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2020/2021

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
The proposed teaching and assessment methodology that appear in the guide may be subject to changes as a result of the restrictions to face-to-face class attendance imposed by the health authorities.

Contact

Name:
Susagna Tubau Muntaņa
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 Llinās Grau

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 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

  1. Analysing the structural components of a sentence in English, apart from knowing the lexical correspondences between the different components.
  2. Apply the conceptual and theoretical foundations that are required in order to carry out an explanatory syntactic analysis of a sentence.
  3. Applying the acquired methodologies of work planning to work in an environment in the English language.
  4. Applying the acquired scientific and work planning methodologies to the research in English.
  5. Applying the conceptual and theoretical foundations that are required in order to carry out an explanatory syntactic analysis of a sentence.
  6. Applying the information in English that is available on the Internet, in databases, etc. to the work and/or research environments.
  7. Communicating in the studied language in oral and written form, properly using vocabulary and grammar.
  8. Effectively communicating and applying the argumentative and textual processes to formal and scientific texts.
  9. Issue appropriate critical assessments based on the comprehension of relevant information about social, scientific or ethical issues related to linguistics.
  10. Locating and organising relevant information in English that is available on the Internet, in databases, etc.
  11. Use 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.
  12. 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 and their role in the structure of simple sentences in English

 

Methodology

Directed activities:

Lectures with IT support and group debate.

 

Supervised activities:

Exercises.

Back-up tutorials to help in the realisation of exercises.

 

Autonomous activities:

Reading of manuals, textbooks and handouts.

Elaboration of study diagrams, summaries and texts.

Practical exercises (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, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 7, 10, 12
Type: Supervised      
In-class exercises and individual tutorials 25 1 1, 5, 6, 8, 7, 10, 12
Type: Autonomous      
Reading, revision, exercises, and use of Moodle 50 2 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9, 8, 7, 10

Assessment

  • This course is assessed through 2 partial exams (35% Test 1 and 40% Test 2), an assignment (20%) and the self-correction exercises (5%).
  • The dates of tests and submissions are specified in the course calendar, published in Moodle at the beginning of the semester. Any change will be duly announced.
  • Students will obtain a Not assessed/Not submitted course grade unless they have submitted more than 35% of the assessment items.
  • In case of absence on the day of an exam (e.g. due to illness) students must provide a certificate to justify their absence to gain the right to re-assessment.
  • In the event of a student committing any irregularity that may lead to a significant variation in the grade awarded to an assessment activity, the student will be given a zero for this activity, regardless of any disciplinary process that may take place. In the event of several irregularities in assessment activities of the same subject, the student will be given a zero as the final grade for this subject.
  • In the event that tests or exams cannot be taken onsite, they will be adapted to an online format made available through the UAB’s virtual tools (original weighting will be maintained). Homework, activities and class participation will be carried out through forums, wikis and/or discussion on Teams, etc. Lecturers will ensure that students are able to access these virtual tools, or will offer them feasible alternatives.

Review of assessment items:

On carrying out each assessment 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.

Re-assessment:

Re-assessment for this course will involve a final summative test (date and time to be announced by the Faculty) which will cover all course content with the following conditions:

  • The student must have obtained a minimum course mark of 3.5/10.
  • The student must have taken/submitted all assessment items (THIS INCLUDES SELF-CORRECTION EXERCISES).
  • The student must have passed at least 35% of the course.
  • The final course mark if the student passes the re-assessment test is 5. Students cannot re-assess to improve their course mark.

VERY IMPORTANT: Total or partial plagiarism of any of the exercises will automatically be considered "fail" (0) for the plagiarised exercise. If plagiarism occurs for a second time, the entire course will be failed. PLAGIARISM is copying one or more sentences from unidentified sources, presenting it as original work (THIS INCLUDES COPYING PHRASES OR FRAGMENTS FROM THE INTERNET AND ADDING THEM WITHOUT MODIFICATION TO A TEXT WHICH IS PRESENTED AS ORIGINAL). Plagiarism is a serious offense. Students must learn to respect the intellectual property of others, identifying any source they may use, and take responsibility for the originality and authenticity of the texts they produce.

 

 

Assessment Activities

Title Weighting Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Assignment 20% 6 0.24 1, 3, 4, 5, 2, 6, 8, 7, 10, 12, 11
Partial exam 1 35% 7 0.28 1, 3, 4, 5, 2, 6, 9, 8, 7, 10, 12, 11
Partial exam 2 40% 7 0.28 1, 3, 4, 5, 2, 6, 9, 8, 7, 10, 12, 11
Self-correction practical exercises 5% 5 0.2 1, 3, 4, 5, 2, 6, 9, 8, 7, 10, 12, 11

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.