ENGL 331-001
The Structure of Modern English: Sentences and Their Uses
Stefan Dollinger
Term 1
TTh, 2:00 PM-3:30 PM
Join this key course for any English major! Do not opt out of it for fear, just give it a try! Often considered the “tough” stuff of English that everyone wishes they knew, but few actually do, let’s together unlock the beauty of syntactic analysis. Use it for English, to teach, in your own writing, just to show off when you need to. Use it for any of your other languages (and learn to adapt it to these). With a brand-new textbook by very nice and capable linguists, we will explore the idea of the word, the subject, the object, how the “play” together and, for instance, how the latter is different from an object complement (spelled with an “e”).
Prerequisites: none. Just a mild level of interest and/or curiosity is enough.
Textbook: Börjars, Kersti and Kathryn Burridge. 2019. Introducing English Grammar. Third Edition. London: Routledge.
Deliverables:
- Quiz 1: 5%
- Quiz 2: 5%
- Presentation (in pairs): 15%
- Midterm exam: 20%
- Final exam: 30%
- Personal summary: 10%
- Attendance and Participation: 15%
This class observes the Golden Rule and comes with an Instructor Promise.
Golden Rule: Every contribution is a good contribution.
Instructor promise: I will take you with 0 knowledge of syntax and make you reasonable confident (or better) in the field.
As the Faculty of Arts has determined that all BA courses will be offered online in Fall 2020, this course will go ahead using a combination of asynchronous (recorded/text/online) materials and synchronous (real-time) classes in our designated timeslot. All readings you have already available in the textbook.
Looking forward to working with you! Join me on this ride through the “mechanics” of English.
