Updated syllabus 1 Week 1: Introduction Class 1 (9 February): Introduction to the course, set books and additional study material, rules for the exam, the course s perspectives to the study of English, reference material. Set books: Culpeper, Jonathan, Tony McEnery, Francis Katamba, Ruth Wodak (eds) (2009). English Language: Description, Variation and Context. Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan. Chapters: 1 9 23 24 35. Halliday, M.A.K. and Hasan, R. (1976). Cohesion in English. London: Longman. Chapter 1 Introduction; Chapter 2 Reference; Chapter 3 Substitution; Chapter 4 Ellipsis; Chapter 5 Conjunction; Chapter 6 Lexical Cohesion. Week 2: Text linguistics Class 2 (16 February): Introduction to text linguistics. What is a text? What are the properties of texts? What is texture? What are ties? What is cohesion? What are the domains of cohesion (anaphora, cataphora + exophora)? What are the lexico-grammatical resources to create cohesion? What is reference and how does it work? Homework: Exercise 1. Reference Halliday and Hasan (1976) Chapter 1. Introduction; Chapter 2. Reference; de Beaugrande and Dressler (1981) Chapter 1. Basic Notions [available in PDF in Materiali didattici 2014-2015] Chilton (2009), in Culpeper et al. (eds) (Ch9). Class 3 (17 February): Grammatical cohesion (part 2): Substitution and ellipsis. Halliday and Hasan (1976) Chapter 3. Substitution; Chapter 4. Ellipsis. 1 The classes in light grey are still to take place. Please, check this file weekly for updates.
Class 4 (18 February): Conjunction and lexical cohesion. Halliday and Hasan (1976) Ch. 5, Conjunction; Ch. 6, Lexical cohesion. Homework: Exercise 2. Grammatical cohesion and conjunction Exercise 3. Cohesion analysis the Bully text (download the template) Exercise 4. Lexical networks Week 3: Text linguistics (continued), register NO CLASS (23 February): Consiglio di Dipartimento Class 5 (24 February): Homework correction: the Bully text, cohesion analysis (reference, substitution, ellipsis, conjunction, lexical cohesion). Coherence. Chilton (2009), in Culpeper et al. (eds) (Ch. 9); de Beaugrande and Dressler (1981) Ch. 1, Basic Notions, pp. 1-7. Class 6 (25 February): User-centred standards of textuality: Intentionality, Acceptability, Informativity, Situationality, Intertextuality. The context of situation. The notion of register: field, tenor, mode. Halliday and Hasan (1976) - Introduction, pp. 19-26. Homework: Exercise 5. Cohesion analysis - Informal interview with children (Halliday and Hasan, 1976: 353) Week 4: Spoken and written registers, genre, text type Class 7 (2 March): Correction of Exercise 5 and comparison with Exercise 3 (cohesion in speech vs. writing). Other examples of language variation across spoken and written registers. Wilson, A. (2009). Speech, Writing and Discourse Type. In Culpeper, J. et al. (eds). English Language. Description, Variation and Context. Houndmills: Palgrave. (Chapter 23, pp. 425-453).
Cameron, D. and Panović I. (2014). Working with Written Discourse. Dorchester, UK: Sage (Ch. 2 - Speech and Writing: the debate on difference, pp. 15-28). [available in PDF in Materiali didattici 2014-2015] Paltridge, B. (2007). Discourse Analysis. London: Continuum (Ch. 4 - Discourse and genre, pp. 82-105). [available in PDF in Materiali didattici 2014-2015] Class 8 (3 March): Description of the main differences between spoken and written registers. Introduction of the notions of genre and text type. Class 9 (4 March): Two examples of studies approaching language variation from a genre-based or text-type-based view of texts. The three traditions of genre analysis: English for Specific Purposes, New Rhetoric, Systemic Functional Linguistics. Relationships between genres: genre chains, genre networks. Hyon, Sunny (1996). Genre in Three Traditions: Implications for ESL. In TESOL Quarterly, Vol. 30, No. 4., pp. 693-722. [available in PDF in Materiali didattici 2014-2015]. Week 5: Introduction to Discourse Analysis Class 10 (9 March): Introduction to Discourse Analysis. Discourse as language above the sentence. Discourse as language in use. Discourse-based view of grammar. Theme and Rheme (part 1): Topical theme, interpersonal theme, textual theme. Cameron, D. and Panović I. (2014). Working with Written Discourse. Dorchester, UK: Sage (Ch. 1 Discourse and discourse analysis, pp. 3-14). [available in PDF in Materiali didattici 2014-2015] Paltridge, B. (2007). Discourse Analysis. London: Continuum (Ch. 1 What is discourse analysis?, pp. 1-22; Ch. 6 Discourse grammar, pp. 127-154). [available in PDF in Materiali didattici 2014-2015] Class 11 (10 March): Theme and Rheme (part 2): Marked and unmarked theme; Thematic progression. Areas of interest in the study of discourse as language in use : discourse structure; cultural ways of speaking and writing; communicative competence; discursive competence. Class 12 (11 March): Exercise 6 on theme and rheme. Discourse as social practice.
