03 January 2013

HNDE Syllabus Year 1 – Semester I - EN 1105: Language Structure, Usage and Linguistics I


 EN 1105: Language Structure, Usage and Linguistics I

Word classes and their grammatical functions
·         Open classes: nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs
·         Closed classes: determiners, pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions, operator-verbs, interjections, enumerators.
·         Types of activities: write examples for each word class
·         Rationale for word classes in grammar: Words which belong to one class only can be used in a particular position in a sentence. Provide examples.
·         List the differences between the two types: e.g. open class-thousands of words. Closed classes- limited number
·         Some words appear under more than one word class, e.g. ‘play’ as noun and verb, ‘that’ as determiner and conjunction
·         Types of activities: write sentences to show how the word ‘round’ appears as noun, verb, adjective, adverb, and preposition.

Elements of grammar
·         Units of language:
The sentence-a set of words standing on their own as a sense unit.
Clause – a kind of mini sentence, a set of words which makes a sense but may not be concluded by a full stop. A sentence may have only one clause or 2 or more clauses.
The phrase: A shorter unit of one or more words e.g. noun phrase
·         Parts of a sentence
Subject (topic), predicate (everything said about the topic)-give examples
·         Sentence elements
-   Subject, verb, object, complement, adverbial
-   The most common parts of the sentences
-   Object may be direct or indirect, the complement refers to the same thing as the subject,
-   Adverbial adds further information (words, phrases such as, at home, yesterday)
·         Activities: make sentences using the clause elements. Analyse their structure.

The simple sentence
·         A sentence consisting of only one clause
·         Clause types: S V, S V O , S V C, S V O , S V O O , S V O A , (provide examples)
·         Activities: Indicate to which of the clause types the given sentences belong to

The simple sentence: questions, commands, exclamations, negation
·         Questions - 3 major classes according to the type of answer expected
-   Yes-no questions- operator is placed before the subject. If there is no operator, ’do’ is introduced, e.g. Has the boat left?  Does he like Mary?
-   Wh- questions:
-   Alternative questions-
·         Commands: Usually has no subject. It has an imperative finite verb (the base form) of the verb
·         Exclamations: sentences which have an initial phrase introduced by ‘what’ or ‘how’
e.g. What a noise they are making!
·         Negation: accomplished by inserting ‘not’, n’t ‘between the operator and the predication

Nouns
·         Noun classes
·         Differences between count and mass nouns, regular and irregular nouns, abstract and concrete nouns.

The noun phrase
·         Structure of the noun phrase: head word, pre-modifiers, post modifiers
·         Word classes that can function as pre-modifiers-determiners, enumerators, adjectives, modifying nouns
·         Word classes that can function as post modifiers-mostly prepositional phrases
·         Functions of the noun phrase-subject, direct object, indirect object, complement, apposition, adverbial. (provide examples)
·         Activities: analysis of noun phrases, expanding the noun phrase using pre and post modifiers.

      Varieties of English
·         Geographical and national varieties
·         Varieties according to medium: written / spoken
·         Varieties according to attitude: formal / informal

Language learning and language acquisition
·         The difference between the two in language learning (Krashen’s theory)
·         Implications for the language classroom