st as well as part 4. comparative grammar and the analysis

Course syllabus RAQUEL FERNÁNDEZ FUERTES SONJA MUJCINOVIC

Universidad de Valladolid

1 of 8

COMP GRAM

1

COURSE SYLLABUS

Course English/Spanish comparative grammar Subject Scientific description of the English language Module A.2. Degree English studies Code 41712 Semester 2nd Type Basic Level Undergraduate Year 3rd [2015-2016] ECTS credits 6 Language English Professor Raquel Fernández Fuertes Sonja Mujcinovic

[lectures & group work turn 1] [group work turns 1, 2 & 3] Contact [email protected]; ext. 6778 [email protected]; ext. 6722 Office hours [by appointment] TO BE POSTED Department English

1. Course motivation

1.1 Contextualization

English/Spanish comparative grammar is the obligatory course in section A2 as described in the official program of the degree in English studies. Section A2 includes different aspects that are fundamental in the scientific description of the English language.

1.2 Relation to other subjects/courses

This course stems from the previous description of the English grammar done in English grammar I & II from 1st year, as well as English grammar III from 2nd year. Other courses related to English/Spanish comparative grammar include Norma y uso del español (1st year; section C) and Introducción a la lingüística general (2nd year; section D1).

1.3 Prerequisites

Students are recommended to have passed English grammar I & II (1st year) as well as English grammar III (2nd year). They are also recommended to have a B2 level of English (as in the CEFRL). Additionally, students should be familiar with the UVa e-campus, i.e. the moodle platform.

2. Competences

2.1 General competences

! Capacity to understand and express the knowledge acquired. ! Capacity to communicate and express the said knowledge in English. ! Capacity to work and be confident with some of the linguistic tools available for linguistic analysis. ! Capacity to work in a team.

2.2 Specific competences

! Capacity to analyze and understand the main syntactic properties of the English language by comparing them to those of other languages (mainly but not exclusively Spanish ones).

! Capacity to identify, describe and explain these comparative properties by using actual linguistic data.

3. Aims & objectives

This is an advanced level course designed to provide the student with a contemporary and in-depth analysis and description of some of the most relevant aspects of English comparative grammar. More specifically, English grammatical categories and structures will be compared to those of other languages (mainly of Spanish but not exclusively) with a view to determining the differences and similarities that manifest themselves in different phrase types. This course, which adopts a generative approach, also promises to explore the consequences of these differences and similarities with respect to the acquisition process. In short, the main objective of English/Spanish comparative grammar is to facilitate the acquisition of those grammatical concepts (both general and specific) that are instrumental, if not fundamental, to the comparison of languages. When students have successfully completed this course, they will be familiar with the following:

! the main morpho-syntactic properties that define the English language and how these compare to those in other languages;

! how these properties emerge in different types of language-contact situations; ! the elicitation of linguistic data and their comparative analysis in terms of their morpho-syntactic properties; ! the organized and accurate presentation of a comparative morpho-syntactic analysis based on linguistic data.



2 of 8

COMP GRAM

4. Information on the students’ workload for this course

Classroom activities Hours Outside classroom activities Hours Theoretical lectures 13 Individual work 25 Classroom practices 31 Group work 25 Seminars & group work 12 Tasks 25 Assessment 6 Exam preparation 13 Total 62 Total 88

5. Structure

This course is broken into two sections:

! lectures (2 hours per week): these involve the presentation of a series of comparative grammar analyses (theory and readings) as well as their specific practical study in the form of exercises (practice) in a total of 3 TOPICS [see sections 6 & 7 below for more details];

! group work (2 hours per week): these include the comparative analysis of grammatical structures through the analysis of different types of linguistic data in a total of 3 BLOCKS [see sections 8 & 9 below for more details].

Both sections deal with comparative grammar but they follow different approaches with a view of offering a multidimensional study of English/Spanish syntactic properties and their comparative analysis.

