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Lexis and Grammar

Code: 105827 ECTS Credits: 6
2024/2025
Degree Type Year
2503998 Catalan Philology: Literary Studies and Linguistics OB 2
2504380 English and Catalan Studies OB 2
2504388 Catalan and Spanish Studies OB 2

Contact

Name:
Jaume Mateu Fontanals
Email:
jaume.mateu@uab.cat

Teaching groups languages

You can view this information at the end of this document.


Prerequisites

It is required for the students to have an excellent oral and written command of the Catalan language and it is also necessary for them to master the associated prescriptive grammar.
 
It is also important for the students to be acquainted with the contents of lexical morphology (word formation) and basic syntax, which were dealt with during the first-year subjects devoted to descriptive grammar.

Objectives and Contextualisation

The subject of Lexis and Grammar consists of the study of the relations between the lexicon and the syntax of Catalan. This course is part of the set of compulsory subjects included in "Catalan language: synchrony and diachrony".
 
MAIN GOALS:
  • to be capable of analyzing basic syntactic structures
  • to be capable of relating the properties of the lexicon with the form of syntactic structures
  • to be capable of distinguishing which aspects of lexical meaning are relevant to grammar and which are not
  • to be capable of analyzing the syntactic and semantic properties of different types of predicates and argument structures
  • to be capable of analyzing the syntactic and semantic properties of idioms and other lexicalized expressions of Catalan
  • to be capable of analyzing the syntactic and semantic properties of word formation (derivation and compounding) of Catalan
  • to be capable of distinguishing, by using a lexical theory, which words are (im)possible

Competences

    Catalan Philology: Literary Studies and Linguistics
  • 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.
  • Assess gender inequalities when acting in this field of knowledge.
  • 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.
  • Innovate in the methods and processes of this area of knowledge in response to the needs and wishes of society.
  • Produce written work and oral presentations that are effective and framed in the appropriate register.
  • 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.
    English and Catalan Studies
  • Act in one's own field of knowledge evaluating inequalities based on sex/gender.
  • Act with ethical responsibility and respect for fundamental rights and duties, diversity and democratic values.
  • Analyse the main phonetic, phonological, morphological, syntactic, lexical and semantic properties of the Catalan and English languages, their evolution throughout history and their current structures.
  • Apply scientific ethical principles to information processing.
  • Carry out effective written work or oral presentations adapted to the appropriate register in different languages.
  • Critically apply the different instruments of analysis to different types of linguistic data.
  • Demonstrate knowledge of the rules of Catalan and mastery of its foundations and applications in the academic and professional fields.
  • Demonstrate the ability to work autonomously and in teams with the aim of attaining the planned objectives in multicultural and interdisciplinary contexts.
  • 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 in order to undertake further training with a high degree of autonomy.
  • Use digital tools and specific documentary sources to gather and organise information.
    Catalan and Spanish Studies
  • Act with ethical responsibility and respect for fundamental rights and duties, diversity and democratic values.
  • Analyse the main phonetic, phonological, morphological, syntactic, lexical and semantic properties of the Catalan and Spanish languages, their historical evolution and their current structure.
  • Carry out effective written work or oral presentations adapted to the appropriate register in different languages.
  • Demonstrate knowledge of the rules of Catalan and Spanish and mastery of their applications in the academic and professional fields.
  • Students must develop the necessary learning skills in order to undertake further training with a high degree of autonomy.
  • Take sex- or gender-based inequalities into consideration when operating within one's own area of knowledge.

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 various types of linguistic data.
  5. Analyze linguistic structures.
  6. Analyze properties phonetic, phonological, morphological, syntactic, lexical and semantic language that current problems arise.
  7. Analyzing linguistic structures.
  8. Apply the principles of correctness required in the standard language and the different registers and variants.
  9. Correctly identify linguistic units.
  10. Describe the combinatory processes for creating linguistic units.
  11. Describe the process of creating combinatorial linguistic units.
  12. Distinguish between grammatical gender and natural gender.
  13. Gain a greater capacity for reading, interpreting and critically analysing literary and linguistic texts.
  14. Identify and describe the processes of inflection, derivation, composition and lexicalisation.
  15. Identify principal and secondary ideas and express them using correct language.
  16. Identify the constituents of a word and the levels at which they operate.
  17. Identify the main and secondary ideas and express them with linguistic correctness.
  18. Identifying the main and secondary ideas and expressing them with linguistic correctness.
  19. Incorporate ideas and concepts from published sources into work, citing and referencing appropriately.
  20. Interpret texts in depth and provide standpoints from which to analyse them critically.
  21. Locate specialised and academic information and select this according to its relevance.
  22. Maintain an attitude of respect for the opinions, values, behaviors and practices of others.
  23. Make appropriate use of the knowledge acquired in order to collect data and handle documentary sources in the study of Catalan language and literature.
  24. Plan work effectively, individually or in groups, in order to fulfil the planned objectives.
  25. Produce normatively correct written and oral texts.
  26. Produce written and oral texts with correction rules.
  27. Produce written work and oral presentations that are effective and framed in the appropriate register.
  28. Properly apply the knowledge gained to data collection and management of documentary sources application to the study of Catalan language and literature.
  29. Respect the opinions, values, behaviour and customs of others.
  30. Strengthen the capacity of reading, interpretation and critical analysis of literary texts and language.
  31. Use technological resources (digital and audiovisual) to acquire knowledge and apply it in language and literature.
  32. Work independently in the synchronic and diachronic study of Catalan language and literature.
  33. Work self-sufficiently on the synchronic and diachronic study of Catalan language and literature.
  34. Write text commentaries from a critical standpoint.

