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  3. Bachelor in Languages, Literatures and Cultures
  4. Portuguese and English Studies
  5. English Linguistics

English Linguistics

Objectives

By the end of this course, students will be able to:
(i) describe key aspects of the phonology, morphology, syntax and semantics of English;
(ii) master theoretical tools for the linguistic analysis of English data from a comparative perspective;
(iii) identify the main characteristics of different varieties of English.
The learning outcomes are well aligned with the teaching methods used in this course. The combination of theoretical lectures and practical activities ensures that students develop both foundational knowledge and analytical skills.

General characterization

Code

01100221

Credits

6.0

Responsible teacher

Maria Alexandra Moreira de Jesus Fieis e Melo, Joana Alexandra Vaz Teixeira

Hours

Weekly - 4

Total - 168

Teaching language

Portuguese

Prerequisites

N/A

Bibliography

Aarts, B. (2017). English syntax and argumentation (5th ed.). Palgrave.
Crystal, D. (2002). The English language: A guided tour of the language. Penguin Books.
Finegan, E. (2015). Language: Its structure and use (7th ed.). Cengage Learning.
Fromkin, V., Rodman, R., & Hyams, N. (2017). An introduction to language (11th ed.). Cengage Learning.
O’Grady, W., & Archibald, J. (Eds.) (2016). Contemporary linguistic analysis. An introduction (8th ed.). Pearson.
Plag, I., Arndt-Lappe, S., Braun, M., & Schramm, M. (2015). Introduction to English linguistics. De Gruyter.
Quirk, R., Greenbaum, S., Leech, G., & Starvik, J. (1985). A comprehensive grammar of the English language. Longman.
Starvik, J., & Leech, G. (2006). English. One tongue, many voices. Palgrave Macmillan.

Teaching method

The classes are theoretical-practical, involving lectures and practical work on each topic of the syllabus. This work includes different types of knowledge application
activities, most of which require observation and analysis of linguistic data.

Evaluation method

Midterm test - 45%
Final test - 45%
Coursework - 10%

Subject matter

1. English phonetics and phonology
1.1 The sounds of English: articulatory representation and classification
1.2 Phonemes, free variants and contextual variants
1.3 Phonological processes
1.4 Prosodic properties: syllable, stress and intonation
2. English morphology
2.1 The morphological structure of words: morphemes and their variants
2.2 Inflection
2.3 Word formation and lexical creation
2.4 The compounding parameter
3. From lexicon to syntax
3.1 Word classes and subclasses
3.2 Argument structure
4. English syntax
4.1 Sentence structure: constituents, categories and functions
4.2 The subject in English: referential and expletive subjects, subject-auxiliary inversion, and subject-verb inversion
4.3 The object in English: dative alternation and the dative passive
4.4 Simple and complex sentences: coordination and subordination
5. Variation in English
5.1 English in the world
5.2 Dialectal variation in English
5.3 Languages in contact: pidgins and English-based creoles