guidelines of the course

Guidelines of the course

Universidad de Valladolid 1 de 7


Course English Language: Descriptive Grammar I

Area A2 (Scientific description of the English language)

Module A

Degree English Studies Degree

Program Degree: English Studies Code 41686

Teaching period 1st semester Type Basic Formation

Level Undergraduate Year 1st year

ECTS Credits 9

Language of instruction English

Professor Group B: Esther Álvarez de la Fuente

Contact Room nº 16B; Ext. 6771; e-mail: [email protected]

Office hours Not available yet

Department English Philology

1. Aim of the course

1.1 Contextualization

English Language: Descriptive Grammar I is the first course included in the area of the scientific description of the English language. It is taught in the first year of the English Studies Degree and it is focused on the basic structural properties associated to English and, particularly, to the noun phrase.

1.2 Relationship with other areas

It is related to the courses belonging to both the A1 and the A2 areas (Scientific description of the English language). It is meant as an introduction to a descriptive analysis of the English grammar which is also covered by other two courses of the English Studies Degree: English Language: Descriptive Grammar II (first year, second semester) and English Language: Descriptive Grammar III (second year, first semester).

1.3 Prerequesites

It is recommended to have an English level equivalent to B1 in the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages.



2. Competences

2.1 General competences

G1. Capacity to analyze and summarize basic concepts in the study of language G4. Capacity to understand basic theoretical concepts dealing with English grammar G9. Capacity to use some research tools and to collect necessary information to understand and analyze the basic grammatical properties of the English language

2.2 Specific competences

E2. Capacity to communicate in oral and written English in academic and formal contexts E6. Capacity to understand how English language works E24. Capacity to perform a linguistic analysis of the properties of the English noun phrase

3. Main objective

This course is designed to provide students a description of the basic grammatical properties of the noun phrase in English and the understanding of how certain methodological tools can help them to learn and understand basic concepts related to the description of the English language.

4. Students´ total workload

IN-CLASS ACTIVITIES HOURS OUT-OF-CLASS ACTIVITIES HOURS

Lectures 30 Individual work 43

Practical tasks 12 Group work 47

Laboratory practice

Traineeships, clinical practice and fieldwork

Seminars 14

Group tutorials

Assessment 4

Total 60 Total 90



5. Topics

Topic 1: INTRODUCTION: BASIC GRAMMATICAL CONCEPTS Workload (ECTS credits): 1

a. Contextualization and justification This topic deals with the main basic concepts about grammatical categories and structures in English, which will be necessary for the understanding of further content.

b. Objectives The main objective of this topic is to provide the students a basic knowledge about some important grammatical concepts.

c. Content Basic notions for the study of English grammar: categories and constituents.

d. Methodology The contents will be presented through theoretical and practical lectures, and a seminar at the end of the topic.

e. Work plan Theoretical lectures will be followed by practical tasks which will be corrected in class and so students will be in charge of providing or discussing the answers through active participation.

f. Assessment A compulsory assignment together with an active participation in class will be part of the students´ continuous evaluation.

g. Basic bibliography Huddleston, R. and G.K. Pullum. 2002. The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language. Cambridge: C.U.P. Biber, D. et al. 1999. Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English. Harlow, London: Longman [section B.2.] Quirk, R. and S. Greenbaum, 1973. A University Grammar of English. London: Longman. Quirk et al. 1985. A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language. London: Longman.

h. Complementary bibliography Börjars, K. and K. Burridge. 2010. Introducing English Grammar. London: Hodder Education. [pp. 41-42; Chapter 3] Brinton, L.J. and D.M. Brinton. 2010. The Structure of Modern English. A Linguistic Introduction. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. [Chapter 3, pp. 164-181] Finegan, E. 1999. Language: Its Structure and Use. San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. <http://www.academia.edu/9075838/Language_Its_Structure_and_Use> [Chapter 2, pp. 35–41, 56–60, and Chapter 6, pp. 202–209] (July 2015) Huddleston, R. and G. Pullum. 2005. A Student´s Introduction to English Grammar. Cambridge: CUP. [Chapters 1 & 2]

Kim, J-B. and P. Sells. 2008. English Syntax: An Introduction. Chicago: CSLI Publications. [Chapter 2] Klammer, T.P. and M.R. Schulz. 1995. Analyzing English Grammar. Boston: Allyn and Bacon. [Chapters 4 and 5] Quirk R. et al. 1985. A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language. London: Longman. [Chapter 2, pp. 37-46]

i. Necessary resources Access to UVa e-campus (Moodle platform)



