Course syllabus

Jump to today

  • Course name: French Linguistics.

  • Course code: FRENCH 214 or FRENCH 314 (restricted against each other).

  • Points Value: 15 points.

  • Pre-requisites: for FRENCH 214, 15 points from FRENCH 100, 103, 129, 200-202, 204, 269, 304; for FRENCH 314, 15 points from FRENCH 200-202, 304.

  • Convenor's name: Dr Kevin Mendousse.

  • Course aims & objectives: Key aspects of French linguistics relevant to the study and teaching of French as a foreign language will be presented, in French; by the end of the course, in order to obtain a pass grade, students must demonstrate an overall competent working knowledge of topics covered in class (the course assumes no prior specialist knowledge).

  • Weekly topics: (i) Phonetics/phonology, (ii) syntax, and (iii) morphology of French, including: (i) phonemes vs allophones, phonetic alphabet, phonemic (non-)syllabicity, minimal pairing, phonics, mute e, articulatory phonetics & distinctive features, syllabification, rhythmic groups, intonation & stress; (ii) generativity of language, form & function of words/phrases/clauses, syntactic constituency, phrasal parsing, labelled bracketing & tree diagrams, syntactic polysemy, subordination, syntactic arguments vs adjuncts; (iii) morphological parsing, typology of morphemes, derivational vs lexical morphology, allomorphic variation, inflectional morphology.

  • Teaching format: Two weekly lectures (1 hour each) common to both FRENCH 214 and FRENCH 314, supplemented by one separate weekly tutorial (1 hour) for each level.

  • Workload: Students are expected to spend around 10 hours a week on the course over 15 weeks (i.e. over 12 weeks of teaching and 3 weeks of study break and examination); an average student would typically spend 36 hours on taught classes and tests, 36-42 hours on class and test preparation, 16-20 hours on written assignments, and 24-30 hours on final exam preparation.

  • Learning resources: There is no prescribed textbook or course pack; course materials for each lecture and tutorial will instead be made available to students through Canvas, the University's Learning Management System, as and when required. 

  • Assessment weightings: 60% coursework, 40% final exam (2 hours, closed book).

  • Assessment breakdown: Coursework includes two written short-exercise assignments (each weighted 10%), and two written short-exercise tests (each weighted 20%, 1 hour, closed book); NB: different assignment/test/exam questions apply to FRENCH 214 and FRENCH 314, commensurately with their respective Stage II and Stage III requirements.

 

Course summary:

Date Details Due