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2021/2022

Descriptive and Prescriptive Grammar: From Clause to Utterance

Code: 105824 ECTS Credits: 6
Degree Type Year Semester
2503998 Catalan Philology: Literary Studies and Linguistics FB 1 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:
Xavier Villalba Nicolás
Email:
Xavier.Villalba@uab.cat

Use of Languages

Principal working language:
catalan (cat)
Some groups entirely in English:
No
Some groups entirely in Catalan:
Yes
Some groups entirely in Spanish:
No

Prerequisites

None.

Objectives and Contextualisation

Provide the student with a solid knowledge of the functioning of syntax of the Catalan sentence, both from a descriptive and normative point of view.

Competences

  • Act with ethical responsibility and respect for fundamental rights, diversity and democratic values.
  • Analyse the phonetic, phonological, morphological, syntactic, lexical and semantic properties of the Catalan language, its evolution over time and its present structure.
  • Critically read and interpret texts.
  • Demonstrate a mastery of the rules of the Catalan language, its linguistic bases and all its application in the academic and professional fields.
  • Display teamwork skills.
  • Innovate in the methods and processes of this area of knowledge in response to the needs and wishes of society.
  • Interpret the political, social and cultural factors that affect the use of the Catalan language and its evolution over time and at the present day.
  • Produce written work and oral presentations that are effective and framed in the appropriate register.
  • Students must be capable of applying their knowledge to their work or vocation in a professional way and they should have building arguments and problem resolution skills within their area of study.
  • Students must be capable of collecting and interpreting relevant data (usually within their area of study) in order to make statements that reflect social, scientific or ethical relevant issues.
  • Students must be capable of communicating information, ideas, problems and solutions to both specialised and non-specialised audiences.
  • Students must develop the necessary learning skills to undertake further training with a high degree of autonomy.

Learning Outcomes

  1. Analyse linguistic structures.
  2. Analyse the most problematic phonetic, phonological, morphological, syntactic, lexical and semantic properties of the present-day language.
  3. Analyse the principles of lexical semantics that affect the internal structure of words and their syntactic combination.
  4. Analyse the syntactic structures of simple, complex, modalised and discursively marked clauses.
  5. Apply the principles of correctness required in the standard language and the different registers and variants.
  6. Correctly identify linguistic units.
  7. Describe the combinatory processes for creating linguistic units.
  8. Determine register types on the basis of phonology, morphology, syntax and semantics.
  9. Gain a greater capacity for reading, interpreting and critically analysing literary and linguistic texts.
  10. Identify causes of variation deriving from register.
  11. Identify principal and secondary ideas and express them using correct language.
  12. Identify the origin of errors made by non-native speakers when using the language.
  13. Identify the pragmatic factors that condition the use of the various linguistic structures .
  14. Interpret texts in depth and provide standpoints from which to analyse them critically.
  15. Make appropriate use of the knowledge acquired in order to collect data and handle documentary sources in the study of Catalan language and literature.
  16. Match the known internal and external properties of the language to the different conditions of use.
  17. Plan, organise and carry out work in a team.
  18. Produce normatively correct written and oral texts.
  19. Produce written work and oral presentations that are effective and framed in the appropriate register.
  20. Respect the opinions, values, behaviour and customs of others.
  21. Single out the grammatical and pragmatic factors that determine the overall interpretation of the clause.
  22. Students must be capable of applying their knowledge to their work or vocation in a professional way and they should have building arguments and problem resolution skills within their area of study.
  23. Troubleshoot errors made by non-native speakers when using the language.
  24. Use technological resources (digital and audiovisual) to acquire knowledge and apply it in language and literature.
  25. Work self-sufficiently on the synchronic and diachronic study of Catalan language and literature.
  26. Write text commentaries from a critical standpoint.

Content

  1. Descriptive and normative syntax
  2. Syntactic units and their structure
  3. The sentence
    1. Utterances, sentences and fragments
    2. Sentence structure
    3. Syntactic functions and positions in the structure
  4. The order of words
    1. Basic and marked word order
    2. Grammatically-based alterations of basic order
    3. Information-based alterations of basic order

Methodology

Learning activities are organized as follows:

1) Directed activities (40%)

2) Supervised activities (30%)

3) Autonomous activities (30%)

Annotation: Within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.