Topic 2: THE ENGLISH NOUN: SEMANTIC FEATURES AND GRAMMATICAL BEHAVIOUR Workload (ECTS credits): 1,5

a. Contextualization and justification This topic provides students a semantic analysis of features of the English noun and their influence on its grammatical behaviour in a sentence.

b. Objectives To learn about the basic properties of the English noun and the semantic features related to it.

c. Content A traditional semantic classification of nouns is discussed in order to analyze some of the problems that derive from this perspective.

d. Methodology As in Topic 1 above.

e. Work plan As in Topic 1 above.

f. Assessment As in Topic 1 above.

g. Basic bibliography Huddleston, R. and G.K. Pullum. 2005. A Student´s Introduction to English Grammar. Cambridge: C.U.P. Biber, D. et al. 1999. Grammar of Spoken and Written English. London: Longman. Quirk et al. 1985. A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language. London: Longman

h. Complementary bibliography Alexiadou, A. et al. (eds.) 2007. Noun Phrase in the Generative Perspective. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. [Section 2: pp. 165-189]

Close, R.A. 1974. A University Grammar of English. Workbook. London: Longman. [Section 4 (+exercises)] Dekeyser, X. et al. 2011. Foundations of English Grammar: For University Students and Advanced Learners. Leuven: Acco. [pp. 203-214] Downing, A. and P. Locke. 2006. English Grammar: A University Course. London: Routledge. [Module 46 (+exercises)] Huddleston, R. 1995. Introduction to the Grammar of English. Cambridge: CUP. [Sections 6.6 and 6.7.] Huddleston, R. and G. Pullum. 2005. A Student´s Introduction to English Grammar. Cambridge: CUP. [Chapter 5 (+exercises section 2)] Lobeck, A. 2000. Discovering Grammar. An Introduction to English Sentence Structure. Oxford: OUP. [Chapter 4 (+exercises)]

Joosten, F. 2003. “Accounts of the Count-Mass Distinction: A Critical Survey”. Nordlyd 31(1): 216-229.

British National Corpus (BNC) http://www.natcorp.ox.ac.uk (July 2015) Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) http://corpus.byu.edu/coca/ (July 2015)

i. Necessary resources As in topic 1 above.



Topic 3: THE ENGLISH NOUN PHRASE: GRAMMATICAL FEATURES Workload (ECTS credits): 1,5

a. Contextualization and justification This topic is meant to analyze the grammatical features of the English noun phrase.

b. Objectives To understand the basic concepts such as definiteness, person, number, case and gender expressed in English noun phrases.

c. Content General properties of the English noun phrase: definiteness, person, number, case and gender.

d. Methodology As in topic 1 above.

e. Work plan As in topic 1 above.

f. Assessment As in topic 1 above.

g. Basic bibliography Crystal, D. 1995. The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Biber, D. et al. 1999. Grammar of Spoken and Written English. London: Longman. Quirk et al. 1985. A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language. London: Longman.

h. Complementary bibliography Childs, L. 1998. Academic Studies English: Support Materials and Exercises for Grammar. Part I: Parts of

Speech. New Brunswick Community College. <http://en.copian.ca/library/learning/academic/english/grammar/speech/module5.pdf> (July 2015) Earp, B.D. 2012. “The Extinction of Masculine Generics”. Journal for Communication and Culture 2 (1): 4-19. Fernández-Domínguez, J. 2007. “A diachronic-synchronic review of gender in English”. Revista alicantina de estudios ingleses 20: 45-63. <http://rua.ua.es/dspace/bitstream/10045/6369/1/RAEI_20_03.pdf> (July 2015) Galasso, J. 2002. Analyzing English Grammar: An Introduction to Feature Theory. San Diego: University Readers. <http://www.csun.edu/~galasso/handbook1.pdf> [Section 2.1.] (July 2015) Hornoiu, D. 2009. “The Category of Gender in Present-day English: Issues of Grammar and World View“. Annals of

Ovidius University Constanta - Philology 20: 43-66. <http://litere.univ-ovidius.ro/Anale/09%20volumul%20XX%202009/01.Language%20and%20Linguistics/04_diana%20hornoiu%20bun.pdf> (July 2015)

Huddleston, R. and G. Pullum. 2002. The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language. Cambridge: C.U.P. [pp. 484-99].

Wagner, S. 2003. Gender in English Pronouns. Myth and reality. PhD dissertation. Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg. <https://www.freidok.uni-freiburg.de/data/1412> [Chapters 3 and 8] (July 2015)

Delahunty, G.P., and J.J. Garvey. 2010. The English Language: From Sound to Sense. Perspectives on Writing. Fort Collins, Colorado: The WAC Clearinghouse and Parlor Press.