6. Lectures: topics

Topic 1: Preliminaries to a comparative grammar analysis

ECTS credits: 2

a. Contextualization & justification

This topic is meant to provide the background and contextualization for the study of comparative grammar. It draws both on the students’ previous knowledge of the English and the Spanish grammars/languages as seen in previous courses as well as on their own intuitions as bilingual speakers. In particular, this topic provides the basic necessary tools to carry out a comparative grammatical analysis in general and a comparative grammatical analysis of English and Spanish or other languages in particular. This also ties with the type of group work students will have to develop (sections 8 & 9 below).

b. Objectives

! Offer a diachronic perspective of comparative grammar studies. ! Discuss the different present-day implications and uses of comparative grammar studies. ! Offer an outline on how to work with linguistic data in the elaboration a comparative grammatical analysis. ! Conduct a basic comparative grammar work taking into account both theoretical grammatical descriptions

as well as comparative grammatical analyses based on linguistic data.

c. Content

Part 1. The beginning of comparative grammar studies. Part 2. Comparative grammar approaches and their focus of study. Part 3. Comparative grammar and the Principles and Parameters approach. Part 4. Comparative grammar and the analysis of linguistic data. Part 5. Practice sessions.

Obligatory reading. Handout 1. Snyder, W. 2001 On the nature of syntactic variation: evidence from complex predicates and complex

word-formation. Language 77, 324-342.

d. Methodology [for the three topics]

The comparative grammar theory underlying each of the aforementioned contents and the 3 topics will be presented through both theoretically-oriented and practice-oriented lectures. Students are encouraged to participate actively during both.

e. Work plan [for the three topics]

The work plan for the 3 topics is described below: 1. students will be provided with a series of materials (handouts, readings, exercises, etc.) available through

moodle; 2. the handouts contain the basic theoretical information which will be covered in class; 3. the readings offer a more in-depth approach to one of the issues seen in the handouts and they are

meant to be worked on by the students outside the classroom; 4. practice sessions will involve a series of activities related to the issues discussed in the more theoretical

sessions as well as to the specific reading. Practice sessions imply both classroom and outside-classroom activities: students are required to complete a series of exercises, either individually or in



3 of 8

COMP GRAM

groups, which will be then discussed in class. Exercises include the analysis of comparative grammar phenomena either by using isolated structures or sets of linguistic data.

f. Assessment [for the three topics]

Students will be evaluated individually through their performance in the final exam which will cover the three topics. Throughout the semester, students are encouraged to participate in class during the theoretical and the practical sessions. Besides, they are expected to carry out outside class the different tasks corresponding to the practical sessions as well as to the readings. These tasks will be similar to the activities they will have to complete in the final exam.

g. Basic bibliography

Bueso, I. and P. Casamián 2001 Diferencias de usos gramaticales entre el español y el inglés. Edinumen. Cinque, G. and R. Kayne 2005 The Oxford handbook of comparative syntax. OUP. Freidin, R. (ed.) 1991 Principles and parameters in comparative grammar. MIT. Fukui, N. 2004 Theoretical comparative syntax. Routledge. Hickey, R. 2010 The handbook of language contact. Blackwell. Zagona, K. 1988 Verb phrase syntax: A parametric study of English and Spanish. Kluwer. Hualde, J.I., A. Olarrea and E. O’Rourke 2014 The handbook of Hispanic linguistics. Wiley.

