51°µÍø

Alberto Pastor is an Associate Professor of Spanish and General Linguistics at 51°µÍø in Dallas, TX. His research focuses on two main areas: Spanish syntax and Spanish sociolinguistics. In syntax, his work examines the syntax–semantics interface, with a particular emphasis on degree constructions in adjectival and nominal domains. In sociolinguistics, his research explores Spanish in the United States, addressing topics such as bilingual education, heritage Spanish and heritage speakers, language contact, language maintenance and loss, language ideologies and attitudes, and linguistic landscapes. His work has appeared in peer-reviewed journals including Natural Language and Linguistic Theory, Probus, Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics, Bilingual Research Journal, and Language and Education. He also served as guest editor for Spanish in the US: A Sociolinguistic Approach (Basel: MDPI Books Languages, 2025). In addition, he is an Associate Editor of the International Journal of the Linguistic Association of the Southwest (IJLASSO) and was a co-organizer of the 28th Spanish in the US Conference and the 13th Conference on Spanish in Contact with Other Languages (2023) at 51°µÍø, Dallas, TX.

View curriculum vitae

RESEARCH INTERESTS

• Spanish syntax
• Spanish sociolinguistics
• Spanish in the United States
• Heritage Spanish and heritage speakers
• Bilingual education
• Language contact
• Language maintenance and loss
• Language ideologies and attitudes
• Linguistic landscapes

PUBLICATIONS 

In-press. (Non)-pied-piping adjectival wh-comparatives in Spanish. In Howe, Chad et al. (Eds.), Theory, Data, and Practice: Selected papers of the 49th Linguistic Symposium of Romance Languages. Berlin: Language Science Press.  (With Luis Eguren). 

2025. Guest Editor. Spanish in the US: A Sociolinguistic Approach. Basel: MDPI Books. 

2025. Introduction to the Special Issue Spanish in the US: A Sociolinguistic Approach. Languages, 10(2), 24. https://doi.org/10.3390/languages/10020024 

2023.  Complexifying internal linguistic discrimination: bilingual Latinx teachers navigating Spanish language ideologies in bilingual programs, Language and Education, DOI: 10.1080/09500782.2023.2177106 (with Diego Roman & Katherine Ward).

2021. Ethnolinguistic Vitality and Linguistic Landscape. The status of Spanish in Dallas, Texas. In Gubitosi, Patricia & Michelle Ramos-Pellicia (Eds.) Linguistic Landscape in the Spanish-speaking World. Amsterdam: John Benjamins (Issues in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics series 35). 73-104.

2021. The basic inflectional structure of adjectives: degree and agreement. In Fábregas, Antonio et al. (Eds). The Routledge Handbook of Spanish Morphology. New York: Routledge Publishing Co. 152-162.

2021. Revision of Chapter 13. El adjetivo y el grupo adjetival. In the second edition of La Nueva Gramática de la Lengua Española, Real Academia Española. 

2020. Pied-piping in degree wh-clauses in Spanish. In Diego Pascual y Cabo &  Idoia Elola (Eds.), Current Theoretical and Applied Perspectives on Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics, 109-132. Amsterdam, John Benjamins. (with Luis Eguren)

2020. Co-editor of Cuadernos De Lingüística Hispánica (36) Special issue on: El español en los Estados Unidos y el español en contacto con otras lenguas. Selected papers from the 27th Conference on Spanish in the US and 12th Conference on Spanish in Contact with Other Languages. (With Antonio Medina-Rivera)

2019. Internal Linguistic Discrimination: A Survey of Bilingual Teachers’ Language Attitudes Towards Their Heritage Students’ Spanish. Bilingual Research Journal, 42:1, 6-30. (With Diego Román, Deni Basaraba)

2016. Una “buena” manera de hablar de grados: Bien con adjetivos en español. Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics, 9:2. 401-427. (With Grant Armstrong).

2016. Adjetivo. In Gutiérrez Rexach, Javier (Ed.), Enciclopedia de Lingüística Hispánica, New York: Routledge Publishing Co. 369-379

2015. Measure Phrases within the Nominal Domain in Spanish. In Smith, John & Tabea Ihsane (Eds.), Romance Language and Linguistic Theory 16: Selected Papers of the 42nd Linguistic Symposium of Romance Languages. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 289-301. (With Luis Eguren)

2014. Measure Phrases with Bare Adjectives in Spanish. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory. 32:1, 459-497. (With Luis Eguren)

2011. Degree modifiers, Definiteness, and Specificity. In Ortiz, L. (Ed), Selected Papers from the 13th Hispanic Linguistics Symposium. Somerville: Cascadilla Press. 325-336.

2011. Sobre las interferencias entre el grado, la (in)definitud y la (in)especificidad. Revista Española de Lingüística 41.2. 117-145.

2011. Relaciones predicativas en el interior de construcciones de grado adjetivas. In Cortázar, A. & Orozco, R. (Eds.), Lenguaje, arte y revoluciones ayer y hoy: New Approaches to Hispanic Linguistic, Literary, and Cultural Studies. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. 267-290

2008. Split Analysis of Gradable Adjectives in Spanish, Probus 20.2, 257-299.

2008. Sobre las construcciones consecutivas con adjetivos, Hispania 91.3, 676-689.

2008. La nuclearidad y las construcciones de grado adjetivas, Revista de Lingüística Teórica y Aplicada 46:1, 29-54.

COURSES TAUGHT

• SPAN 4301 Intro to Spanish Linguistics
• SPAN 4305 Spanish and Spanish Speakers in the US
• SPAN 4340 The Structure of Spanish
• SPAN 4342 Linguistic Variation in the Spanish-speaking World
• SPAN 4343 Principles of Second-Language Acquisition and Teaching
• SPAN 3375 Topics in Spanish-Speaking Communities in the United States
• SPAN 3359 Advanced Spanish for Heritage Speakers
• SPAN 2323 Intermediate Spanish for Heritage Speakers
• EDU 6321 Applied Linguistics