<http://wac.colostate.edu/books/sound/> [Chapter 7] (July 2015)




Topic 4: THE STRUCTURE OF THE ENGLISH NOUN PHRASE: IDENTIFYING FUNCTIONS Workload (ECTS credits): 2

a. Contextualization and justification This topic is meant to analyze the structure of the English noun phrase and the different functions that can be identified within such structure.

b. Objectives To learn about basic and more complex structures within the English noun phrase, as well as the functions related to such phrase.

c. Content This topic offers a general analysis of the Engilsh noun phrase structure.

d. Methodology As in topic 1 above.

e. Work plan As in topic 1 above.

f. Assessment As in topic 1 above.

g. Basic bibliography Biber, D. et al. 1999. Grammar of Spoken and Written English. London: Longman. Huddleston, R. and G.K. Pullum. 2002. The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language. Cambridge: C.U.P. Keizer, E. 2007. The English Noun Phrase: The Nature of Linguistic Categorization. Cambridge: C.U.P. Quirk et al. 1985. A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language. London: Longman.

h. Complementary bibliography Brinton, L.J. and D.M. Brinton. 2010. The Linguistic Structure of Modern English. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

<https://benjamins.com/sites/linguistic_structure_of_modern_english/workbook.html> (July 2015) Cossé, L. 2005. My Communicative Grammar. Study Guide. <http://abiiid.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/my-

communicative-grammar-study-guide.pdf> (July 2015) Delahunty, G.P. and J.J. Garvey. 2010. The English Language: From Sound to Sense. Perspectives on Writing. Fort

Collins, Colorado: The WAC Clearinghouse and Parlor Press. <http://wac.colostate.edu/books/sound/chapter9.pdf> [Chapter 9: Phrases] Ferenčík, M. 2002. The Structure of English. A Coursebook of English Grammar. Part 1. Bratislava: Creativ Line.

<http://media0.webgarden.cz/files/media0:5104336184b54.pdf.upl/The%20Structure%20of%20English.pdf Greenbaum, S. & G. Nelson. 2009. An Introduction to English Grammar. Edinburgh: Pearson Education [Chapter 3]. Huddleston, R. & Pullum, G.K. 2005. A Student´s Introduction to English Grammar. Cambridge: C.U.P. [pp. 82-111,

264-290]. Kies, D. 1995, 2014. “The Phrase in English: Form and Function in the English Phrase”. The Hypertext Books.

<http://papyr.com/hypertextbooks/grammar/phrase.htm> (July 2015) Kim, J-B. & P. Sells. 2008. English Syntax: An Introduction. Chicago: CSLI Publications.

<http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.98.5393&rep=rep1&type=pdf> (July 2015) Klimmer, T.P., M.R. Schulz & A. Della Volpe. 2007. Analyzing English Grammar. Boston: Pearson Education.

[Chapters 5-7] Mönnink de, I. 2000. On the Move. The Mobility of Constituents in the English Noun Phrase: A Multi-method

Approach. Amsterdam, Atlanta, GA: Rodopi. [Chapter 1] Ouhalla, J. 1999. Introducing Transformational Grammar. From Principles to Parameters to Minimalism. Oxford:

Arnold. [Section 1.2. Phrase structure]




6. Chronogram (per topic)

TOPIC ECTS CREDITS TIME-FRAME

I – BASIC CONCEPTS 1 1st -3rd weeks

II – SEMANTIC FEATURES & GRAMMATICAL BEHAVIOUR 1,5 4th-6th weeks

III – GRAMMATICAL CATEGORIES 1,5 7th-9th weeks

IV – STRUCTURE & FUNCTIONS 2 10th-15th weeks

7. General methodology and assessment

PROCEDURE

% OBSERVATIONS

Assignments 20%

Assignments will include 2 group and 1 individual practical exercises which will be done in the classroom so students will be required to be present in the classroom the date the assignments are due (the dates will be set up from the beginning of the course and will be posted in Moodle when the course opens). The grade corresponding to these assignments will be added to (January or February) final exam.

Active participation in class 10%

Active participation will be assessed on the students´ capacity to provide reasoned arguments and to solve exercises in the classroom. The grade corresponding to active participation will be added to (January or February) final exam.

Final exam 70% The written final exam will include issues discussed during the lectures and the practical tasks.

8. Final considerations

Most seminars will be based on group-work sessions.

guidelines of the course

Documents