MIDLANDS STATE UNIVERSITY
ENGLISH AND COMMUNICATION DEPARTMENT
MAAEL 702: Syntax and Semantics
Lecturer: Mr E. Jakaza
Venue: Communication Skills Centre
COURSE OVERVIEW
AIMS OF THE COURSE
This course has three broad aims:
 To introduce students to the current developments in the study of linguistics
 To give students a more general idea of the nature of syntactic and semantic
organisation of language
 To develop students’ skills in linguistic analysis
By the end of the semester students should be able to:
 Recognise and describe the key concepts found within syntactic structures and
semantic structures.
 Discuss major syntactic and semantic theories at various forums
 Analyse data from a theoretical basis
MODULE OUTLINE
1. Chomsky and the study of linguistics
2. Thematic Roles and Grammatical Relations
3. Motion Verbs
4. Complementation in English
5. Phrase Structure Rules
6. Government and Binding Theory
7. Principles and Parameters
8. X- Bar Theory
9. Minimalist Program
10. Lexical Functional Grammar
11. Lexical Mapping Theory
12. Sense and Sense Relations
13. Theories of Meaning
ASSESSMENT
Questions relating to this component will appear in the final examination which will be taken
by all students. The questions will be based on the material from lectures and reading, as
well as the exercises done during lectures.
 Continuous assessment consists of one essay and a presentation (30%), in addition to
the final examination at the end of the semester (70%).
References
Abercrombie, D. 1967. Elements of General Phonetics. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University
Press
Chomsky, N. 1982. Lectures on Government and Binding. Dordrecht: Foris Publications
Cook, V. J. 1988. Chomsky’s Universal Grammar. Oxford: Basil Blackwell
Fromkin, V. And R. Rodman. 1992. An Introduction to Language (5th Edition). New York:
Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich College Publishers
Haegeman, L. 1994. Introduction to Government & Binding Theory (2nd Edition). Oxford:
Basil Blackwell
Harford- Perez, C. Aspects of Complementation in three Bantu Lnaguages. PhD dissertation.
Horrocks, G. 1987. Generative Grammar. Longman Group
Jakaza, E. 2006. Complementation in Chakari Nyanja
Levin, B. 1993. Motion verbs in English.
Lyons, J. 1968. Introduction to Theoretical Linguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press
Lyons, J. Linguistics Semantics: An Introduction.
Palmer, P. R. 1994. Grammatical Roles and Relations. Cambridge University Press
Radford, A. 1988. Transformational Grammar. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Robins, R. H. 1989. General Linguistics: An Introductory Survey (4th Edition). London:
Longman
Spencer, A. 1991. Morphological Theory: An Introduction to Word Structure in Generative
Grammar. Oxford: Basil Blackwell