Advanced English Syntactic Analysis
Code: 106315 ECTS Credits: 6| Degree | Type | Year |
|---|---|---|
| 2504212 English Studies | OT | 3 |
| 2504212 English Studies | OT | 4 |
Contact
- Name:
- Susagna Tubau Muntaña
- Email:
- susagna.tubau@uab.cat
Teaching groups languages
You can view this information at the end of this document.
Prerequisites
English level required: C2. With C2 the student can straightforwardly understand practically everything they read or hear, summarise information from different oral and written sources, reconstruct facts and arguments and present them in a coherent way, express themselves naturally and fluently, distinguishing subtle meaning nuances even in the most complex situations.
Knowledge of basic syntactic notions as the ones covered in the course 'Syntactic Analysis of English' is taken for granted.
Objectives and Contextualisation
Achieve an advanced understanding of the structure of English sentences and the grammatical elements these are made of.
Recognize the operations and processes that underlie characteristic constructions in English such as different types of questions, non-finite clauses, sentences including expletive elements, etc.
Be able to assess different syntactic analyses for specific constructions.
Competences
- English Studies
- Apply scientific ethical principles to information processing.
- Critically evaluate linguistic, literary and cultural production in English.
- Demonstrate skills to work autonomously and in teams to fulfil the planned objectives.
- Describe and analyse—synchronically and comparatively—the main phonetic, phonological, morphological, syntactic, semantic and pragmatic properties of English and its historical development.
- Develop arguments applicable to the fields of literature, culture and linguistics and evaluate their academic relevance.
- Distinguish and contrast the distinct paradigms and methodologies applied to the study of English.
- 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 develop the necessary learning skills in order to undertake further training with a high degree of autonomy.
- Understand and produce written and spoken academic texts in English at advanced higher-proficient-user level (C2).
- Use digital tools and specific documentary sources for the collection and organisation of information.
- Use written and spoken English for academic and professional purposes, related to the study of linguistics, the philosophy of language, history, English culture and literature.
Learning Outcomes
- Analyse data and interpret these on the basis of linguistic models or theories.
- Critically evaluate linguistic production in English from both a synchronic and diachronic perspective.
- Describe and analyse the main phonetic, phonological, morphological, syntactic and semantic properties of English and its historical evolution at an advanced level.
- Develop arguments applicable to the syntactic, phonetic, phonological and diachronic analysis of English at an advanced level.
- Express oneself in English, orally and in writing, in an academic register and using appropriate terminology in relation to the study of syntax, phonetics and phonology and the historical development of the language.
- Gather and interpret relevant data to make critical judgements on relevant social, scientific or ethical issues.
- Identify and understand distinct models for the synchronic and diachronic linguistic analysis of English and apply these to varying levels of phonetic, phonological, morphological, syntactic and semantic analysis at an advanced level.
- In an effective manner, organise the autonomous component to learning.
- Incorporate ideas and concepts from published sources into work, citing and referencing appropriately.
- Locate specialised and academic information and select this according to its relevance.
- Plan work effectively, individually or in groups, in order to fulfil the planned objectives.
- Produce written and oral academic texts at a higher-proficient-user level (C2) on the concepts and skills relevant to the advanced study of syntax, phonetics and phonology, the historical development of language and models of linguistic analysis.
- Understand specialised academic texts on research in syntax, phonetics and phonology, language history and models of linguistic analysis.
- Use current techniques of linguistic analysis to empirically support current models.
Content
1. Introduction: Core concepts
2. Subjects and objects
3. The Deteminer Phrase (DP)
4. The Complementizer Phrase (CP)
5. Wh-movement and locality
Activities and Methodology
| Title | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Type: Directed | |||
| Lectures and group debate | 50 | 2 | 1, 3, 4, 5, 7, 9, 12, 6, 14 |
| Type: Supervised | |||
| Classroom exercises, invididual tutorials and assessment | 25 | 1 | 1, 13, 3, 4, 5, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 2 |
| Type: Autonomous | |||
| Reading, revision, exercises and projects, use of the Virtual Campus | 50 | 2 | 1, 13, 3, 4, 5, 7, 9, 10, 8, 11, 12, 6, 14 |
Directed activities: Lectures and group discussions.
Supervised activities: Exercises and projects; back-up tutorials to help in the realisation of exercises and projects
Autonomous activities: Reading of manuals and chapters of textbooks; elaboration of study diagrams, summaries and texts; practical exercises (individual and in group); projects (individual and in group).
Use of the Virtual Campus.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Class portfolio (exercises) | 10% | 2 | 0.08 | 1, 3, 4, 5, 7, 9, 11, 12, 14 |
| Group assignment | 20% | 8 | 0.32 | 1, 13, 3, 4, 5, 7, 9, 10, 8, 11, 12, 6, 14, 2 |
| Test 1 | 35% | 7.5 | 0.3 | 1, 13, 3, 4, 5, 7, 9, 8, 12, 14 |
| Test 2 | 35% | 7.5 | 0.3 | 1, 13, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 12, 14, 2 |
This course is assessed on the basis of four parts: two partial exams (35% and 35%), a group assignment (20%) and a series of classroom exercises to encourage class attendance that need to be submitted as a class portfolio (10%).
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.
SINGLE ASSESSMENT
This course allows single assessment. On a date and time indicated by the teacher, students must do the following assessment activities:
Theoretical exam (40%)
Practical exam (40%)
Submission of an assignment prepared autonomously (20%)
REASSESSMENT
Students with a final course mark of 3.5/10 who have taken the two mid-terms and submitted the assignment are eligible for reassessment.
The reassessment exam will be a written test, at a time assigned by the Faculty, which will synthesise the contents of the course.
Students will obtain a *No avaluable (Not assessed) course grade if they have completed no more than 35% of the course 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.
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, they will fail the course. PLAGIARISM means copying a text (and this includes a single 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 learnto 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.
Bibliography
COURSE BOOKS:
Adger, David. 2003. Core Syntax. A Minimalist Approach. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Edelstein, Elspeth. 2020. English Syntax. A Minimalist Account of Structure and Variation. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Koeneman, Olaf & Hedde Zeijlstra. 2017. Introducing Syntax. New York: Cambridge University Press.
OTHER REFERENCES:
Aarts, Bas. 1997. English Syntax and Argumentation. London: MacMillan.
Haegeman , Liliane & Jaqueline Guéron. 1999. English Grammar. A Generative Perspective. Oxford:Blackwell.
Radford, Andrew. 2004. Minimalist Syntax. Exploring the Structure of English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Roberts, Ian. 1997. Comparative Syntax. London: Arnold.
Software
Not applicable.
Language list
| Name | Group | Language | Semester | Turn |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| (PAUL) Classroom practices | 1 | English | first semester | morning-mixed |
| (TE) Theory | 1 | English | first semester | morning-mixed |