English Linguistics II

English Linguistics II

Course description:

English Linguistics II will continue the English Linguistics I course giving special attention to the subject of grammar study. It will allow students to gain a sufficient knowledge of English language history, its importance and impact on the world today; to provide students with the tools for understanding the English language structure. The main focus will be on Syntax and transformations: words, phrases, clauses, and sentences, and how to define each constituent. Syntactic structures will be analyzed while explaining the cross-linguistic parameter distinctions.

Objectives of this Course:

It is the main objective of this course to provide the students with the tools to (1) distinguish the varieties of English language; (2) to acknowledge and explain some varieties of English syntax; (3) to give the students the tools to interpret some specificities of English semantics: time values, aspects and modal verbs; (4) to identify the morphosyntactic system of the language: direct and indirect objects properties, pronouns, auxiliary verbs, double objects, passive voice;  (5) to be able to analyse and explain the lexical properties of verbs and nouns. 

Teaching Methodologies

All the methodology used in this course will incorporate elements of theoretical, theoretical-practice and practical lessons. Students will work as a whole class, in small groups, and individually, with the help of teacher as guide.

3. Evaluation Methods

The evaluation will be based upon the tasks and materials assigned to the students (40%) which include participation. The evaluation will also include two written text (60%). The grade will be the sum of the assignments and the written test as predicted, on a scale from 0-20 according to the rules of UNICV.

Course Content

1.    The English language today

2.  Survey of English Grammar

2.1. Sentence Structure

2.2. Clause Semantic Structure

2.3. Clause Syntactical Structure

3.    Sentence Structure

3.1. Simple and Complex Sentences
3.2 Declarative Sentences

3.3. Interrogative sentences
3.4 Exclamative Sentences

3.5. Relative sentences

3.6. Passive sentences
3.7 Non-Sentences

4.    The Lexicon: formation, variation and change

4.1. Morphemes, words and lexical categories

4.2. Pronoun system, the auxiliary verbs, time, modal verbs, and aspect

5.   Grammatical function cases

5.1. Type of subject: thematic and expletive

5.2. Direct and Indirect object

5.4. Morphosyntactic cases

Selected Bibliography

Active Reading

QUIRK, Randolph, Sidney GREENBAUM, Geophrey LEECH, Jan SVARTVIK 1985 A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language. Index by David Crystal Harlow. Longman.

Passive Reading

CASANOVA, Isabel (1996) Linguística Inglesa. Lisboa. Universidade Aberta.

HAEGEMEN, Liliane, Jacqueline GUÉRON (1999) English Grammar. A Generative Perspective. Oxford. Blackwell Publishers Ltd.

HAEGEMEN, l. (2006) Thinking Syntactically: a guide to argumentation and analysis. USA. Blackwell Publishing.

MCARTHUR, Tom, (2002) The Oxford Guide to World English. Oxford University Press.

QUIRK, Randolph, Sidney GREENBAUM, Geophrey LEECH, Jan SVARTVIK 1985 A Grammar of Contemporary English. Harlow. Longman.

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NB: Please check the teacher's full schedule for further information.