Content

According to the set of subjects included in "Catalan language: synchrony and diachrony", the contents to be dealt with in the Lexis and Grammar subject are the following ones:
 
o Syntax as a projection from the lexicon
o Categorial selection and semantic selection
o Argument structure and types of predicates
o Lexical aspect and grammatical aspect
o Syntactic and semantic properties of derivation and compounding
 

Activities and Methodology

Title Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Type: Directed      
Classroom practice 17 0.68 3, 1, 2, 23, 10, 12, 27, 14, 15, 20, 29, 13, 34, 33
Lectures 35 1.4 3, 1, 2, 23, 10, 14, 15, 20, 29, 13
Type: Supervised      
Discussion of texts from bibliography and resolution of exercises 19 0.76 3, 1, 2, 23, 10, 12, 14, 15, 20, 29, 13
Type: Autonomous      
Study of lecture notes and bibliography 40 1.6 3, 1, 2, 23, 10, 12, 27, 14, 15, 20, 29, 13, 34, 33, 31

There will be a combination of lectures with some exercises, discussion, and analyses of phenomena.

Students will find all information on the Virtual Campus: the description of the activities, teaching materials, and any necessary information for the proper follow-up of the subject. In case of a change of teaching modality for health reasons, teachers will make readjustments in the schedule and methodologies.

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

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.


Assessment

Continous Assessment Activities

Title Weighting Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Essay on an article 20% 17 0.68 4, 3, 1, 7, 2, 6, 23, 28, 8, 10, 12, 27, 14, 15, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 29, 24, 13, 30, 26, 25, 34, 33, 32, 31
Final exam 50% 1.5 0.06 4, 3, 1, 5, 7, 2, 6, 8, 10, 11, 27, 9, 16, 14, 15, 20, 13, 26, 25, 34, 33, 31
Lexical-grammatical analysis exercises 20% 17 0.68 3, 1, 2, 23, 10, 12, 27, 14, 15, 20, 29, 13, 34, 33, 31
Other complementary activities 10% 3.5 0.14 29, 31

Continuous assessment will be based on the following activities:

(a) Final exam: 50%

(b) Lexicogrammatical analysis exercises: 20%

(c) Home written essay: 20%

(d) Other complementary activities: 10%

 

Non-continuous assessment  will be based on the following activities:

(a) Final exam: 50%

(b) Lexicogrammatical analysis exercises: 25%

(c) Oral test: 25%. 

For the student to be able to do the re-assessment ("recuperació"), these two conditions are required: (i) having obtained an average overall grade equal to or higher than 3.5 and (ii) having being assessed wrt 2/3 parts of the subject. The maximum overall grade to be obtained from the re-assessment test is 5. Activities (c) and (d) of continuous assessment or activity (c) of non-continuous assessment are excluded from re-assessment. 

The minimum grade for one to be able to pass the course is 5 and a minimum of 4 must be obtained from each activity.

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

In case some tests or exams cannot be carried out on-site, these will be adapted to an online format made available through the UAB’s virtual tools (e.g. Teams). Original weighting will be maintained. 


Bibliography

Bosque, Ignacio. (1989/20152). Las categorías gramaticales. Madrid: Síntesis.

Bosque, Ignacio and Javier Gutiérrez-Rexach (2009). Fundamentos de sintaxis formal. [chap. 5 “Léxico y sintaxis” & chap. 6 "Sujetos y objetos"]. Madrid: Akal.

De Miguel, Elena (ed.). (2009). Panorama de la lexicología. Barcelona: Ariel Letras.

Espinal, M. Teresa and Jaume Mateu (2005). “La llengua a les frases fetes”. Articles de Didàctica de la Llengua i de la Literatura 36: 20−31.

Ginebra,Jordi and Pere Navarro (2015). “Concurrències lèxiques en català i en espanyol: uns quants contrastos.” In À. Martín Escribà et al. (eds.). Actes del Setzè Col·loqui Internacional de Llengua i Literatura Catalanes. Universitat de Salamanca, 1–6 de juliol de 2012, vol. 2, pp. 217−228.  Barcelona: Publicacions de l’Abadia de Montserrat.

Gràcia, Lluïsa (1994). Morfologia lèxica. L’herència de l’estructura argumental. Col·lecció Biblioteca Lingüística Catalana. Universitat de València.

Institut d’Estudis Catalans (2016). Gramàtica de la llengua catalana [chap. 13 "Sintaxi: conceptes bàsics"; chap. 21 "La predicació verbal"; chap. 22 "La predicació no verbal"]. Barcelona: Institut d'Estudis Catalans.

Institut d'Estudis Catalans (2018). Gramàtica essencial de la llengua catalana [https://geiec.iec.cat/]. Barcelona: Institut d'Estudis Catalans. 

Mateu, Jaume (2002). “Lexicologia II. L’estructura semàntica de les unitats lèxiques”. In M.Teresa Espinal (coord.). Semàntica. Del significat del mot al significat de l’oració, pp. 139-182. Barcelona: Ariel Lingüística.

Mateu, Jaume (2020). “Lexicalized Syntax: Phraseology". In Joan A. Argenter and Jens Lüdtke (eds.). Manual of Catalan Linguistics. Berlin: De Gruyter. 

Morimoto, Yuko (20172). El aspecto léxico: delimitación. Madrid: Arco Libros.

Pustejovsky, James and Olga Batiukova (2019). The Lexicon. Series: Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Rosselló, Joana (20082). “El SV: verb i arguments verbals”. In Joan Solà et al. (dir.). Gramàtica del català contemporani. Chap. 13, vol. 2. Barcelona: Empúries.


Software

None. 


Language list

Name Group Language Semester Turn
(PAUL) Classroom practices 1 Catalan first semester morning-mixed
(TE) Theory 1 Catalan first semester morning-mixed