Universidad de Jaén

Section I: Linguistics, language and languages

Unit 1. Linguistics and language

1.1.1. Linguistics

1.1.2. Biological foundations of language

1.1.3. Animal communication and human communication

Unit 2. Languages

            2.1.1. Languages of the world

            2.1.2. Typology and universals

            2.1.3. Writing systems

Section II: Structure and use of language

Unit 3. Phonetics and Phonology

            3.1.1. Phonetics

            3.1.2. From sound to phoneme

            3.1.3. Syllable, suprasegmental features and phonological rules

Unit 4. Morphology

            4.1.1. Morphology, morpheme and the word

            4.1.2. Classes of morphemes and allomorphic variation

            4.1.3. Morphological processes

Unit 5. Syntax

            5.1.1. The sentence

            5.1.2. Syntactic relations

            5.1.3. Three levels of functional organization

Unit 6. Semantics

            6.1.1. Semantics, meaning and words

            6.1.2. From lexical to sentence semantics

            6.1.3. Semantic relationships

Unit 7. Pragmatics

            7.1.1. The study of language in action

            7.1.2. Implicit. Politeness

            7.1.3. Relevance

Section III: Branches and applications of Linguistics

Unit 8. Sociolinguistics

            8.1.1. Linguistic varieties

            8.1.2. Bilingualism and diglossia

            8.1.3. Language policy and planning

Unit 9. Psycholinguistics

9.1.1. Language acquisition

            9.1.2. Linguistic comprehension and production

            9.1.3. Language pathologies

Unit 10. Applied linguistics

            10.1.1. Language teaching

            10.1.2. Lexicography

            10.1.3. Linguistics and computing

The course consists of ten units, which will be conceded the same weight and time, being developed each one during five work sessions: one of presentation, three of theoretical work and one of practical work. Therefore, the first of these sessions will always be a global presentation of the subject by the lecturer, in which he will:

• place the unit in the whole subject and will indicate what its fundamental objectives are;
• make an outline of its theoretical contents;
• comment the bibliographic guide and digital links;
• plan the overall work of the unit, both theoretical and practical.

Each one of the three theoretical sessions will be devoted to the development of one of the three epigraphs that make up each unit. The theoretical materials for the study will have to be prepared by the student from the bibliographic guide and the lists of specific objectives offered by the lecturer in the student's disk.

Then, in each section the student will have a list of the specific objectives to be covered, that is, of the contents that he/she must dominate when the subject ends; and, for the achievement of such objectives, the student will have the support of a bibliography (basic and complementary) and a list of specialized journals and websites. Regarding the class sessions, they will be dedicated to the exposition, clarification, comment and discussion of the specific objectives of each section. Furthermore, and with the purpose of making easier the monitoring of the global content of the topic, each theoretical session will begin with a brief summary of the main issues addressed in the previous session. This summary will be carried out by a voluntary student.

Regarding the practical aspect of the subject, the student's disk offers two types of activities within each of the units (in both cases digital activities, to be carried out on a computer). On one hand, the self-test activities, designed for the student to reinforce his/her knowledge by his/her own and the skills acquired in the theoretical part of the subject. These activities have the particularity of offering different types of corrections and help for their realization; they do not will be worked in class. On the other hand, evaluation activities, which will be the material which will be developped  in class during the practical session of each unit. In any case, the student can also work individually on these activities out of class.

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 evaluation will consist of three components: class attendance, participation in the activity and the grade obtained in the final exam. The final grade obtained by the student will be derived from said components in the following proportion: a) 10% for assistance, b) 30% for participation, and c) 60% for the exam. Each of these three components will be scored over ten so the overall score will be calculated according to the previous proportions. Regarding attendance, the teacher will pass a signature sheet on randomly selected days.

At the end of the course, that student who has attended at least a 50% of the sessions will obtain five points and those who exceed 80% of assistance will get ten points. Regarding participation, and given that all the activities are planned as voluntary, it will be valued the actual fact of carrying those activities out, also considering the effort expended and the results obtained in them. The range of possibilities for student participation, as explained above, is broad: from the spontaneous participation in class to the active involvement in the practices, as well as other possibilities such as the presentation of the summaries before the beginning of each theoretical session.

Finally, the exam will have two parts: a first part, of analogical nature (on paper), in which there will be presented four questions (taken literally from the specific objectives of the epigraphs), so the student will answer three of them, the ones he/she chooses; and a second part, of digital nature (on computer), in which the student will perform 30 activities determined randomly from the set of evaluation activities of all subjects. The analog test will be 30% and the digital test 70% of the total grade of the exam.

Lastly, we should not forget the case of students who, because of their personal circumstances, cannot get involved in the daily development of the subject (because, for example, have a working schedule coincident with that of the class), or who have not passed the subject in the ordinary call, so they have to appear in the extraordinary call. In both cases, the evaluation must be based only in the grade obtained in the exam, which will be the final grade of the subject. The first of the assumptions must be reliably accredited beforehand.