Course Title: English Grammar and Structure
Research paper (40%)
The research paper is intended to deepen your understanding of the varieties of English, and of some areas of English grammar and to demonstrate your understanding and ability to critically read and report on the most important literature in your chosen area.
Students need to cite at least 8 references.
TOPICS:
All students will investigate at least one variety of English (which could be regional, e.g. American English, or sociolectal, e.g. rural NSW English, or historical, e.g. fourteenth century English, or second language, e.g. the learner English of native speakers of Bahasa Indonesia). Begin the paper with some background to the variety (including something on the history of its speakers, where the variety is or was spoken, its status in the community). Use the technical terms that you have learned throughout the course. If you use terms that diverge from those used in the course, please explain briefly why. In general, write in a clear and accessible way.
TOPIC 1
Choose two varieties of English that you are interested in. Compare three to four interconnected grammatical properties (not words or pronunciation) in which the varieties differ. Describe how the properties differ between the two varieties. See if any patterns emerge that link the differences in the properties together. Explain these using the technical terms that you have learned throughout the course, but writing in a clear and accessible way.
TOPIC 2
Choose one variety of English that you are interested in (noting that a variety may have different registers/contexts (formal/informal; spoken/written etc.) and genres (recipe/novel etc.). Describe three to four interconnected grammatical properties (not words or pronunciation) that present variability in their use in that variety. See if any patterns emerge in the use of the features you are investigating. Explain these using the technical terms that you have learned throughout the course, but writing in a clear and accessible way and use authentic examples to support your argumentation.
What is meant by connected properties?
For example, in Standard Australian English the expression of number on nouns (dog/dogs) is connected with the expression of number on determiners (this/these), and with subject-verb agreement (do/does, run/runs). These are three interconnected properties. In another English variety, if one of these properties is changed, it may affect the expression of the other properties.
Variability: With non-standard varieties in particular, there is often variability in the grammar. If you find a range of ways of expressing similar ideas (e.g. finding some nouns that are marked for plural and some that are not), and you cannot find a good linguistic reason for the variation, consider the possibility that speakers have several ways of talking, and so we can think of them as having several grammars.