h. Additional bibliography

Batchelor, R.E. and M.Á. San José 2010 A reference grammar of Spanish. CUP. Biber, D. et al. 1999 Longman grammar of spoken and written English. Longman. Bosque, I. and V. Demonte 1999 Gramática descriptiva de la lengua española. Espasa. Crystal, D. 2003 A dictionary of linguistics and phonetics. Blackwell. Haegeman, L. and J. Gueron 1999 English grammar: a generative perspective. Blackwell. Heigham, J. and R. A. Croker 2009 Qualitative research in applied linguistics. Palgrave. Hernanz, M.L. and J.M. Brucart 1987 La sintaxis. Crítica. Jones, C. and D. Waller 2015 Corpus linguistics for grammar. Routledge. Klammer, T.P. et al. 2012 Analyzing English grammar. Longman. Menn, L. and N.B. Ratner 2000 Methods for studying language production. Psychology Press. Radford, A. 1997 Syntactic theory and the structure of English. A minimalist approach. CUP. Radford, A. 2004 Minimalist syntax. CUP. Real Academia Española & Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española 2009 Nueva gramática de la

lengua española. Espasa. Yule, G. 2006 The study of language. CUP. Zagona, K. 2002 The syntax of Spanish. CUP.

i. Necessary resources [for the three topics] (July 2015)

MacWhinney, B. 2000 TALKBANK <http://talkbank.org> & CHILDES <http://childes.psy.cmu.edu/>. UVa e-campus <http://campusvirtual.uva.es/>. UVa library electronic resources: Journal of child language, Studies in language, Linguistic inquiry, International

Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching, etc. <http://almena.uva.es/search*spi~S6>. Cascadilla Press <http://www.cascadilla.com/linguistics.html>. Cascadilla Proceedings project <http://www.lingref.com>.

Topic 2: Comparing grammars (1): L1 + L1

ECTS credits: 2


Taking as a point of departure the PP approach to comparative grammar and the tools described in topic 1, topic 2 discusses how comparative grammar analyses apply in the case of two languages that share the same status, i.e. as first languages (L1).

b. Objectives

! Familiarize with fundamental notions in the comparative analysis such as language separation and crosslinguistic influence.

! Understand the fundamentals of L1+L1 comparisons ! Apply and discuss these comparisons to the comparative grammatical analysis of linguistic data.

c. Content

Part 1. The L1 grammar. Part 2. Two L1 grammars.



4 of 8

COMP GRAM

Part 3. Comparing grammatical properties between two languages: 2L1 contexts. Part 4. Practice sessions.

Obligatory reading. Handout 2. Cantone, K.F. and N. Müller 2008 Un nase or una nase? What gender marking within switched DPs

reveals about the architecture of the bilingual language faculty. Lingua 118, 810-826.


Bavin, E.L. 2009 The Cambridge handbook of child language. CUP Cinque, G. and R. Kayne 2005 The Oxford handbook of comparative syntax. OUP. Clark, E. 2003 First language acquisition. CUP. Freidin, R. (ed.) 1991 Principles and parameters in comparative grammar. MIT. Fukui, N. 2004 Theoretical comparative syntax. Routledge. Herschenshon, J. 2007 Language development and age. CUP. Hickey, R. 2010 The handbook of language contact. Blackwell. Rizzi, L. 2000 Comparative syntax and language acquisition. Routledge. Yule, G. 2006 The study of language. CUP.


Bhatia, T.J., and W.C. Ritchie (eds.) 2004 The handbook of bilingualism. Blackwell. Brown, R. 1973 A first language: The early stages. Harvard University Press. Clark, E.V. 2009 First language acquisition. CUP. De Houwer, A. 1990 The acquisition of two languages from birth: a case study. CUP. Grosjean, F. 1982 Life with two languages. Harvard University Press. Guijarro-Fuentes, P. et al. (eds.) 2008 First language acquisition of morphology and syntax: perspectives

across languages and learners. John Benjamins. Lust, B.C. and C. Foley (eds.) 2004 First language acquisition : the essential readings. Blackwell. Nicol, J.L. 2001 One mind, two languages : bilingual language processing. Blackwell. Schmid, M.S. (ed.) 2004 First language attrition : interdisciplinary perspectives on methodological issues.

