain these sounds or words, there are reasons of relief,
originality or other reasons of literary beauty."
EXAMPLE: "... And ecstatic before you I dare to speak to you." (Espronceda)
In this now classic verse, the poet has consciously repeated the sounds in "t". It's a
voluntary effect, dear: what, in Preceptiva Literaria, is called "alliteration."
On the other hand, the following expression is unsightly:
"No; there is nothing that Narbonne does not deny when we deny it"
1
Gonzalo Martín Vivaldi: “The construction of the sentence and harmony”, Writing course . Editorial Pueblo y Educación,
Havana. 1980, pp. 213-216.
2
Examples cited by Julio Caceres in his work “Profane Criticism”