The Morphosyntax of English

6 ECTS credits
180 h study time

Offer 1 with catalog number 1002109BNR for all students in the 1st semester at a (B) Bachelor - advanced level.

Semester

1st semester

Enrollment based on exam contract

Impossible

Grading method

Grading (scale from 0 to 20)

Can retake in second session

Yes

Enrollment Requirements

Students must have taken ‘Introduction to English linguistics and grammar’, before they can enroll in this course. If you are enrolled in a preparatory programme you can register this course without restrictions.

Taught in

English

Faculty

Faculty of Languages & Humanities

Department

Linguistics and Literary Studies

Educational team

Alexis Housen
Bastien De Clercq (course titular)

Activities and contact hours

20 contact hours Lecture
26 contact hours Seminar, Exercises or Practicals
52 contact hours Independent or External Form of Study

Course Content

The course The Morphosyntax of English consists of three parts.

Part I outlines basic concepts and techniques in the study of morphosyntax (e.g. the relation between form, meaning and function, the distinction between surface structure and deep structure, lexical and phrasal classes, constituent analysis, the distinction between linguistic class and linguistic function).
Part 2 discusses the structure of English phrases, with particular attention to noun phrases and verb phrases (including the morphological, syntactic and-, semantic-pragmatic properties of the English verb system).
Part 3 focuses on the syntactic structure and functional properties of English clauses and sentences.
The theoretical discussions are illustrated and put to practice in exercise sessions and Q&A sessions.

Course material

Course text (Required) : The Morphosyntax of English, Housen - De Clercq, 2025, VUB, 2220170011622, 2023
Practical course material (Recommended) : Reference grammars, To be selected from the bibliographical section in the printed course
Practical course material (Recommended) : General encyclopeadic work on linguistics, To be selected from the bibliographical section in the printed course

Additional info

A printed course is available from the VUB Standaard student shop. Complementary study material: reference grammars and one general encyclopaedic work on linguistics, to be selected from the bibliographical section in the printed course.

Learning Outcomes

Algemene competenties

Together with its precursor Introduction to English Linguistics and Grammar, the course The Morphosyntax of English provides an introduction to the descriptive study of the structure of contemporary standard English.

By the end of the course students should be able to:
1) understand and apply key principles and concepts of the scientific study of human language in general and of English in particular, including use of the specialised linguistic terminology;
2) analyse the basic structure ('grammar') of contemporary standard (British) English, including its phonetic, phonological, morphological and syntactic structure.

Grading

The final grade is composed based on the following categories:
Written Exam determines 100% of the final mark.

Within the Written Exam category, the following assignments need to be completed:

Schriftelijk examen with a relative weight of 65 which comprises 100% of the final mark.

Note: De student moet minstens 07/20 behalen op het mondeling of schritelijk examen om te slagen.

Additional info regarding evaluation

The full final mark will be determined by a final written examination, consisting of both multiple-choice and open questions.

The use of AI tools is prohibited for the assignments for this course.

In the correction of the written exam (which consists of multiple-choice questions), a higher pass mark (‘hogere cesuur’) will be applied.

Allowed unsatisfactory mark

The supplementary Teaching and Examination Regulations of your faculty stipulate whether an allowed unsatisfactory mark for this programme unit is permitted.

Academic context