Homework: Exercise 7. Theme and rheme Academic monograph Week 6: News Discourse Class 13 (16 March): Correction of Exercise 7. Introduction to news discourse: key contextual features of news-making and news values Semino, E. (2009). Language in Newspapers. In Culpeper, J. et al. (eds). English Language. Description, Variation and Context. Houndmills: Palgrave (Ch. 24, pp. 439-453). Del Lungo Camiciotti, G. (1995). News Discourse. In Bondi Paganelli, M. and Del Lungo Camiciotti, G. Analysing Economics and News Discourse. Reading Materials. Bologna: Clueb, 159-183. [Available in PDF in Materiali didattici 2014-2015 or at the Library Melchiori 1.3 BON ANA] Class 14 (17 March): Focus on the news report, its generic structure and the principal linguistic features of news discourse. Class 15 (18 March): Objectivity and subjectivity in news discourse: A comparison between a column and a news report on the same topic, i.e. housing benefits in Britain. Core texts: Boffey, Daniel Half a million more people claiming housing benefit under coalition, The Guardian, March 14, 2015, at <http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/mar/14/housing-benefit-coalitionpeople-claiming>, accessed 18 March 2015. Moore, Rowan Britain s housing crisis is a human disaster. Here are 10 ways to solve it, The Guardian, March 14, 2015, at <http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/mar/14/britain-housing-crisis-10- ways-solve-rowan-moore-general-election>, accessed 18 March 2015. Week 7: Political Discourse Class 16 (23 March): Introduction to political discourse. A framework for the analysis of political discourse. The role of 'binarity' in positive selfand negative other-representation. Wodak, R. (2009). Language and Politics. In Culpeper, J. et al. (eds). English Language. Description, Variation and Context. Houndmills: Palgrave (Ch. 35, pp. 576-593).
Exercise 8. Analysis of binary us and them in G.W. Bush's speech (12 September 2001) Core text: George W. Bush, The Deliberate and Deadly Attacks...Were Acts of War. President's Address from Cabinet Room following Cabinet Meeting, 12 September 2001, at<http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/gwbush911cabinetroomaddress.htm>, accessed 23 March 2015. Class 17 (24 March): The role of metaphor in political discourse. What is metaphor? Metaphors in public communication; the multifunctionality of metaphors; analysis of the 'beacon' metaphor. Reading material Charteris-Black J. (2014). Analysing Political Speeches: Rhetoric, Discourse and Metaphor. Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan (Ch. 7 Researching Metaphor in Public Communication, pp. 155-173). [Available in Materiali didattici 2014-2015] Class 18 (25 March): Analysis of metaphors in Obama's inaugural speech. Core text Barack H. Obama, inaugural speech, 20th January 2009. [Trascription available in Materiali didattici 2014-2015], at <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxqd2kyyyis> Week 8: Academic Discourse Class 19 (30 March): Introduction to academic discourse; the spread of English in academic settings; the most distinguishing features of academic registers. Reading material Hyland K. (2006). English for Academic Purposes. An Advanced Resource Book. London and New York: Routledge (Introduction, pp.1-5 and Unit A1, Specific or general academic purposes?, pp. 9-15) [Available in Materiali didattici 2014-2015] Class 20 (31 March): Disciplinary variation in academic discourse: comparison of two abstracts in different fields. Exercise 9. Disciplinary variation in academic discourse Class 21 (1 April): Disciplinary discourses and knowledge construction;
the role of culture (focus on personality/impersonality); Swales' Create a Research Space (CARS) model for RA Introductions Reading material Hyland K. (2006). English for Academic Purposes. An Advanced Resource Book. London and New York: Routledge (Unit A5, Discourse, Communities and cultures, pp. 38-45; Unit A6, Genre analysis and academic texts, pp. 46-57) [Available in Materiali didattici 2014-2015] Homework: Exercise 10. The structure of RA Introductions 6-7-8 April: EASTER BREAK Week 9: Doing Discourse Analysis Class 22 (13 April): Homework correction; analysis of an abstract (Text 3 of the 'Texts for Exam' package) in terms of its nominal constructions. Class 23 (14 April): Analysis of an abstract (Text 4 of the 'Texts for Exam' package) in terms of its nominal constructions; comparison between Text 3 and Text 4; Homework: a written report of the comparison between Text 3 and Text 4 (between 300 and 350 words) Class 24 (15 April): Homework correction (see Sample Answer in Materiali didattici 2014-2015); Analysis of Kennedy's Inaugural Speech in terms of lexical cohesion. Homework: 1. a written report of the comparison between Text 3 and Text 4in terms of personal and impersonal constructions (between 300 and 350 words): 2. a written report of the analysis of lexical ties in Kennedy's Inaugural Speech (between 300 and 350 words) Core text John F. Kennedy inaugural speech, 20 January 1961. [Trascription available in Materiali didattici 2014-2015], at <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blmioek59n8> 20-21-22 April: PALAZZO NUOVO BUILDING CLOSED FOR ASBESTOS TESTING Week 10: Exercises and mock exam Class 25 (20 April): Homework correction; News discourse: analysis of a news report in terms of patterns of speech presentation.
Core text Kingsley, Patrick, Kirchgaessner, Stephanie, Bonomolo, Alessandra, "Italian PM calls for emergency summit as up to 700 migrants drown". The Guardian, Sunday 19 April 2015 [Available in Materiali Didattici 2014-2015] Class 26 (21 April): Mock exam: theoretical part (2 questions) Class 27 (22 April): Mock exam: analytical part (1 question)