Asignatura: Prácticas de Gramática Inglesa I Año Académico: 2004/2005 Código: 31973203 Titulación: Licenciatura de Filología Inglesa Carácter: Obligatoria Ciclo: 2º Curso: 3º Cuatrimestre: 1º Créditos Teóricos y Prácticos: 6 Créditos (2 T+ 4 P) Departamento: Filología Inglesa y Alemana Área De Conocimiento: Filología Inglesa Profesor: Francisco Gonzálvez García 1. OBJECTIVES AND METHODOLOGY: The aim of this course is to provide students with a cursory analysis of central topics in English contemporary lexicology and semantics from both a theoretical and descriptive standpoint, with special focus on the relationship between grammar and semantics. Lectures will be delivered in English. Students will be asked to take active participation in class discussions as well as to do some complementary readings on specific aspects of the syllabus to be determined in class. 2. SYLLABUS: 1. CLEARING THE GROUND: SOME BASIC UNITS OF SEMANTIC DESCRIPTION 1.1. The definition and scope of semantics. Its relationship to syntax and pragmatics. 1.2. The meaning of “meaning”. 1.3. Lexemes and word-forms. 1.4. Lexical meaning and grammatical meaning”. 1.5. Synonymy, antonymy, polysemy and homonymy. 1.6. Predication, attribution and modification. 2. FROM SEMANTICS TO PRAGMATICS: A WORLD OF USERS 2.1. Why do we need Pragmatics? 2.2. Presupposition, conventional implicature and conversational implicature. Grice´s Cooperative Principle. 2.3. Speech act theory: a taxonomy of speech acts. Direct speech acts and indirect speech acts. 2.4. Pragmatics and discourse analysis: the notion of politeness. 3. GRAMMATICAL WORDS, SEMANTIC ROLES, AND SYNTACTIC FUNCTIONS 3.1. A semantic classification of nouns: common/proper, countable/uncountable, concrete/abstract. 3.2. A semantic classification of adjectives: stative/dynamic, gradable/nongradable, inherent/non-inherent. 3.3. A semantic classification of verbs: a repertoire of the most recurrent verb classes in English. 3.4. A (syntactico-)semantic classification of adverbs: adjuncts, subjuncts, conjuncts, and disjuncts. 3.5. An inventory of the semantic roles commonly associated with the most typical syntactic functions in English. 3.6. The notion of valency and the concept of syntactic pattern. An outline of the basic sentence patterns in English. 4. THE SEMANTICS OF THE ENGLISH VERB PHRASE (i): TENSE, ASPECT, PHASE AND VOICE. 4.1. The tense system in English: its semantic implications. 4.2. The aspect system in English: its semantic implications. 4.3. The phase system in English: its semantic implications. 4.4. The voice system in English: its semantic implications. 5. THE SEMANTICS OF THE ENGLISH VERB PHRASE (II): MOOD AND MODALITY 5.1. Towards a definition of modality. 5.2. Factivity and the realis/irrealis distinction. 5.3. Knowledge modality: necessity and possibility. 5.4. Influence or agent-oriented modality: obligation, permission, prohibition and exemption. 5.5. The semantics of the imperative and the subjunctive in English. 6. ASSESSMENT: There will be a final exam, consisting of three basic types of exercises: (i) an essay-like commentary on a general topic taking a quote or a small corpus as the point of departure for your contentions, (ii) definition and exemplification of concepts, and (iii) grammatical commentary in which the students will be asked to demonstrate their command of the subject at a practical level. The paper is to be written in English. Gross use-of-English mistakes will be penalized. 7. RECOMMENDED BIBLIOGRAPHY: Dixon, R.M.W. (1991), A New Approach to Grammar, on Semantic Principles. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Frawley, W. (1993), Linguistic Semantics. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. Greenbaum, S. & R. Quirk. (1991), A Student´s Grammar of the English Language. London: Longman. Leech, G. (1971), Meaning and the English Verb. London: Longman. Levinson, S.C. (1989), Pragmatics. Cambridge: CUP. Lyons, J. (1977), Semantics (2 vols.). Cambridge: CUP. Lyons, J. (1995), Linguistic Semantics: An Introduction. Cambridge: CUP: Palmer, F. (1986), Mood and modality. Cambridge: CUP. Parsons, T. (1994), Events in the Semantics of English: A Study of Subatomic Semantics. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. Pustejovsky, J. (ed.) (1993), Semantics and the Lexicon. Dordrecht: Kluwer. Quirk, R. et al. (1985), A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language. London: Longman. Wierzbicka, A. (1988), The Semantics of Grammar. Amsterdam/North Holland: John Benjamin