This course is offered in the first term of the fourth year of the English Studies degree. It aims at enabling students to use, describe, and analyze the most common syntactic phenomena of English which feature ellipsis and non-canonical word orders. The analysis of the phenomena under discussion will be carried assuming the generative approach to the study of natural languages as developed in Principles and Parameters theory, which means that students will be assumed to be familiar with the concepts and tools introduced in the compulsory subjects English Grammar I and English Grammar II.

COMPETENCES



This subject belongs to the Module M05 English Linguistics. Specifically, it contributes to the achievement of module competence CM03:



M05CM03 To investigate the principles and the rules/processes that, according to specific theoretical accounts, are used to construct syntactic phrases, clauses and sentences, and to evaluate which theoretical accounts are more explanatory and have more predictive power.



Final achievement of the module competences above entails the fulfilment of the degree competences G001/G003/G008/G009:



G001 To be able to produce and understand any type of oral and written text in English.

G003 To analyse, synthesise, and explain the grammar and use of English.

G008 To be able to work autonomously and in teams, making use of the techniques and tools acquired.

G009 To be able to transmit the knowledge acquired in different academic contexts to be used in diverse professional contexts.



LEARNING OUTCOMES



By the end of the course, students can:



- identify and use the phenomena under discussion.

- describe those phenomena using the appropriate tools and terminology.

- evaluate the empirical, theoretical, and conceptual adequacy of the existing hypotheses for the explanation of their properties.

A.- Non-canonical syntax:

A.1. Topicalization, Focus Preposing, and VP Preposing

A.2. Left and Right Dislocation

A.3. Negative Inversion

A.4. Locative and Predicate Inversion

A.5. Heavy DP Shift

A.6. Extraposition from DP

A.7. It and There Extraposition

A.8. Clefts and Pseudoclefts

A.9. Inverse Copular Constructions



B.- Ellipsis phenomena:

B.1. VP Ellipsis

B.2. NP Ellipsis

B.3. Null Complement Anaphora

B.4. Gapping

B.5. Pseudogapping

B.6. Ellipsis in Comparatives

B.7. Stripping

B.8. Sluicing

B.9. Right Node Raising

Teaching practices:



1.- Lectures based on the use of handouts which will contain the core data of each phenomenon and details of the existing hypotheses for their explanation.

2.- Exercises to test that students can correctly identify and use the phenomenon.

3.- Exercises to test that students have understood the hypotheses proposed for the analysis of the phenomenon.

4.- Exercises to test that students can compare and evaluate the adequacy of the different hypotheses.

5.- Reading of original research papers dealing with the phenomena under discussion and exercises on the basis of their content.

• Sistema de Evaluación Final
• Herramientas y porcentajes de calificación:
  • Prueba escrita a desarrollar (%): 100

The students will take two on-site tests during the term, each carrying fifty percent the total marks for the subject.



The date of these tests will be announced in class and on eGela. It is the students responsibility to check their university e-mail account and to access eGela regularly to make sure they do not miss important dates.



The use of mobile or electronic devices as sources of information is strictly forbidden during the tests, as is the use of lecture notes, books or any other source.



Withdrawal from Continuous or Mixed Assessment: All students have the right to be evaluated according to the final evaluation procedure independently of whether or not they have participated in the continuous or mixed assessment module. In order to do so, they must write the instructor responsible for the course expressing their desire to withdraw from the continuous/mixed assessment. For quadmestral courses students can do so within the first 9 weeks of the course, according to the academic calendar of their centre.



Withdrawal from an exam call: Withdrawal from a call will be assessed as “no grade reported” [no presentado/a].

1. All students can withdraw from a call until at least one month before the date of the end of the teaching schedule of the corresponding course. This withdrawal must be submitted in writing to the instructor responsible for the course.

2. In the case of final assessment, not sitting the exam on the official date of the exam qualifies as an automatic withdrawal from the corresponding call.

For the Convocatoria Extraordinaria, students will take a global examination (100%, passmark 50%).



The use of mobile or electronic devices as sources of information is strictly forbidden during the tests, as is the use of lecture notes, books or any other source.

Handouts provided by the lecturer. Original research papers.

Bibliografía básica

Adger, D. 2003. Core syntax. A Minimalist Approach. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Carnie, Andrew. 2021. Syntax. A Generative Introduction. Fourth edition. WileyBlackwell.

Haegeman, L. (1991/1994). Introduction to Government and Binding Theory. Blackwell.

McCawley, J.D. (1988/1998). The Syntactic Phenomena of English. The University of Chicago Press.

Bibliografía de profundización

Arts, B. (2001). English Syntax and Argumentation. Palgrave.
Everaert, M. et al. (eds). (2005). The Blackwell Companion to Syntax. Blackwell.
Hornstein, Norbert, Jairo Nunes and Kleanthes K. Grohmann. 2005. Understanding Minimalism. Cambridge University Press.
Radford, A. (2004). Minimalist Syntax. Exploring the Structure of English. Cambridge University Press.
Radford, A. (2009). An Introduction to English Sentence Structure. Cambridge University Press.
Radford, A. (2009). Analysing English Sentences. A Minimalist Approach. Cambridge University Press.

Revistas

Lingua, Linguistic Inquiry, Linguistics, Linguistics and Philosophy, Natural Language and Linguistic Theory, Syntax

Direcciones web

- The University of Sheffield:
https://sites.google.com/a/sheffield.ac.uk/all-about-linguistics/branches/syntax
- Lexicon of linguistics: http://www2.let.uu.nl/uil-ots/lexicon/
- Generative Linguistics in the Old World (GLOW): https://glowlinguistics.org/
- The Linguist List: http://www.linguistlist.org
- The Linguistic Association of Great Britain: http://www.lagb.org.uk
- The Linguistic Society of America: http://www.linguisticsociety.org
- General information and linguistic materials: http://www.sil.org/linguistics/topical.html
- FAQs on the scientific study of human language: http://www.zompist.com/langfaq.html
- The domains of linguistics: https://www.linguisticsociety.org/resource/domain-linguistics
- The Linguistics fun page: http://www.ojohaven.com/fun/
- The Ling Space: http://www.thelingspace.com/
To draw tree diagrams:
- Syntax tree: http://ironcreek.net/phpsyntaxtree/?
- Treeform: http://www.ece.ubc.ca/~donaldd/treeform.htm