John Benjamins. Topic 3: Comparing grammars (2): L1 + L2

ECTS credits: 2


Taking as a point of departure the PP approach to comparative grammar and the tools described in topic 1, as well as the comparative analyses seen in topic 2, topic 3 presents how comparative grammar analyses apply in the case of two languages that do not share the same status, i.e. as first languages (L1) and as second languages (L2).

b. Objectives

! Develop a more refined approach to fundamental notions in the comparative analysis such as interlanguage or transfer.

! Understand the fundamentals of L1+L2 comparisons ! Apply and discuss these comparisons to the comparative analysis of linguistic data.

c. Content

Part 1. The L2 grammar. Part 2. The L1 and the L2 grammars. Part 3. Comparing grammatical properties between two languages: L2 contexts. Part 4. Practice sessions.

Obligatory reading. Handout 3._ Kong, S. 2007 English speakers and the asymmetrical matrix-embedded null subjects in L2 Chinese.

Concentric: studies in linguistics 33(2), 23-52.


Lightbown, P. and N. Spada 2010 How languages are learned. OUP. Meisel, J.M. 2011 First and second language acquisition: parallels and differences. CUP. Saville-Troike, M. 2012 Introducing second language acquisition. CUP. Tarone, E. and B. Swierzbin 2009 Exploring learner language. OUP.


De Bot, K. et al. 2005 Second language acquisition: an advanced resource book. Routledge. Doughty, C.J. and M.H. Long (eds.) 2003 The handbook of second language acquisition. Blackwell.



5 of 8

COMP GRAM

Haznedar, B. and E. Gavruseva 2008 Current trends in child second language acquisition: a generative perspective. John Benjamins.

VanPatten, B. and J. Williams (eds.) 2007 Theories in second language acquisition: an introduction. LEA. White, L. 2003 Second language acquisition and universal grammar. CUP.

7. Lectures: timing (per topic)

TOPIC ECTS TIMING 1. Preliminaries to a comparative grammar analysis 2 5 weeks 2. Comparing grammars (1): L1 + L1 2 6 weeks 3. Comparing grammars (2): L1 + L2 2 4 weeks

8. Group work


Group work sessions deal with the actual comparative grammar analysis between English and, primarily but not exclusively, Spanish as seen in linguistic data. They are meant to provide the students with a more practically-oriented approach to the study of comparative grammar by (i) working with specific empirical studies on comparative grammar properties and (ii) making students work in groups to carry out their own comparative grammatical analysis.

b. Objectives

Taking as a point of departure the outline offered in topic 1 (see section 6 above and section c below) on how to work with linguistic data, the objectives of the group work sessions include the following:

! understand how empirical studies are structured; ! analyze how in different empirical studies English syntactic properties are presented and compared to

those of other languages such as Spanish; ! discuss and offer a critical view of these studies; ! be able to conduct an empirical comparative study on a specific syntactic property.

c. Content

Group work sessions are structured as follows throughout the semester (see section 9 below): ! preliminaries: where the dynamics of group work and comparative analysis will be established; ! 3 blocks which mirror the basic organization of the 3 topics (see section 6 above) and will, therefore,

discuss the comparison of L1 grammars as well as the comparison of L1 and L2 grammars; ! final session where each group will present the work they have done throughout the semester.

Specific instructions will be provided in due time via moodle.

d. Methodology

TURNS OF GROUP WORK SESSIONS There are three group work sessions established in the official schedule (see section 11 below). This means that, for the group work sessions, the whole class will be split into three equal parts: the first turn will have the group work sessions on Wednesday mornings, the second turn on Wednesday afternoons and the third turn on Friday mornings.

GROUP FORMATION Students have to arrange themselves in groups (around 4 or 5 students per group). All groups in each of the three turns must be set by the second week of class (February 26 2016). Each group has to decide on a speaker who will be responsible for (i) the presentation of the group work to the professor and (ii) the actual uploading of the questionnaires. However, the whole group will be responsible for their performance both outside and inside the classroom as well as in the questionnaires. The speaker will change from block to block so that a new person in each group should be chosen as a speaker.

