English Grammar and Discourse

This course studies the grammar-discourse interface. In the first part we shall analyse the grammar of the English sentence/clause adopting a socio-cognitive, discourse-functional perspective, whereas in the second part we shall scrutinise the main strategies that speakers/writers have to construct and interpret discourse in English from a linguistic point of view, as well as the features of different text types, registers and genres.

1.- Introduction. Grammar, discourse, text and context. Units of analysis.
2.- “Information packaging”. Informative categories: Theme, Focus, Given and New, Topic. Marked vs unmarked constructions.
3.- Cohesion and coherence. Grammatical and lexical cohesion. Coherence and discourse interpretation.
4.- Discourse types. The notions of genre, register and text type. Main classifications and analysis of examples.

Basic bibliography
Biber, Douglas et al. 1999. Longman grammar of spoken and written English. London: Longman. Chps. 11, 12, 13 and 14.
Downing, Angela, & Philip Locke. 2006. English grammar: a university course. Second edition. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge. Chp. 6.
Flowerdew, John. 2013. Discourse in English Language Education. New York: Routledge.
Gómez González, María de los Ángeles. 2001. The Theme-Topic interface: Evidence from English. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Halliday M.A.K., Matthiessen C.M.I.M, 2014. An Introduction to Functional Grammar. London: Hodder Arnold. Chps. 3 and 9.
Huddleston, Rodney, Geoffrey K. Pullum et al. 2002. The Cambridge grammar of the English language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Chps. 16 and 17.
Swales, John M. 1990. Genre analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Werlich, Eugene. 1982. A text grammar of English. Heidelberg: Quelle & Meyer.


Complementary bibliography
Alba-Juez, Laura. 2009. Perspectives on Discourse Analysis: Theory and Practice. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Bhatia Vijai K. 2004. Worlds of written discourse: A genre-based view. London: Continuum.
Bhatia, Vijai, Joan Flowerdew & Rodney Jones. 2007. Advances in Discourse Analysis. London: Routledge.
Biber, Douglas. 1995. Dimensions of register variation. A cross-linguistic comparison. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Brown, Gillian & George Yule. 1983. Discourse analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Gómez González, María de los Ángeles. 1994. The relevance of Theme in the textual organization of BBC News Reports. Word 45.3: 293-305.
Gómez González, María de los Ángeles. 1998. A corpus based analysis of Extended Multiple Themes in Present day English. International Journal of Corpus Linguistics 3.1: 81-114.
Gómez González, María de los Ángeles. 2013. A Reappraisal of Lexical Cohesion in English Conversations. Applied Linguistics 34.2: 128-150.
Gómez González, María de los Ángeles & Francisco Gonzálvez García.2005. On clefting in English and Spanish. In C. S. Butler, M.D.L.Á. Gómez-González & S. M. Doval-Suárez. (eds), The Dynamics of Language Use: Functional and Contrastive Perspectives. 155-196.
Hyland, K. 2002. Disciplinary discourses: Social interactions in academic writing. London: Longman.
Johnstone, Barbara. 2008 [2002]. Discourse analysis. Malden, MA & Oxford: Blackwell.
Levinson, Stephen C. 1983. Pragmatics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Martin, J.R. 1992. English Text: System and Structure. Amsterdam: Benjamins
Martin, J.R. & D. Rose. 2003. Working with Discourse. London: Continuum.
McCarthy, M. & Carter, R. 1994).Language as Discourse. Perspectives for Language
Teaching. London: Longman.
Prince, Ellen F. 1981. “Toward a taxonomy of given-new information”. In Peter Cole, ed. Radical pragmatics. New York: Academic Press, 223–255.
Renkema, Jan. 2004. Introduction to discourse studies. Amsterdam: Benjamins.
Schiffrin, Deborah. 1994. Approaches to discourse. Oxford: Blackwell. [In photocopy service: Chapters 1 (Overview), 2 (Definitions of discourse), 6 (Pragmatics), Bibliography.]
Schiffrin, Deborah, Deborah Tannen & Heidi E. Hamilton, eds. 2001. The handbook of discourse analysis. Malden, MA & Oxford: Blackwell.
Paltridge, Brian. 1997. Genre, frames and writing in research settings. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Paltridge, Brian. 2006. Discourse analysis. London: Continuum.
Taboada, Maite. 2004. Building coherence and cohesion: Task-oriented dialogue in English and Spanish. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.

CG3, CG6, CG7, CG8, CG9, CE2, CE3

- Development of English language learning skills, with particular attention to the study of grammar, discourse, registers and genres in English.
- Development of metalinguistic skills.
- Development of linguistic research skills.
- Development of language (linguistic, grammatical and communicative) awareness skills.
- Development of language contrastive skills.
- Development of skills for the analysis and critical reading of bibliographical references on grammar, discourse, registers and genres in English.

- Teacher presentations and tutorials introducing the topics under analysis
- Participation in class
- Critical commentary of specific course readings
- Exercises and obligatory tasks (individual or group work) and issues for discussion
- Final exam

Continuous evaluation (first sit and resit students):

• A. Final written examination: 80%.

• B. Oral presentation of a project in class (preferably in groups, although each presenter will be individually assessed): 20%

In order to be able to add the score awarded in the oral presentation, students must have obtained at least a 4 in the final exam.

The assessment system will be the same in the first and second opportunities. In the second opportunity, the score obtained in B in the first opportunity will be kept. This percentage will be lost if the student fails to do the tasks asked.

Resit students who wish to renounce continuous assessment and opt for final exam assessment must inform the subject coordinator by e-mail via the CV DURING THE FIRST WEEK OF CLASS. If this communication does not take place, it will be understood that they opt for continuous assessment.

The assessment of students officially exempt from class attendance will be based exclusively on the result obtained in a written final exam (100% of the grade), both in the first and in the second opportunity.

IMPORTANT

• Class attendance is compulsory.

• Abscences must be notified within 10 days, after which deadline justifications will not be accepted.

• The course is taught in English. Fluency and correct English usage will be taken into account when marking the exams and the assignments.

• Inadequate academic behaviour (plagiarism, cheating in exams, etc.) will be penalized. In the case of fraudulent performance of exercises or tests, the provisions of art. 16 of "Normativa de Evaluación de rendimiento académico de los estudantes y de revisión de calificaciones" will apply:

“A realización fraudulenta dalgún exercicio ou proba exixida na avaliación dunha materia implicará a cualificación de suspenso na convocatoria correspondente, con independencia do proceso disciplinario que se poida seguir contra o alumno infractor. Considerarse fraudulenta, entre outras, a realización de traballos plaxiados ou obtidos de fontes accesibles ao público sen reelaboración ou reinterpretación e sen citas aos autores e das fontes”.

100 hours

- The student should become familiar with the recommended reading material.
- The student should clarify doubts in class and in the compulsory tutorials.
- Class attendance and participation are important since the course has a strong practical component.
- Individual work.