English 3620 Online: The Structure of English
Order of Course Content

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Part 1: English Phonetics and Phonology

Module 1: Introducing Language and Linguistics

· Lecture: “Introduction to English 3620”

· Readings: Chpt. 1 in An Introduction to Language.

· Exercises online

1. Concepts in Language and Linguistics

2. Understanding Language and Linguistics

3. General Questions on Language and Linguistics

4. Discussion Blog 1

Module 2: English Phonetics.

· Readings: Chpt. 5 in An Introduction to Language.

• Lecture: "Introduction to Phonology"
• Exercises online.
1. Voicing.
2. Point of articulation.
3. Manner of articulation.
4. Describing consonants.
5. The phonetic features of consonants.
6. Writing descriptions of consonants.
7. How consonants differ from one another.
• Lecture: "The Sounds of English"
• Exercises online.
1. The phonetic features of vowels.
2. Identifying vowel sounds.
3. Reading broad transcription.
4. Writing broad transcription.
5. General questions on English phonetics.
• Examination 1: English Phonetics.

Module 3: English Phonology and Spelling Patterns.

• Readings: Chpt. 6 in An Introduction to Language.
• Lecture: "The Phonology of English"
• Exercises online.
1. Minimal pairs.
2. Natural classes.
• Lecture: "Suprasegmentals"
• Exercises online.
1. Word Stress.
2. Compounds.
3. Intonation.
• Lecture: "Phonotactics"
• Exercises online.
1. General questions on English phonology.
• Lecture and Summary Outline
1. Lecture: "English Spelling Patterns"
2. Summary Outline: "English Spelling Patterns."
• Exercises online.
1. The VCe# spelling pattern.
2. The VC(C)# spelling pattern.
3. The VV spelling pattern.
4. Discriminating among spelling patterns.
• Examination 2: English Phonology and Spelling Patterns.

Part 2: General Morphology and Word Classes

Module 4: General Morphology.

• Readings: Chpt. 2 in An Introduction to Language.
• Lecture: "Morphology"
• Exercises online.
1. Parsing works into morphemes.
2. Simple and complex words.
3. Identifying roots.
4. Identifying the word classes of roots.
5. Identifying the word classes of complex words.
6. Identifying the functions of derivational morphemes.
7. Identifying inflectional morphemes.
8. Suffixal homophones.
9. General questions on morphology.
• Examination 3: General Morphology.

Module 5: Word Classes.

• Lecture: "Form Classes"
• Exercises online.
1. Identifying count nouns.
2. Finding the heads of NPs.
3. Identifying subclasses of nouns.
4. Identifying nouns by using inflectional morphemes.
5. Apostrophes
6. Testing for NPs.
7. Identifying NP antecedents of pronouns.
8. Identifying verbs.
9. Distinguishing main verbs from auxiliaries.
10. Regular and irregular verbs.
11. Identifying main verbs in context.
12. Identifying adjectives.
13. Finding adjectives.
14. Identifying gradable and non-gradable adjectives.
15. Identifying adverbs.
16. Finding adverbs.
17. Discriminating among form classes.
18. General questions on form classes.
• Lectures: "Structure Classes" and "Determiners"
• Exercises online.
1. Identifying determiners.
2. Testing for determiners through substitution.
3. Finding determiners.
• Lecture: "Pronouns"
• Lecture: "Prepositions"
• Exercises online.
1. Identifying prepositions.
2. Finding prepositions.
3. Finding prepositional phrases.
• Lecture and Summary Outline.
1. "Auxiliaries"
2. Summary Outline: "Auxiliaries."
• Exercises online.
1. Identifying auxiliaries.
2. Counting auxiliaries.
3. Finding verb groups.
• Lecture: "Degree Adverbs"
• Exercises online.
1. Identifying degree adverbs.
2. Finding degree adverbs.
3. Discriminating between degree adverbs and general adverbs.
4. Finding what degree adverbs modify.
• Lecture: "Coordinating Conjunctions"
• Exercises online.
1. Identifying coordinating conjunctions.
2. Finding coordinating conjunctions.
3. Discriminating among structure classes.
4. General questions on structure classes.
• Examination 4: Word Classes.

Part 3: Syntax

Module 6: Phrases and Sentence Patterns.

