instructor
Rákosi, György
office
UD Main Building 115
email
[email protected]
IEAS page
http://ieas.unideb.hu/rakosi
Névmásblog
http://nevmasblog.wordpress.com
Névmásblog on FB
http://www.facebook.com/nevmasblog
CHALLENGING GRAMMAR
2016-17 Spring semester
AN21003BA
AN2104OMA
AN1050MA
time
venue
Wednesday, 16:00-17:40
Main Building 54
This course offers a sightseeing tour around the grammar of certain designated English constructions. We
will be interested in what grammatically relevant meaning features are coded in these constructions and how
these features are expressed through structure. We simply raise certain basic questions, and discuss them in
the context of the English language, keeping an eye on other languages we know, without introducing any
particular theoretical framework of analysis. The course itself is a walk through selected areas of English
grammar, including some well-known and some less well-known constructions that will illustrate some of the
potential that language has to combine forms and meanings.
Classes are divided into two parts. First, we select an English construction (like reflexive verbs), and discuss
the problems it raises in an intuitive, theory-neutral framework. Then we do various practical exercises, partly
in the hope of being able to apply our conclusions to real language data. Many of the exercises are based on
data collected from various corpora of the English language. Course material will be distributed in the classes
as handouts.
week 1
22/02
INTRODUCTION
week 2
01/03
THE ENGLISH BINOMINAL CONSTRUCTION
She is yet another jewel of a student.
week 3
08/03
UNIVERSAL QUANTIFIERS IN ENGLISH
Each student reads both books.
week 4
15/03
NO CLASS - NATIONAL HOLIDAY
week 5
22/03
REFLEXIVE AND RECIPROCAL VERBS
The students agreed to meet.
week 6
29/03
CONSTRUCTION AFTER CONSTRUCTION
Student after student came in.
week 7
05/04
THE WTF CONSTRUCTION
Who the devil are you?
week 8
12/04
NO CLASS - CONSULTATION WEEK
week 9
19/04
STUDENT PRESENTATIONS I
week 10
26/04
STUDENT PRESENTATIONS II
week 11
03/05
POLARITY ITEMS IN ENGLISH
There is hardly any tea left.
week 12
10/05
CAUSATIVE LIGHT VERBS
It got them giggling every time.
week 13
17/05
DATIVE SHIFT
Send me the paper.
week 14
24/05
END-TERM TEST
ATTENDANCE
O
o
No more than three absences are allowed.
You must attend at least one of the first two classes in person. The instructor reserves the right to reject
any students who fail to comply with this requirement.
GRADING
Grading is based upon:
o
o
o
attendance and participation in classes,
an in-class presentation,
and an endterm test or a take-home essay
GRADING COMPONENT
attendance & participation
in-class presentation
option 1: endterm test
option 2: take-home essay
WEIGHT
0.1
0.3
0.6
0.6
SCHEDULE
19 or 26 April
24 May
Presentation
o
o
o
o
You choose an English construction, briefly describe its form, and then explain its meaning or function.
Prepare a handout of at most 2 pages. Only handouts are accepted: no slideshows.
Submit the handout as a pdf file forwarded in an email by 17 April 2017 at the latest.
Late submission policy: a reduction of 10% in the respective grade for each day after the deadline. So, if
your presentation is 5, but you were two days late, you get a 4 for your presentation.
o See the next page for useful sources/tools. Always feel free to contact me if you have any questions.
Endterm or take-home essay
You have a choice: you either write a comprehensive endterm test in class covering all the material of the
course, or you write a take home essay.
Essay requirements:
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
Length: at least 2000 words. Submission: electronically.
You can write about any construction that we discuss in class, or about any other constructions that you
choose. You can also include some empirical work (corpus study or questionnaire).
You can either write about English, or any other languages that you prefer (Hungarian, Dutch, German,
Italian, Spanish, Japanese, Finnish, etc.). You can also compare dialects of English.
Visit the following pages for useful linguistic resources and readings. The blogs you find there are fully
acceptable sources for your papers and they offer a plethora of interesting topics.
 Useful resources in and on English
 Useful resources in and on Hungarian
Contact me if you cannot pick a suitable topic, or if you have any questions.
Deadline 1: 20 April, 2017. Send me a brief overview of your planned essay (100-200 words).
Deadline 2: 24 May, 2017. Submit the paper.
Late submission policy: a reduction of 10% in the respective grade for each day after the deadline. So, if
your essay is 5, but you were two days late, you get a 4 for your essay.