Universidad de Jaén

1. Language as a communicative system

1.1. Language as a system of signals

1.2. The process of communication

1.3. Pragmatics and communication: the Cooperative Principle

1.4. Speech Acts:

            1.4.1. Definition

            1.4.2. History

            1.4.3. Felicity conditions for happy performatives

            1.4.4. Types of speech acts

            1.4.5. Illocutionary acts

            1.4.6. Indirect speech acts.

2. Structure expansion and structure reduction. Asyndetic, paratactic and hypotactic connections

2.1. Introduction. Definition of asyndeton, parataxis and hypotaxis

2.2. Formal indicators of coordination and subordination

2.3. Semantic implications of coordinators

2.4. Embedding and rank

2.5. Reduction:

            2.5.1. Ellipsis

            2.5.2. Pro-forms: co-reference and substitution.

3. The complex sentence

3.1. Introduction

3.2. Classification of subordinate clauses according to structural and functional criteria

3.3. Nominal clauses

3.4. Adverbial clauses

3.5. Comparative clauses.

4. A functional perspective of the English sentence

4.1. Introduction

4.2. Theoretical foundations: towards a formalist-functionalist linguistics

4.3. 'Functional Sentence Perspective' and English grammar

4.4. 'Thematic structure' and 'information structure' of the sentence: the concepts 'theme' and 'rheme', 'topic' and 'comment', 'given' and 'new'

4.5. Factors contributing to one particular presentation of the linguistic message: communicative, prosodic, grammatical

4.6. Natural word order vs. marked word order: syntactic processes of thematization and postponement.

5. Text and discourse

5.1. From sentence to text

5.2. Grammatical structure and pragmatic interaction

5.3. Text and discourse. Text Grammar and Discourse Analysis

5.4. The rhetoric of text

5.5. Coherence and cohesion.

The syllabus above will be developed by means of both theoretical and practical lessons. The former will be devoted to lectures on the contents of the programme. Students will also be requested to study a selection of bibliographical references specially chosen because of their relevance to the various subjects of the syllabus. In consequence, bibliography should become an essential, indispensable means to acquire a solid understanding of the concepts under study and gain new insights into them. This will eventually lead students to discover controversial areas which are worth deeper attention and may become the subject of further research.

            Practical lessons will include various tasks: grammatical exercises, analysis, and revision of particular bibliographical references related to each topic. All of these will prove essential instruments to assimilate grammar fully.

            Students are invited to attend tutorial sessions as a follow-up to the work done in the classroom or at home. This will provide them with an opportunity to solve problems, check their progress and organize their assignments.

Students with special educational needs should contact the Student Attention Service (Servicio de Atención y Ayudas al Estudiante) in order to receive the appropriate academic support

The exam paper will be intended to test the student's theoretical knowledge and practical understanding of the syllabus. Consequently, it will consist of the following:

            - Questions on the contents of the bibliographical references: definition with examples of basic grammatical concepts.

            - Grammatical test, including exercises of the type done in class.

                  - Grammatical analysis of an English text.

The evaluation of the student's theoretical knowledge and practical training will be based on three criteria:

• 15% of the total mark will be obtained on the basis of their regular attendance at and active participation in classes.
• 70% comes from the quality of the final exam taken by the students at the end of the semester.
• 15% corresponds to the work done in the classroom (oral contributions and exercises) and the submission of assignments.