ENGL
3373: Modern English Syntax
I. Logistics
Class time:
2:10-4:00
PM, M-F, from May 30 to June 30, 2007.
Location:
ENGL Rm 362
Instructor
information:
How to get in touch with your professor:
- Send an e-mail
- Speak to her before or after class to arrange an appointment.
II. Information on the
course
Course description: This
course provides an overview of the structure and usage of Modern American
English. The material covered in
the course is relevant to teachers at the public school level, and to those
requiring a basic knowledge of the form and function of Modern
American English. Topics to be covered will include: basic word
structure, classification of words into what is traditionally known as "parts
of speech", description and analysis of sentence patterns in English,
prescriptive versus descriptive approaches to
English grammar, particularly in the context of appropriate usage (e.g., written
vs. spoken language), stylistic, and dialectal
variation in syntax, and grammaticalization, a process in which a lexical
items looses its original meaning to serve the needs of grammar (e.g., pronouns,
modal auxiliary verbs, complementizers).
Texts: There is no required
textbook for this class. But there are two recommended books:
Upon successful
completion of this course, a student should be able to do the following:
* To understand the distinction
between the descriptive and the prescriptive approaches to grammar
* To analyze English words in terms of internal morphological structures
and categorical information
* To define different types of categories or “parts of speech”
* To identify phrases and constituents in English
* To draw syntactic tree diagrams for different types of English sentences
* To assign different syntactic structures to an identical string of words
depending on their meanings
* To differentiate between embedded and non-embedded clauses, and finite
and non-finite clauses.
* To gain an initial understanding of sentential structures and transformational
operations such as questions, and relative clauses, passives.
* To see connections between surface syntactic forms and information packing.
* To identify grammatical rules
that follow from universal contraints or language-specific restrictions.
You will be able to acquire
the aforementioned skills and knowledge by doing the following:
* Come to every class on time
and follow lectures attentively.
* Do all the assignments including reading and exercises on the day when
they are given out. (The grades on the exercises will not be included in
the final grade, but doing them will be essential to obtaining a good grade
in this course.)
* Be in charge of your own learning.
* Participate actively in class discussion;
* Clear up any confusion you have as soon as possible.
Attendance
(10%): attendance will be checked every day Each
absence will count as – 0.5 points. 5 absences
will result in an F, regardless of the reason, unless it
is due to illness involving hospitalization, in which case it should be notified
to the instructor with appropriate documentation.
Exams (50%):
There will be two exams, each of which counting as 25% of
the final grade. The exams will cover information given out
during lectures and discussions, as well as what's
written in the lecture notes. Therefore, attending each lecture will
be crucial.
Final
paper (40%): Students will conduct indepedent research on a topic
relevant to the course and make a presentation on it. The paper will take
up 25% of the grade and the presentation
will take up 15% of the grade. The paper should be double-spaced
and 6-7 pages in length, excluding
references. You can adopt the MLA or Linguistic Inquiry style.
Suggested
topics include but are not limited to the following: Ideally,
it'd be best if the article you reviewed is one
of the foundational resources for your final research project.
(i) comparison between Standard
Modern American English (SAE) or other dialects of English such as Standard
British English, AAE, Texas English, Chicano English, focusing on their
grammatical features.
(ii) comparison between SAE
and another language such as Spanish
(iii) Grammatical analysis of
English as a second language
(iv) Grammaticalization
(v) Prescriptive vs. descriptive
grammatical rules of SAE.
(vi) Formal vs. informal speech/writing
styles
(vii) Comparison between Modern
English and Middle or Old English
Announcements will be made both in class and by e-mail.
E-mail messages will be sent to student’s TTU accounts. It is therefore each
student’s responsibility to keep their TTU e-mail accounts active and
check them every day.
In order to earn a passing grade, a student must successfully
complete all course requirements.
Students are expected to be present and punctual each
class day. Attedance will be checked every day and one absence will count
as minus 0.5 points. To reiterate, students with more than 5 absences
will receive an automatic F in the course, regardless of the
reason unless it involves hospitalization, in which case appropriate documentation
should be presented. On the other hand, students who never missed any class
will receive 3 extra credit points.
Homework problems may be assigned to coordinate with
lectures and discussions. Homeworks will not be collected or graded;
we will simply go over them in class. But doing them will be extremely importatn,
as it will reinforce your understanding of crucial concepts and skills in
linguistics and will thereby make you better prepared for the tests.
No individual make-up tests will be administered (the
only exception being hospitalization and religious activities, but both
will need to be justified or proved by appropriate documentation). Students
should be present on test days except in cases of extreme emergencies. If
the university is closed for emergency reasons on the day it is scheduled,
then the test will be administered on the next class day.
No electronic submission or late
submission of a paper will be accepted. Early submissions are welcome.
Students are encouraged to set up appoinments or conferences
with the professor. Constructive feedback about the course is encouraged
at any time. Students must take responsibility for their own learning;
if an individual does not understand course material or if a person needs
additional information about an assignment, then that student should make
an appointment to talk to the professor.
About
student behavior:
Students are expected to behave honorably, respectfully,
and maturely, maintaining appropriate decorum in their speech and behavior
and showing respect for other people and their ideas at all times.
Students will also exhibit integrity in their classwork
and in their dealings with their classmates. Plagirism or other
forms of cheating will not be tolerated. Any student found cheating
can expect to receive an F for the course and to endure
any other penalties invoked by the student's dean.
Any student who, because of a diabling condition, may
require special arrangements in order to meet course requirements should
contact the instructor as soon as possible to make necessary accommodations.
Students requesting such services will need to present verification from
the appropriate university office since it is university policy that such
accommodations are not made prior to completion of the approved TTU process.
Other information about university policies can be located
in the Undergraduate Catalog and in the Directory of Classes. Students
with concerns not addressed in this policy statement should discuss their
situations with their professor at their earliest convenience.