Analysis of Contemporary English I (Phonology and Lexical Studies) - ENGL560

Compulsory/Elective: / Compulsory
Hours assigned: / 42
Method of assessment: / Coursework 100%
Number of credits: / 3

PRONUNICATION / PHONOLOGY (21 hours)

Objectives

Analysis of Contemporary English addresses the questions "What is English?" and "How does English work?" In Analysis of Contemporary English I, students are expected to: become familiar with the major sound-systems of English and their use in discourse; become familiar with English lexical studies and apply this knowledge and understanding to the systematic improvement of their own English.

Syllabus

The Pronunciation of English

How many sounds are there in an English word such as ‘money’? What are the organs involved in producing each of the above sounds? How does the vowel in ‘word’ differ from that in ‘work’? How to ‘decipher’ the phonetic symbols used in dictionaries? Where should word stress be placed in ‘informative’ and ‘mechanism’? These are some of the issues that we will explore in this course. Guidance will be given to help students

·  identify their pronunciation needs

·  communicate more clearly with their peers

·  speak accurately and with effectiveness

Content

Whenever possible, the examples/data used during the course will be drawn from the students and their places of work in order to underline the relevance and applicability of what is being studied. Analysis of Contemporary English is intended to provide a useful background for studying other subjects on the course and subject teachers will work closely together to ensure that such integration takes place.

The Pronunciation of English

·  English speech sounds (vowels and consonants)

·  Rules governing

- syllable length

- the pronunciation of ‘-ed’ & ‘-s’ suffixes

·  Stress (word and sentence), intonation

·  Features in connected speech (e.g., assimilation, linking)

Reading List

English Pronunciation:

Suggested

·  Brazil, David. (1994). Pronunciation for Advanced Learners of English. CUP.

·  Dauer, Rebecca. (1993). Accurate English: A Complete Course in Pronunciation.

·  Prentice Hall.

·  Gilbert, Judy. (1993). Clear Speech : Pronunciation and Listening Comprehension in

·  North American English. CUP.

·  Roach, P. (2000). English Phonetics and Phonology (3rd ed). Cambridge: Cambridge

·  University Press.

Assessment

Continuous Assessment will be based on a minimum of three assignments – one at the end of each section of the course.

LEXICAL STUDIES

Objectives

The second half of this subject aims to help students to critically understand what constitutes semantic meaning and how English forms new words. It also helps student to critically understand and apply the various aspects of the meaning relations between words/lexical items and the contexts in which they are used. Lastly, itt aims to provide students with the skills to conduct corpus-driven studies of lexical items.

Indicative Content

1. Introduction to Lexicology

2. Word formation and word meaning

3. Words versus lexical items

4. Corpus-driven lexical studies

5. Collocation, colligation, semantic preference and semantic prosody

6. Lexical patterns and meaning

7. Lexical priming

Teaching pattern

Interactive lectures/seminars.

Assessment

Assessment is by means of continuous assessment. Students write two assignments (each approx. 1,000 words).


Reading List

Aston, G. (ed.) 2001. Learning with Corpora, Houston: Athelstan

Ayto, J. 1999. Twentieth Century Words, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Carter, R. 1998. Vocabulary: applied linguistic perspectives. Second edition, London: Routledge.

Hatch E and Brown C. 1995. Vocabulary, Semantics, and Language Education. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Hoey, M. 1991. Patterns of Lexis in Texts. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Hoey, M. 2005. Lexical Priming: A new theory of language. London: Routledge.

Hudson, R. 1995. Word Meaning. New York and London: Routledge.

Hunston, S. 2002. Corpora in applied linguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Hurford J. R. and Heasley B. 1983. Semantics: a Coursebook. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Jackson H. and Amvela E. Z. 2000. Words, Meaning and Vocabulary: An Introduction to Modern English Lexicology. London: Cassell.

Lyons, J. 1977. Semantics. Volumes 1&2. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Moon, R. 1998. Fixed Expressions and Idioms in English: A Corpus-Based Approach. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Partington, A. 1998. Patterns and Meanings: using corpora for English language research and teaching. Amsterdam: Benjamins.

Sinclair, J. 1991. Corpus, Concordance, Collocation. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Sinclair, J. 2003. Reading Concordances. London: Longman.

Sinclair, J. 2004. Trust the Text. London; Routledge:.

Thomas, J and M. Short 1996. Using Corpora for Language Research. New York: Longman.

Tognini Bonelli, E. 2001. Corpus linguistics at work. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Prepared by: Ms Vicky Man and Prof Martin Warren