GROUP WORK A number of articles and specific instructions will be proposed and assigned to each group. The groups will use the assigned articles as the starting point for different types of analyses, as directed by the professor and following the instructions provided.

e. Work plan

The work plan for the 3 blocks is described below and it involves both classroom activities as well as outside-classroom ones. 1. BEFORE EACH BLOCK: students will be provided with a series of materials (articles, protocols, instructions,

etc.) available through moodle.



6 of 8

COMP GRAM

2. BEFORE THE CLASSROOM SESSIONS: students in each group should meet and work together to prepare for the classroom session (e.g. read their assigned article thoroughly and try to solve their doubts among themselves, propose a comparative analysis, elaborate a work plan, design tests, select data, etc.).

3. DURING THE CLASSROOM SESSIONS: students should elaborate a list of doubts or issues they would like to discuss with the professor; the speaker will be in charge of communicating these to the professor who will be moving from group to group; students should present their work/findings; and, if it is the last session in a block, they have to (i) perform a short oral presentation and (ii) provide an evaluation both of their own performance as well as of that of the other groups using an evaluation template.

4. AFTER THE CLASSROOM SESSIONS: students should work on the next topic; if it is the last session in a block, they have to work on and complete a questionnaire paying special attention not only to content but also to expression and organization. The restrictions on the elaboration of questionnaires should be strictly followed, including deadline and space limitations. The speaker of each group is in charge of uploading both the questionnaire as well as the evaluation template used for self and peer evaluation, in the corresponding slots available in moodle.

f. Assessment

Students will be evaluated by the professor as follows: ! through their participation in the group activities in the interaction with others; ! through their performance in the questionnaires and in the different oral presentations.

Self-evaluation as well as peer-review will be used to assess a small portion of the group performance in the presentations. Specific instructions will be provided and an evaluation template will be made available through moodle.


The articles that will be selected for group work sessions may include the ones below:

Brisard, F., E. Laarman and E. Nicoladis 2008 Clausal order and the acquisition of Dutch deverbal Compounds. Morphology. 18, 143-166.

Silva-Corvalán, C. and S. Montanari 2008 The acquisition of ser, estar (and be) by a Spanish-English bilingual child: The early stages. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition. 11 (3), 341-360.

The final selection list as well as the different articles will be posted in moodle.


Berman, R. and D. Slobin 1994 Relating events in narrative : a crosslinguistic developmental study. LEA. Blom, E. and S. Unsworth 2010 Experimental methods in language acquisition research. John Benjamins. Crystal, D. 2003 A dictionary of linguistics and phonetics. Blackwell. Finch, G., J. Peck and M. Coyle 2003 How to study linguistics. Palgrave Macmillan. Gass, S.M. and A. Mackey 2007 Data elicitation for second and foreign language research. LEA. Herschenshon, J. 2007 Language development and age. CUP. Mayer, M. 1969 Frog, where are you? Dial Press. McDaniel, D., C. McKee and H. Smith Cairns (eds.) 1996 Methods for assessing children’s syntax. MIT. Marzio, M. (dir.) 2012 Real English. Marzio School. <http://www.real-english.com/> (July 2015). Schneider, P., R.V. Dubé and D. Hayward 2005 The Edmonton Narrative Norms Instrument. University of

Alberta Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine <http://www.rehabresearch.ualberta.ca/enni/> (July 2015).

i. Necessary resources (July 2015)

Dialnet: digital repository for bibliographical resources (via UVa): <http://dialnet.unirioja.es>. EsPal database for selecting stimuli in Spanish: <http://expweb.bcbl.eu/espal/index.php>. IRIS digital repository for bibliographical resources: <http://www.iris-database.org>. The lousy linguist: notes on linguistics and cognition: <http://thelousylinguist.blogspot.com.es>. MacWhinney, B. 2000 TALKBANK <http://talkbank.org> & CHILDES <http://childes.psy.cmu.edu/>. UVa e-campus <http://campusvirtual.uva.es/>.

Students are welcome to bring books, laptops or any resource they might need for the group work sessions.

9. Group work: timing

BLOCK TIMING Preliminaries 4 weeks 1. On the comparative analysis of grammatical properties 3 weeks 2. Comparing L1+L1 grammars 3 weeks 3. Comparing L1+L2 grammars 3 weeks Invited talk 1 week Final presentations 1 week



7 of 8

COMP GRAM

10. Assessment summary table

Students will be evaluated both individually (through an exam or a final project) and as a group (through their performance in the group work sessions, questionnaires and oral presentations). There will be a small percentage of the group mark that would be obtained through peer-review and self-evaluation.

INSTRUMENT/PROCEDURE % OBSERVATIONS

Group work 50%

The group work sessions will be evaluated in terms of the performance: ! during the classroom sessions: 10 points per block [total: 30 points] ! in the questionnaires: 5 points per questionnaire [total: 15 points] ! in the final presentation: 5 points [total: 5 points]

Project

50%

Students may submit a project in which they are expected to provide a detailed analysis of one of the topics included in the syllabus of this course. Topics may be approached from a theoretical perspective, a practical perspective, or a combination of the two but must deal with comparative grammar. Topics must be submitted for approval by March 14 2016 in word format and via moodle; this proposal must also include a tentative bibliography. All projects must be submitted via moodle by May 12 2016. Specific project guidelines will be posted in moodle. [pass-fail line: 25%]

OBLIGATORY MEETINGS. Students working on their projects must attend 3 obligatory individual meetings (1 in March and 2 in April) as well as 2 groups meetings (1 in March and 1 in May). Failure to do so would result in withdrawal from the project submission option.

Final exam

If the student hands in a good project, the exam will be optional. The exam will include both the issues discussed during the theoretical lectures as well as those dealt with in the practice sessions. [pass-fail line: 25%]

Clarifications: ! the pass-fail line for both projects and final exams is 25%; ! marks corresponding to group work will only be added to projects/exams if projects/exams are successfully

completed (i.e. passed); ! when failing to reach a passing level in the exam, final mark will correspond to that in the final exam; if no

final exam mark, final mark will correspond to group work. 11. Schedule & important dates

ENGLISH/SPANISH COMPARATIVE GRAMMAR SCHEDULE [2014-2015] TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY FRIDAY 08:00 – 09:00 group work

3rd turn 09:00 – 10:00 10:00 – 11:00 11:00 – 12:00 lectures group work

1st turn

12:00 – 13:00 lectures

18:00 – 19:00 group work 2nd turn

19:00 – 20:00

! During the first 4 weeks, group work sessions will be devoted to the analysis of data and basic instructions on the TALKBANK & CHILDES project (MacWhinney 2000).

! Specific dates for questionnaires and oral presentations (group work) will be posted in advance. In the case of the questionnaires, students would have a week to complete them.

ENGLISH/SPANISH COMPARATIVE GRAMMAR IMPORTANT DATES [2014-2015] GROUP WORK INDIVIDUAL PROJECT

! February 26: group formation ! March 9: group work sessions start (1st & 2nd turn) ! March 11: group work sessions start (3rd turn)

! March 14: deadline for project proposals ! March-April: obligatory meetings on projects ! May 12: deadline for project submission

– June 8: final exam (1st call) – July 6: final exam (2nd call)



8 of 8

COMP GRAM

12. Final remarks

! The working language of this course is English. ! Course material, including instructions for different activities, will only be made available via moodle. ! Students are expected to take part actively in both lectures and group work sessions. ! Students need to ensure that they hand in all questionnaires and perform the required tasks by the due date. ! Students will be expected to spend time studying outside the class, and will be provided guidance, facilities

and materials to help them develop their expertise as independent language learners. Students will need to spend the stipulated hours of independent learning to meet the learning outcomes.

st as well as part 4. comparative grammar and the analysis

Documents