HENB01603U ENG: Engelsk valgfag 1 med skriftlig sprogfærdighed: The Construction of English: Theoretical Approaches to English Grammar and Phonetics

This elective will give students a chance to get re-immersed in the world of linguistics.

In the grammar portion of the course, students will be introduced to construction grammar, a family of theories of grammar widely popular within, and beyond, cognitive linguistics (which means that students will also become acquainted with relevant topics from cognitive linguistics). In construction grammar, a central focus is on how linguistic structures are functionally meaningful (so that meaning is not only semantic but also pragmatic, social, discursive and more). In addition to basic theoretical notions from construction grammar, we will also look at empirical methods of analyzing constructions, texts and discourses through the lens of construction grammar.

The phonetics portion will continue this theoretical focus by covering various aspects English phonetics and phonology not dealt with in previous courses through the theoretical frameworks of Exemplar Theory and Radical Templatic Phonology. Such topics includes: 1) speech perception – how do we understand speech, and what happens when we don’t?, 2) voice quality – why do people’s voices sound different?, 3) phonetic paralinguistics – how do we communicate through rhythm, gesture and movement? Students will also be introduced to methods for conducting phonetic research, including the construction of perception studies and the conduction of basic acoustic phonetics.

As part of the teaching, students will also be trained in academic writing so as to enable them to write coherent and structured texts at an academically appropriate level. This training will take the form of both formal instructions and hands-on experience. Feedback on written proficiency will be included in the form of written assignments in which students write short, theoretical essays and conduct small-scale studies based on course materials. Students will receive both peer and teacher feedback on their written academic language throughout the course.