(sec. 1, class #13722, meeting times TTH 15:30-16:45 (subject to change in long distance work post-Spring Break)
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ENG310: Modern English Grammar (sec. 1, class #13722, meeting times TTH 15:30-16:45 (subject to change in long distance work post-Spring Break) |
| Professor: Email: Office: |
Prof. Sharon Cote cotesa@jmu.edu Keezell 209, Ext. 8-2510 |
Availability: | I am available during my office hours (virtual, starting March 24 -- by email and Google Hangouts) and by appointment. |
Description: In this course, we will examine the structure of the English language from a modern, linguistic perspective. We'll discover what it means to be a native speaker of a language and develop a conscious understanding of particular unconscious grammatical principles and rules that shape our
everyday use of English. More generally, students should come away from this course with a better awareness
of what grammar rules are, of where they come from, of how they can be determined, and of the extent to which they
are or are not fixed and comprehensive.
Required Text: Kaplan, Jeffrey P. (1995). English Grammar: Principles and Facts, 2nd Edition. **NOTE: NO PURCHASE NECESSARY--THIS BOOK IS AVAILABLE AS A FREE LOAN FROM PROF. COTE.**
Work and Grading: Assignments (16%), Midterm (32%), Final
(32%), Tests (20%). Attendance (except at tests/exams or as otherwise noted) is not mandatory; however, regular attendance is generally crucial for keeping up with the class and there may be occasional unscheduled IN-class assignments as well. If you miss a class, you may miss such assignments, and you are also responsible for the material and for checking for an at-home assignment link and doing any assignment due the next class period.
All at-home work must be completed before the start of class and must be turned in on time and in class except with permission, but you may skip or miss one "ungraded" assignment without affecting your assignment grade. Depending on their size, at-home assignments will be announced at least one class period before they are due and will be posted as links at the bottom of this webpage no later than the evening of that same day. (Links are named and ordered by the date they are due.) Assignments are graded only on acceptable effort -- as full credit, half credit, or no credit. In other words, you won't be penalized for incorrect information and will, in fact, sometimes be encouraged to do just your best with new textbook material. You must (of course!) make an honest attempt at all questions/examples on the assignment to get full credit.
The tentative dates for tests and exams are provided in the schedule below. Adjustments may be made to the course schedule to accomodate weather cancellations, other special circumstances, or class needs.
Please read my course policies for additional details about grading and other issues. Note: As in all your courses, your work for this course is subject to the
JMU Honor Code.
Daily Schedule: (Note: This is a tentative schedule of what will
be discussed in each class period.) You should have readings done before
the first class date on which they will be discussed.
| Date | Topic | Reading |
|---|---|---|
| 1/14 | "What is Grammar, anyway?" - An introduction to the course | |
| 1/16 | "That ain't what my teacher told me..." -- Defining modern grammar | Chap. 1, pp. 1-30 |
| 1/21 | The Sounds of English -- phonetics and phonology | Chapter 2, at least through page 52 |
| 1/23 | More Phonetics and Phonology | Chapter 2, remainder |
| 1/28 | Concluding Phonetics and Phonology and a Start on Making sounds Meaningful -- Morphology | Chap. 3, pp. 72-76 (top half) |
| 1/30 | "Antidisestablishmentarianism" -- building words with morphemes | Chap. 3, pp. 76 (bottom half)-85 (top half) |
| 2/4 | A Few More Ways We Get New Words (and brief review) | Chap. 3, remainder |
| 2/6 | TEST | |
| 2/11 | ASSESSMENT DAY -- NO CLASS | |
| 2/13 | A Noun is a noun is a noun -- Major Grammatical Categories | Chap. 4, pp. 108-131 |
| 2/18 | More Majors and Nothing Major -- just critical (Other Grammatical Categories) | Chap. 4, pp. 131-150 |
| 2/20 | Pronouns, Prepositions, and Other Peculiar Words | Chap. 4, pp. 150-161 |
| 2/25 | More Pronouns, Prepositions, and Other Peculiar Words | Chap. 4, pp. 150-161 |
| 2/27 | More Minor Class Categories and Some Words that Aren't UNgrammatical but Are NON-grammatical | Chap. 4, pp. 150-161 |
| 3/3 | Catch-up and Review | |
| 3/5 | MIDTERM | |
| 3/10 | SPRING BREAK | |
| 3/12 | SPRING BREAK | |
| 3/17 | **All classes cancelled as JMU shifts to long-distance teaching/learning** | recommended--practice your word class identification skills |
| 3/19 | **All classes cancelled as JMU shifts to long-distance teaching/learning** | recommended--practice your word class identification skills |
| 3/24 | a few more minor classes, plus noun and verb subclasses | See relevant handouts and, for additional description of noun and verb subclasses, you can optionally turn to Chapter 5 of our textbook | 3/26 | Grammatical Relations and possible homework review discussion | See handout on Grammatical Relations |
| 3/31 | The Forest and the Trees -- An introduction to phrase structure | Chap. 6, pp. 207-224 |
| 4/2 | Phrase Structure -- Can you hum a few bars? (internal structure of NPs) | Chap. 6, pp. 225-242, plus handouts (s) Chap. 6, pp. 245-250, plus notes/handouts |
| 4/7 | More NPs and a start on VPs | Chap. 6, pp. 243-244 and pp, 264-265 |
| 4/9 | VP modification and auxiliaries | Chap. 6, pp. 245-250, plus notes/handouts |
| ** 4/12-4/14** | TEST 2 (see CANVAS for details. Available starting the evening of 4/12, due 4/14 4:45pm) | |
| 4/16 | More Practice with VPs and Auxs, plus coordination | Chap. 6, pp. 245-252 |
| 4/21 | Adverbial Clauses (subordinate conjunction) and Complex Sentences | Chap. 6, pp. 253-258 |
| 4/23 | More Complex Sentences and the idea of "noncanonical sentences" | TBA |
| 4/28 | Unmarked Sentences and Amazing Transformations-- an overview of some other specialized sentence types | TBA |
| 4/30 | Possibly more descriptions of the wide range of sentence types and specialized constructions. | TBA |
| 5/7 (To be made available through and to be submitted on CANVAS.) | FINAL EXAM -- THURSDAY, MAY 7th; 1:00pm-5:30pm **Note extended time**) | |
"The limits of my language mean the limits of my world." Ludwig Wittgenstein
Look here for assignments:
