Department of Theoretical and Applied Linguistics
The MPhil in English and Applied Linguistics (2011/12)
English Morphologhy and Syntax
This course provides a basic introduction to English grammar. The course includes a study of English word structure and an examination of the grammar of English phrases, clauses and constructions. It concentrates on the relationship between linguistic forms and their use and interpretation, and is especially interested in the insights that contemporary theoretical work on English syntax brings to descriptive grammar. In the first term particular attention will be devoted to issues of verb morphology and argument structure. In the second term, tense, mood and aspect systems of English will be discussed before turning to the other major parts of speech and their phrasal counterparts. The principal emphasis is on using theory to elucidate points of English syntax rather than on a theoretical discussion per se.
Reading for this course will include:
- Huddlestone, R. 1984. An Introduction to the Grammar of English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
