Descriptive Grammar - English

obligatory courses

The student is expected to have advanced knowledge of English language (at least B2/C1 according to CEFR).

The student is expected to have a basic knowledge of English practical grammar and a good command of terminology related to linguistics.

Classroom

The course is meant as an introduction to the basic concepts and key issues in the descriptive grammar of the English language. It takes as a starting point the knowledge about English grammar acquired by students in classes devoted to mastering and perfecting the practical knowledge of the grammar of English.

The course consists of four thematic modules:

• Module A. Introduction to grammatical analysis (the notion of grammar, morphology and syntax, principles of grammatical analysis)

• Module B. Basic clause patterns

• Module C. Derived clause patterns

• Module D. Overview of the major word classes and their associated phrases.

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Except for module A, constituting an introduction to the rest of the course, the modules may follow in any order, provided that module B always precedes module C.

The course is meant as an introduction to the basic concepts and key issues in the descriptive grammar of the English language. It takes as a starting point the knowledge about English grammar acquired by students in classes devoted to mastering and perfecting the practical knowledge of the grammar of English.

The course consists of four thematic modules:

• Module A. Introduction to grammatical analysis (the notion of grammar, morphology and syntax, principles of grammatical analysis)

• Module B. Basic clause patterns

• Module C. Derived clause patterns

• Module D. Overview of the major word classes and their associated phrases.

•

Except for module A, constituting an introduction to the rest of the course, the modules may follow in any order, provided that module B always precedes module C.

A detailed list of topics to be covered within each module is defined for particular cycles and groups.

The specific goals of the course are:

• to acquaint students with the basic concepts of English grammar and with English grammatical terminology

• to provide students with knowledge on English grammar that they will need in other courses offered in the Applied Linguistics programme

• to enable students to develop an awareness of grammatical phenomena in actual discourse, including texts to be analysed and/or translated

• to give students a solid foundation for their own attempts at describing and/or explaining features of English grammar to others.

The course in descriptive grammar of English as language B lasts two semesters. The student work-load in each semester of the course covers 60 teaching hours (2 pts. ECTS), including participation in class (30 hrs), individual work during the semester, including assignments and recommended reading (ca. 20 hrs), preparation for the final test (ca. 10 hrs).

Recommended reading

Textbooks (alphabetically):

• Biber D., Conrad S., Leech G., 2002, Longman Student Grammar of Spoken and Written English, London: Longman.

• Downing A., Locke Ph., 2006, English Grammar. A University Course London: Routledge.

• Greenbaum S., Quirk R., 1990, A Student's Grammar of the English Language, Harlow: Longman.

• Huddleston R., 1988, English Grammar - an Outline, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

• Huddleston R., 1984, Introduction to the Grammar of English, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Supplementary reading

a. descriptive grammars of English:

• Biber D., Johansson S., Leech G., Conrad S., Finegan E., 1999, Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English, Harlow: Longman.

• Halliday M.A.K., 1994, An Introduction to Functional Grammar (2nd ed.), London: Edward Arnold.

• Quirk R., Greenbaum S., Leech G., Svartvik J.,1985, A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language, Harlow: Longman.

b. dictionaries of English grammar:

• ChalkerS.,Weiner E., 1994, The Oxford Dictionary of English Grammar, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

• Trask R. L., 2000, The Penguin Dictionary of English Grammar, Harmondsworth: Penguin.

Other reading (for students of TTS)

• Fromkin, V., Rodman, R., 1993, An Introduction to Language, Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace College Publishers.

• Twardzisz, P., 2010, Patterns of English Word-Formation, Warszawa: Katedra Języków Specjalistycznych Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego.

Upon completion of the whole of the course students should

knowledge:

• be familiar with the basic concepts of English grammar and with English grammatical terminology

• have knowledge on the basic features of English grammar (and some of its pragmatic underpinnings) , to enable them participation in other courses offered in the Applied Linguistics programme of studies

skills:

• be able to use the above-mentioned knowledge for identifying and explaining selected problematic areas of English grammar’

• be able to conduct a simple grammatical analysis of the English clause based on the knowledge they have mastered

• be able to adequately apply the knowledge in the descriptive grammar of English course to formulate research questions in applied linguistics

social competences:

• be ready to make a critical assessment of the knowledge gained in descriptive grammar of English as an element of their academic and professional training in the Applied Linguistics programme of studies

• be ready to work together in a group, adopting different roles and respecting the principles of academic and professional ethic

Methods and criteria of assessment are formulated for particular cycles and groups.