Activities

Title Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Type: Directed      
Lectures 39 1.56 16, 3, 1, 4, 7, 8, 21, 6, 13, 12, 10, 20, 23
Text discussion and problem analysis at class 15 0.6 16, 3, 1, 4, 2, 5, 7, 8, 21, 6, 13, 12, 10, 20, 22, 23
Type: Supervised      
Essay 35 1.4 15, 19, 11, 20, 17, 18, 25, 24
Exercises 10 0.4 1, 15, 5, 7, 19, 6, 11, 22, 26, 25, 24
Type: Autonomous      
Reading 15 0.6 15, 11, 14, 9, 26
Study 30 1.2 15, 14, 9, 25

Assessment

The evaluation is continuous. Students must provide evidence of their progress by completing assignments and tests.

To pass the course you must obtain a minimum grade of 5.

The detailed calendar with the content of the different sessions will be exposed on the day of presentation of the subject. It will also be posted on the Virtual Campus, where students can find a detailed description of the exercises and practices, the various teaching materials and any information necessary for the proper monitoring of the subject. In the event that the tests cannot be carried out in person, their format will be adapted (maintaining their weighting) to the possibilities offered by the UAB virtual tools. Homework, activities and participation in class will be done through forums, wikis / or exercise discussions through Teams, ensuring that all students can access it.

In the event that the student commits any irregularity that may lead to a significant variation in the grade of an assessment act, this assessment act will be graded with 0, regardless of the disciplinary process that may be instructed. In the event of several irregularities in the evaluation acts of the same subject, the final grade for this subject will be 0.

Review
By submitting the final grades before incorporating them into the student's transcripts, the teacher will post a date and time on the Virtual Campus to review the assessment activities. Students must arrange the review in agreement with the teacher.

Failed students may recover suspended assessment activities or compensate for those not submitted, provided they meet the following two conditions. First of all,they have completed assessable items corresponding to two thirds of the total grade of the course or module; second, they must have obtained a weighted average grade of the set of assessable items of at least 3.5. Neither the partial test, nor the complementary activity nor group deliveries can be re-evaluated. The maximum grade for recovery is 5.

The teacher will inform the students of the recovery procedure through the Virtual Campus when he / she publishes the provisional final grades. Theteacher will be able to establish an evaluation activity for each activity passed or not presented or a single activity to cover all these activities.

Students will obtain a “Not assessed/Not submitted” course grade unless they have submitted at least a 30% of the assessment items.

Assessment Activities

Title Weighting Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Complementary activity 10% 0.5 0.02 11, 14, 9, 22, 26
Delivery of individual and group exercises 35% 2 0.08 1, 4, 2, 15, 5, 7, 8, 21, 19, 6, 13, 12, 11, 14, 20, 17, 9, 18, 22, 26, 23, 25, 24
Final written test 40% 2 0.08 16, 3, 1, 4, 2, 7, 8, 21, 6, 13, 10, 11, 22
Partial written test 15% 1.5 0.06 16, 3, 4, 15, 19, 11, 14, 20, 17, 9, 18, 25, 24

Bibliography

 

Institut d’Estudis Catalans. 2016. Gramàtica de la llengua catalana. Institut d’Estudis Catalans.

Joan Solà, Maria Rosa Lloret, Joan Mascaró & Manuel Pérez Saldanya (eds.), Gramàtica del Català Contemporani. Barcelona: Empúries.

 

Descriptive and normative syntax

Pérez Saldanya, Manuel & Gemma Rigau. 2018. La Gramàtica de la llengua catalana de l’Institut d’Estudis Catalans. Llengua & Literatura 28. 227–236.

Rigau, Gemma. 2018. Norma i descripció gramatical. Barcelona: Institut d’Estudis Catalans. Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzLW156CycI

 

Syntactic units and their structure

Bosque, Ignacio & Javier Gutiérrez-Rexach. 2009. Fundamentos de sintaxis formal. Lingüística. Madrid: Akal. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13398-014-0173-7.2. cap. 3. Las palabras y los sintagmas I: la estructura de los constituyentes.

 

The sentence

Bel, Aurora. 2008. Les funcions sintàctiques. In Joan Solà, Maria Rosa Lloret, Joan Mascaró & Manuel Pérez Saldanya (eds.), Gramàtica del Català Contemporani, vol. 2, 1075–1147. Barcelona: Empúries.

Bosque, Ignacio & Javier Gutiérrez-Rexach. 2009. Fundamentos de sintaxis formal. Lingüística. Madrid: Akal. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13398-014-0173-7.2. sec. 4.1-4.2.

 

Word order

Vallduví, Enric. 2008. L’oració com a unitat informativa. In Joan Solà, Maria Rosa Lloret, Joan Mascaró & Manuel Pérez Saldanya (eds.), Gramàtica del Català Contemporani, vol. 2, 1223–1279. Barcelona: Empúries.

Villalba, Xavier. 2019. El orden de palabras en contraste. Madrid: Arco/Libros.

Software

None.