The Morphosyntax of English - 000666

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Welcome to the course The Morphosyntax of English. On this page, you'll find the most important practical information that you'll need to know when taking this course . If after the first classes or at any point throughout the semester you find yourself with unanswered questions, queries or difficulties – practical or content-related – please ask! The sooner you contact me, the sooner I can help!

I look forward to working with you throughout the semester!

Dr Bastien De Clercq

Contact

bastien.de.clercq@vub.be, office 5B34.

Office hours by appointment, either on campus or online.

Course content

The course The Morphosyntax of English is the companion to Introduction to English linguistics and grammar. Both courses aim to provide university students of English with the basic linguistic tools and theoretical background necessary to embark on the scientific study of English.

The Morphosyntax of English provides an introductory yet detailed descriptive overview of the structure (or ‘grammar’) of standard British English, with a particular emphasis on its morphological and syntactic structure.

The theoretical discussions are illustrated during the lectures with ample examples and put to practice in the exercise sessions. For detailed information concerning the class schedule, see the course overview document in the Course administration module.

Course outcomes

By the end of this course students are expected to be able to use the specialised linguistic terminology and to have sufficient insight into the grammar of standard British English to allow more advanced study of the English language and its many varieties.

Course structure

This course involves weekly exercise sessions and lectures, and Q&A sessions every two weeks. The exercise sessions will take place on Mondays in two groups, one 2pm to 3pm in room D.2.16 and one from 3pm to 4pm in room D.2.18. The lectures for this course will take be posted on Canvas on a weekly basis as prerecorded videos. Every two weeks, an on-campus Q&A session will be organised to further discuss the topics from the lectures and to answer any questions you may have. These will take place in room i.2.01 on Mondays from 1pm to 2pm. As a rule, on-campus activities will not be live-streamed or recorded.

To help you keep track of all the course activities, a lesson-by-lesson overview of class and homework activities can be downloaded in the form of the Course overview document. 

IMPORTANT: please check the latest version of the course overview document and the announcements for any changes to the course structure.

Canvas

Additional practical information will be provided in class and via Canvas. The most important functions of Canvas for this course are Announcements, Modules and Quizzes.

  • Announcements: Important notifications (e.g. concerning a change in the class schedule) and reminders will be posted here. Be sure to check in Settings that you have notifications enabled for this course so that you receive a message in your VUB mail inbox when an announcement is made. And be sure to check your VUB email on a regular basis!
  • Modules: The pre-recorded lectures and the PowerPoint slides used in the lectures and the exercise sessions will be posted here, together with any other relevant class or homework materials.
  • Quizzes: This is where you will find our regular Q&A quizzes.

Course materials

  • Printed coursebook the Morphosyntax of English , developed by Dr Alex Housen (published by VUB Dienst Uitgaven, available at the campus bookshop).
  • Slides, video lectures and additional materials from the lectures and exercise sessions will be made available via Modules on Canvas.

Assessment

In both the first and second exam session, the final grade for this course is calculated on the basis of a written examination (100%).

Course summary:

Course Summary
Date Details Due