English: syntax and morphology

Teacher(s)

Gilquin Gaëtanelle;

Language

English

Prerequisites

The prerequisite(s) for this Teaching Unit (Unité d’enseignement – UE) for the programmes/courses that offer this Teaching Unit are specified at the end of this sheet.

Learning outcomes

At the end of this learning unit, the student is able to :

By the end of this course, students should be able to: identify and define the concepts pertaining to the field of syntax (e.g. form, function, parts-of-speech, phrase, clause, sentence, form-function interface, etc.); concretely illustrate and analyse English in terms of the syntactic phenomena presented during the course; By the end of the course, students must be able to apply theoretical syntactic concepts to the analysis of authentic English. Students will show a deep understanding of syntactic phenomena in English and will use the terminology presented in the theoretical course precisely.

Content

The theoretical part of this course aims to define syntax and situate it within the wider domain of linguistics. Specifically, students will study the following areas of syntax as well as additional ones, depending on progress during the term:

Morphology
Morphology definitions and characteristics

• Morphemes: definition
• Morpheme characteristics
• Morpheme types

Word formation processes
Parts-of-speech
Lexical words
•    Nouns
•    Lexical verbs
•    Adjectives
•    Adverbs
Function words
•    Determiners
•    Pronouns
•    Auxiliary/modal verbs
•    Prepositions
•    Conjunctions
Phrases
Main phrase types
•    Noun phrases
•    Verb phrases
•    Adjective phrases
•    Adverb phrases
•    Prepositional phrases
Syntactic functions
•    Subject
•    Direct object
•    Indirect object
•    Complement
•    Adjunct
Semantic roles
Verb complementation
•    Intransitive
•    Monotransitive
•    Ditransitive
•    Complex transitive
•    Copular
Clauses
•    Adverbial clauses
•    Relative clauses
•    Nominal clauses
The accompanying exercise sessions will present students with a variety of exercises which aim, among other things, to concretely apply the syntactic concepts presented in the course proper.
Self-study: students will be required to take quizzes on Moodle related to the course content and to practise their English lexical skills via the Vocabulary.com tool. 

Teaching methods

The course proper will include sessions led by the lecturer as well as interactive exercises which depend on active student participation.
The course will be accompanied by concrete exercise sessions aimed at applying the concepts presented during the course. 
Continuous assessment will take the form of quizzes and self-study by the students.

Evaluation methods

Continuous assessment: active participation in the quizzes proposed on Moodle. 
Written exam in January and/or August with theoretical and exercise (including vocabulary) questions. 
Marking breakdown:
- 60% for the theoretical part of the exam;
- 40% for the exercise part of the exam and the continuous assessment.

Other information

If the student chooses to use one or more AI tools (or any other online tools), they are required to systematically indicate all parts where such tools have been used, for example, through the use of footnotes. The student must specify whether the AI was used for information research, text writing, or for improving or correcting the text. Furthermore, the student must mention which AI was used (ChatGPT, Bing, Bard, Chatsonic, etc.) and the date of its use. These information sources must be systematically cited in accordance with the bibliographic referencing standards provided by the course instructor. The student remains responsible for the content of their work, regardless of the sources used.
To ensure that the student’s written work is personal, criteria such as originality, critical thinking, creativity, and illustration with examples (e.g., from their own experience) will be taken into account. Any behavior by the student that prevents or attempts to prevent, in whole or in part, a correct assessment of their knowledge, skills, and/or competencies will be considered an irregularity that could lead to sanctions (0T = 0 fraud).

Faculty or entity

> PHLB