SYLLABUS

University of Al-Zaytuna College of Arts and Science, Tarhuna 

Department of English Language 

SYLLABUS FOR B.A ENGLISH LANGUAGE PROGRAMME 2016-2017

 COURSE INFORMATION

TITLE – THEORETICAL LINGUISTICS

Subject Code   – TL 401

Credit Hours       – 2 Hours Weekly

Target Audience  – Fourth Year Undergraduates

COURSE MATERIAL

Text book prescribed   -    The Study of Language 

Author                       -      George Yule

Publication                 -      Cambridge University Press

COURSE EVALUATION

Participation & Activities  -5%

Mid-Year Examination    - 35%

Final Examination          - 60%

COURSE OBJECTIVE:

Ø  To understand the nature of language and the scope of linguistics

Ø  To study the sounds of speech in terms of phonetics and phonology

Ø  To understand the study of morphology and morphological processes

Ø  To study restrictions that limit the ways in which sentences are constructed

Ø  To present the differences between formal and functional analysis

COURSE CONTENT

Universal properties of language: Displacement – Discreteness- Cultural transmission - Productivity- Arbitrariness – Duality- Variability

Phonetics and phonology (The sounds of language): Articulatory phonetics- The vocal tract – Place of articulation – Manner of Articulation – Acoustic phonetics and auditory phonetics – Phonology – Phonemes and allophones – Alternation and allomorphs – Types of phonological alternations _ Assimilation, dissimilation and elision

Words, word-formation, and morphology

Etymology; Coinage; Borrowing; Compounding; Blending; Clipping; Backformation; Conversion; Acronyms; Derivation; Prefixes and suffixes; Infixes; Multiple processes; Morphemes; Free and bound morphemes: Lexical and functional morphemes; Derivational and inflectional morphemes; Morphological description

Grammar and Syntax

Grammar; Traditional grammar; The prescriptive approach; The descriptive approach; Structural analysis; Immediate constituent analysis; Labeled and bracketed sentences; Generative grammar; Syntactic structures; Deep and surface structures; Structural ambiguity

References:

George Yule, The Study of Language, 3^rd edition, Cambridge University Press (2006)

An Introduction to Linguistics, Postgraduate Certificate Course, CIEFL, Hydrabad, India (2005)

Stuart C. Poole, An Introduction to Linguistics, Palgrave Macmillan, (2000)

Instructor: Shaiju Abraham Panikulam