• Lecture and Readings.
1. Lecture: "Introduction to Syntax"
2. Reading Passage: "Phrase Structure."
3. Summary Outline: "Phrases."
• Exercises online.
1. Finding the heads of noun phrases.
2. Identifying noun phrases.
3. Finding noun phrases through pronoun substitution.
4. Finding the first auxiliary with the negative transformation.
5. Writing verb groups.
6. Finding the heads of adjective phrases.
7. Writing adjective phrases.
8. Adjective phrases as optional constituents.
9. Writing adverb phrases.
10. Adverb phrases as optional constituents.
11. Writing prepositional phrases.
12. Prepositional phrases as optional constituents.
13. Discriminating among different phrase types.
14. Finding the verb phrase (predicate) in declarative sentences.
15. Finding the subject in declarative sentences.
16. Finding the subjects in questions.
17. Finding the subject in certain problem questions.
18. Summary Exercise: Subjects and Predicates.
• Lecture and Summary Outline.
1. Lecture: "Main Verbs and their Complements"
2. Summary Outline: "Sentence Patterns."
• Exercises online.
1. Identifying intransitive sentences.
2. Identifying intensive sentences.
3. Finding subject complements.
4. Identifying mono-transitive sentences.
5. Finding direct objects.
6. Identifying passive sentences.
7. Transforming active sentences into passive sentences.
8. Discriminating between intensive and mono-transitive sentences.
9. Discriminating between intensive and passive sentences.
10. Identifying ditransitive sentences.
11. Identifying indirect objects.
12. Moving indirect objects.
13. Identifying complex transitive sentences.
14. Finding object complements.
15. Discriminating among different types of transitive sentences.
16. Discriminating among all types of sentences.
17. Summary Exercise: Types of Sentences.
• Examination 5: Phrases and Sentence Patterns.

Module 7: Finite Subordinate Clauses and Grammatical Function.

• Lecture and Summary Outline.
1. Lecture: "The Functions of Noun Phrases"
2. Summary Outline: "The Functions of Noun Phrases."
• Exercises online.
1. Finding subjects of verbs.
2. Finding subject complements (2).
3. Finding direct objects (2).
4. Distinguishing between direct objects and subject complements.
5. Finding indirect objects.
6. Distinguishing between direct objects and indirect objects.
7. Finding object complements (2).
8. Finding objects of prepositions.
9. Discriminating among noun phrases with different functions.
10. Summary Exercise: The functions of NPs.
• Lecture and Summary Outline.
1. Lecture: "The Functions of Prepositional Phrases"
2. Summary Outline: "The Functions of Prepositional Phrases."
• Exercises online.
1. Identifying prepositional phrases as subject and object complements.
2. Finding prepositional phrases as subject and object complements.
3. Identifying prepositional phrases as post modifiers of a noun.
4. Finding post modifiers of nouns using pronoun substitution.
5. Identifying prepositional phrases as post modifiers of adjectives.
6. Finding prepositional phrases as post modifiers of adjectives.
7. Identifying prepositional phrases as adverbials.
8. Finding prepositional phrases functioning adverbially.
9. Summary Exercise: The Functions of Prepositional Phrases.
• Lecture and Readings
1. Lecture: "Finite Subordinate Clauses"
2. Reading Passage: "Finite Subordinate Clauses."
3. Summary Outline: "Finite Subordinate Clauses."
• Exercises online.
1. Identifying adverb clauses.
2. Identifying subordinating conjunctions.
3. Finding subordinating conjunctions.
4. Finding adverb clauses using subordinating conjunctions.
5. Finding adverb clauses using movement and deletion.
6. Identifying adjective clauses.
7. Finding adjective clauses using deletion.
8. Identifying the grammatical functions of relative pronouns.
9. Finding the antecedents of the relative pronouns.
10. Distinguishing between adverb and adjective clauses.
11. Identifying noun clauses.
12. Finding noun clauses with pronoun substitution.
13. Finding the grammatical functions of noun clauses.
14. Summary Exercise: Finite Subordinate Clauses.
• Lecture: "Identifying Grammatical Functions"
• Exercises online.
1. Manipulating Constituents.
2. Summary Exercise: Testing through manipulations.
3. General Questions in Syntax.
• Examination 6: Finite Subordinate Clauses.

Part 4: Semantics and Language Acquisition

Module 8: Semantics

· Readings: Chpt. 9 in An Introduction to Language.

· Exercises online.

1. Concepts in Semantics.

2. Semantic Relationships among Word Pairs.

3. Types of Antonyms.

4. Identifying Theta Roles.

Module 9: Language Acquisition

· Readings: Chpt. 5 in An Introduction to Language.

· Exercises online.

1. Concepts in Language Acquisition.

2. Understanding Language Acquisition.

3. General Questions on Language Acquisition.

4. Discussion Blog 2

· Examination 7: Semantics and Language Acquisition.

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Syllabus for English 3620 Online

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