Departamento de Filología Inglesa I, UCM

SINTAXIS DEL INGLÉS (grupo C)

Créditos ECTS: 6. Carácter: Obligatoria. Curso: 2º. Semestre: 1º

2013-2014 Dra. Elena Martínez Caro (Office: A-40)

A. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF THE COURSE

- The student will be expected (a) to identify and analyse grammatical units (clause, phrase and
word), and the immediate constituents of simple clauses and phrases in English, (b) to identify
and offer an adequate description of the different types of combinations of clauses to form
sentences, and (c) to know some of the main syntactic phenomena in relation to these units.

- A general aim is to make the student more conscious about the form and structural order of the
English language in order to improve his/her own linguistic production and comprehension.

B. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE COURSE

1. Introduction
1.1. The organisation of language in units
1.1.1. Units of grammatical analysis
1.2. Functions and categories
1.3. The parts of speech: Word classes
1.3.1. Content words (open-class words)
1.3.2. Functional words (closed-class words)
1.3.3. General properties and classification of the main classes of words
1.4. Morphemes
1.4.1. Affixation and compounding

2. The phrase
2.1. The phrase: an introduction
2.2. The verb phrase
2.2.1. Lexical and auxiliary verbs
2.2.2. Phrasal, prepositional and phrasal-prepositional verbs.
2.2.3. Tense, aspect, modality and voice: an introduction
2.3. The noun phrase
2.3.1. The structure of the noun phrase
2.3.2. The determiner. Articles. The genitive
2.3.3. The pronoun
2.4. The adjective and adverb phrases
2.5. The prepositional phrase

3. The clause
3.1. Finiteness
3.2. The interaction between subject and operator
3.3. Syntactic patterns: the functions of phrases
3.3.1. Monotransitive construction
3.3.2. Ditransitive construction
3.3.3. Resultative construction
3.3.4. Copular construction
3.3.5. Locomotive construction
 3.3.6. Middle construction
3.3.7. Extensions to the basic construction
3.4. An overview of clause types
3.4.1. Declaratives and interrogatives
3.4.2. Imperatives and exclamatives
3.4.3. Tag questions
3.5. Negation. Emphasis and coding
3.6. Further constructions
3.6.1. The inversion construction
3.6.2. The existential construction
3.6.3. The presentative construction

4. Enriching and expanding the clause

4.1. The adverbial
4.1.1. The adverb. Intraphrasal adverbs
4.1.2. Adjuncts
4.1.3. Disjuncts
4.1.4. Conjuncts
4.2. Building sentences
4.2.1. Coordination
4.2.2. Subordination
[Link]. Clausal adjuncts, disjuncts and conjuncts
[Link]. Non-restrictive relative clauses
4.2.3. Embedding
4.2.4. Clauses embedded in a phrase
[Link]. Restrictive relative clauses
[Link]. Appositional clauses
4.2.5. Cleft constructions

C. METHODOLOGY AND EVALUATION

- I will present and discuss in class the topics included in the contents of the course.
Nevertheless, classes are expected to be interactive. The reading of the reference books
recommended for each section will help the student to reinforce her/his knowledge and
understanding of that section and is highly recommended for those who find it difficult to
follow the theoretical discussion.
- The materials for this course can be extracted from Campus Virtual (Moodle) in the
different sections where files have been copied for students. These materials contain the
course guidelines (including the course table of contents), handouts related to each of the
units discussed in class and the worksheets (exercises) corresponding to each unit. When a
new unit is being introduced in class, students are expected to have the printout of the handout
corresponding to that unit, so that the discussion in class can be followed easily.
- Students are expected to complete the worksheets given, on an individual basis or in groups.
(I will collect these exercises and text analyses at the agreed dates to check their completion).
Failure to complete the exercises (with no justification) may lead to a non-passing grade at the
end of the year. All the exercises and tasks carried out during the course will be gathered
together and submitted again as a portfolio at the end of the course. This will count towards
your final mark (as 30% of the total final mark) together with other criteria such as class
attendance and participation (especially in sessions where exercises are corrected in class) and
attendance to tutorials.
- There will be a final examination in February. In order to qualify, students must pass the
final exam, which will count as 70% of the total final mark. However, students are required to
pass this exam before the mark of the portfolio may be added to this.
- Likewise, students are expected to be competent in the English language at a level which
is appropriate to a student in an English degree at University. The final mark in this subject
may be affected if the student’s level of English is not the appropriate one.

- Classroom attendance is very important.

D. BASIC BIBLIOGRAPHY [* recommended]

Aarts, B. 2008. English Syntax and Argumentation. 3rd revised and extended edition. London:
Palgrave Macmillan.
Aarts, F. & J. Aarts (1987) English Syntactic Structures: Functions and Categories in Sentence
Analysis. Workbook. Hemel Hempstead: Prentice Hall.
*Aarts, F. & J. Aarts (1988) English Syntactic Structures: Functions and Categories in Sentence
Analysis. Hemel Hempstead: Prentice Hall.
Biber, D., S. Johansson, G. Leech, S. Conrad & E. Finegan (1999) Longman Grammar of Spoken
and Written English. London: Longman.
Burton-Robers, N. (1997) Analysing Sentences: an Introduction to English Syntax. 2nd ed. London &
New York: Longman.
Carter, R. & M. McCarthy (2006) Cambridge Grammar of English: A Comprehensive Guide.
Spoken and Written English. Grammar and Usage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
*Downing, A. & P. Locke (2006) English Grammar: a University Course. 2nd ed. London: Routledge.
Givón, T. (1993) English Grammar: a Function-Based Introduction. Vols. I & II. Amsterdam: John
Benjamins.
*Huddleston, R. (1984) Introduction to the Grammar of English. Cambridge: University Press.
*Huddleston, R. (1988) English Grammar: an Outline. Cambridge University Press.
Huddleston, R. & G. K. Pullum (2002) The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language.
Cambridge: University Press.
*Huddleston, R. & G. K. Pullum (2005) A Student’s Introduction to English Grammar. Cambridge:
University Press.
*Mackenzie, J.L. & E. Martínez Caro. (2012) Compare and Contrast: A Grammar of English for
Speakers of Spanish. Granada: Comares.
Quirk, R., S. Greenbaum, G. Leech & J. Svartvik (1972) A Grammar of Contemporary English.
Harlow: Longman.
Quirk, R., S. Greenbaum, G. Leech & J. Svartvik (1985) A Comprehensive Grammar of the English
Language. Harlow: Longman.
Sánchez Benedito, Francisco. 2007. Gramática inglesa. 9th edition. Madrid: Pearson Longman.