English Syntax
Code: 100223 ECTS Credits: 6| Degree | Type | Year | Semester |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2500245 English Studies | OB | 2 | 2 |
| 2501902 English and Catalan | OB | 3 | 2 |
| 2501907 English and Classics | OB | 3 | 2 |
| 2501910 English and Spanish | OB | 3 | 2 |
| 2501913 English and French | OB | 3 | 2 |
Contact
- Name:
- Susagna Tubau Muntaña
- Email:
- Susagna.Tubau@uab.cat
Use of Languages
- Principal working language:
- english (eng)
- Some groups entirely in English:
- Yes
- Some groups entirely in Catalan:
- No
- Some groups entirely in Spanish:
- No
Teachers
- Mireia Llinàs Grau
- Elisabet Pladevall Ballester
Prerequisites
A level of English between C1 (advanced) and C2 (Proficiency) of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment is required. With C1 the student can understand a wide variety of long and complex texts and recognise their implicit meanings; express himself/herself fluently and spontaneously without having to look for words and expressions in an obvious way; use language flexibly and efficiently for social, academic and professional purposes; produce clear, well organised and thorough texts on complex topics, showing a controlled use of linkers and organisation and cohesion devices. With C2 the student can straightforwardly understand practically everything s/he reads or hears, summarise information from different oral and written sources, reconstruct facts and arguments and present them in a coherent way, express himself/herself naturally and fluently, distinguishing subtle meaning nuances even in the most complex situations.
The English grammar notions covered in the first-year course Descriptive Grammar (100257) are taken for granted.
Objectives and Contextualisation
- Recognise the various existing grammatical categories and their features.
- Be able to analyse the structure of English simple sentences.
- Identify null constituents and movement operations.
- Evaluate different analysis proposals with syntactic arguments.
Competences
- English Studies
- Describe synchronously the main grammar units, constructions and phenomena of the English language.
- Students have the ability to gather and interpret relevant data (normally within their study area) to issue judgments that include reflection on important issues of social, scientific or ethical.
- Students must be capable of communicating information, ideas, problems and solutions to both specialised and non-specialised audiences.
- Utilising new technologies in order to capture and organise information in English and other languages, and applying it to the personal continued training and to the problem-solving in the professional or research activity.
- Working in an autonomous and responsible way in a professional or research environment in English or other languages, in order to accomplish the previously set objectives.
- English and Catalan
- Describe synchronously the main grammar units, constructions and phenomena of the English language.
- Students have the ability to gather and interpret relevant data (normally within their study area) to issue judgments that include reflection on important issues of social, scientific or ethical.
- Students must be capable of communicating information, ideas, problems and solutions to both specialised and non-specialised audiences.
- English and Classics
- Describe synchronously the main grammar units, constructions and phenomena of the English language.
- Students have the ability to gather and interpret relevant data (normally within their study area) to issue judgments that include reflection on important issues of social, scientific or ethical.
- Students must be capable of communicating information, ideas, problems and solutions to both specialised and non-specialised audiences.
- English and Spanish
- Describe synchronously the main grammar units, constructions and phenomena of the English language.
- Students have the ability to gather and interpret relevant data (normally within their study area) to issue judgments that include reflection on important issues of social, scientific or ethical.
- Students must be capable of communicating information, ideas, problems and solutions to both specialised and non-specialised audiences.
- English and French
- Describe synchronously the main grammar units, constructions and phenomena of the English language.
- Students have the ability to gather and interpret relevant data (normally within their study area) to issue judgments that include reflection on important issues of social, scientific or ethical.
- Students must be capable of communicating information, ideas, problems and solutions to both specialised and non-specialised audiences.
Learning Outcomes
- Analysing the structural components of a sentence in English, apart from knowing the lexical correspondences between the different components.
- Applying the acquired methodologies of work planning to work in an environment in the English language.
- Applying the acquired scientific and work planning methodologies to the research in English.
- Applying the conceptual and theoretical foundations that are required in order to carry out an explanatory syntactic analysis of a sentence.
- Applying the information in English that is available on the Internet, in databases, etc. to the work and/or research environments.
- Communicating in the studied language in oral and written form, properly using vocabulary and grammar.
- Effectively communicating and applying the argumentative and textual processes to formal and scientific texts.
- Issue appropriate critical assessments based on the comprehension of relevant information about social, scientific or ethical issues related to linguistics.
- Locating and organising relevant information in English that is available on the Internet, in databases, etc.
- Using the most important syntactical arguments to distinguish the different components of a sentence in English, and applying them to other branches of linguistics such as phonology, morphology or semantics.
Content
UNIT 1. Objectives, assumptions and introductory concepts
UNIT 2. Morphosyntactic features
UNIT 3. Constituency, theta roles, and representing phrase structure
UNIT 4. Functional categories: I-TP
Methodology
Directed activities:
Lectures with IT support and group debate.
Supervised activities:
Exercises and projects.
Back-up tutorials to help in the realisation of exercises and projects.
Autonomous activities:
Reading of manuals, textbooks and handouts.
Elaboration of study diagrams, summaries and texts.
Practical exercises (individual and in group).
Projects (individual and in group).
Use of the Virtual Campus (Moodle).
Activities
| Title | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Type: Directed | |||
| Lectures and group debate | 50 | 2 | 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 6, 9, 10 |
| Type: Supervised | |||
| In-class exercises and individual tutorials | 25 | 1 | 1, 4, 5, 7, 6, 9, 10 |
| Type: Autonomous | |||
| Reading, revision, exercises, projects and use of Moodle | 50 | 2 | 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 7, 6, 9 |
Assessment
ASSESSMENT
The assessment for this course has three parts: two tests (Partial exam 1, 35%, and Partial exam 2, 40%), two assignments (Assignment 1 and Assignment 2, 10% each) and self-correction exercises (5%).
For a student to be considered No avaluable s/he must have only submitted/sat one Assignment and one Partial exam, at most.
PROCEDURE FOR REVIEWING GRADES AWARDED
On carrying out each evaluation activity, lecturers will inform students (on Moodle) of the procedures to be followed for reviewing all grades awarded and the date on which such a review will take place.
EVALUATION ACTIVITIES EXCLUDED FROM REASSESSMENT
The following activites are not eligible for reassessment:
-Assignment 1
-Assignment 2
-Self-correction exercises
REASSESSMENT
Students with a final mark of at least 3.5/10 that have fully completed all assessment items (this includes the self-correction practical exercises!) and that have passed at least 45% of the course are entitled to sit the reassessment exam. For the final grade, all assessment items are taken into account (according to the percentages specified above). The reassessment test is a written exam to be sat at the time assigned by the Faculty and which covers the contents of the entire course. The reassessment mark is 5/10 at most. Specific exercises cannot be reassessed (unless students missed them for justified reasons). Reassessment cannot be used to obtain a higher final course grade.
VERY IMPORTANT: Plagiarism in any of the exercises will automatically lead to FAILING (0/10) the exercise, which cannot be reassessed. If the student plagiarises a second time, s/he will failthe course. PLAGIARISM means copying a text (and this includes asingle sentence) from unidentified sources and pretending it is part of one's own production (THIS INCLUDES COPYING SENTENCES OR FRAGMENTS FROM THE INTERNET, WHICH ARE INCLUDED WITHOUT ANY CHANGES TO THE TEXT THAT IS PRESENTED AS ONE'S OWN) and it is a serious academic offence. Students must learn to respect others' intellectual property and to always identify the sources they use. It is absolutely necessary for students to become entirely responsible for theoriginality and authenticity of their texts.
Assessment Activities
| Title | Weighting | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Assignment 1 (early March) | 10% | 3 | 0.12 | 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 6, 9, 10 |
| Assignment 2 (early May) | 10% | 3 | 0.12 | 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 6, 9, 10 |
| Partial exam 1 (beginning of April) | 35% | 7 | 0.28 | 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 6, 9, 10 |
| Partial exam 2 (end of May) | 40% | 7 | 0.28 | 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 7, 6, 9, 10 |
| Practical exercises (during the course) | 5% | 5 | 0.2 | 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 9, 10 |
Bibliography
Aarts, Bas. 1997. English Syntax and Argumentation. London: MacMillan.
Adger, David. 2003. Core Syntax. A Minimalist Approach. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Carnie, Andrew. 2011. Modern Syntax: A Coursebook. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Haegeman, Liliane. 1991. Introduction to Government and Binding Theory. Oxford: Blackwell.
Haegeman , Liliane & Jacqueline Guéron. 1999. English Grammar. A Generative Perspective. Oxford: Blackwell.
Haegeman, Liliane. 2005. Thinking Syntactically. Oxford: Blackwell.
Llinàs, Mireia, Capdevila, Montserrat, Dominguez, Joaquín, Moyer, Melissa, Pladevall, Elisabet, and Susagna Tubau. 2014. [SECOND EDITION]. Basic concepts for the analysis of English sentences. Bellaterra: Servei de Publicacions.
Newson, Mark, Hordós, Marianna, Pap, Dániel, Szécsényi, Krisztina, Tóth, Gabriella, and Veronika Vincze. 2006. Basic English Syntax with Exercises. http://mek.oszk.hu/05400/05476/05476.pdf
Radford, Andrew. 2016. Analysing English Sentences, Cambridge University Press.
Roberts, Ian. 1997. Comparative Syntax. London: Arnold.