Linguistique
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ENGLISH LINGUISTICS /
LINGUISTIQUE ANGLAISE
Département d’Etudes des Pays Anglophones
(dernière mise à jour : le 13/09/24)
Undergraduate English linguistics courses offered during the 1st semester 2024-2025 :
Introduction to linguistics (L1)
Linguistics : form (L2)
History of English (L2)
Comparative Syntax (L3)
For courses with a linguistics component in the different minors, see the descriptions under "Cours de mineures".
LINGUISTICS COURSE DESCRIPTIONS /
DESCRIPTIFS DES COURS DE LINGUISTIQUE
INTRODUCTION TO LINGUISTICS (L1S1 & L1S2)
Apogée code : DL21EM05 et DL22EM06
Level : Bachelor 1 (Licence 1)
Semesters : 1 & 2
6 groups in the 1st semester :
Tuesday :
3-4:30pm
4:30-6pm
6-7:30pm
Wednesday :
3-4:30pm
6-7:30pm
Friday :
12-1:30pm
See the DEPA timetable/schedule for the room numbers.
Description
How is possible that you can speak your language so well yet struggle with learning other languages ? Why is a baby apparently able to learn any language in the world perfectly yet as adults if is so difficult ? How is that you know, just be feeling, that something is correct or incorrect in a language that you speak ? How is it possible to distinguish the sounds that make up words when everyone speaks so differently ? How is it we understand each other when we speak about things that the person we speak to has never seen ? Where do languages come from ? How do they influence our societies ? Do different languages influence the way we think ?
The list of questions that have yet to be answered about the nature of language is enormous. We still do not know the answers to these questions and finding the answers is the science of language, or simply linguistics. This course offers an introduction and overview of the field of language science and the questions it seeks to answer. The course will be mainly theoretical but since linguistics is an empirical science, certain tools and methods will be introduced as well. A familiarity with the tools and methods as well an understanding of the questions we seek to answer will form the basis of the linguistics curriculum in the DEPA.
Aims
By the end of the course, students will have a broad understanding of field of language science. Specifically, the students will
a. have an theoretical understanding of some of the questions and problems the field addresses
b. have some practical experience with some of the methods and tools used in the field
Assessment
Final exam : 50% of the course grade
Other tests & quizzes (in class or online), homework, & other assignments : 50% of the course grade
Prerequisites
There are no prerequisites for this course
Reading and Materials :
The course materials will be available online.
Linguistics : form (L2S3)
Apogée code : DL23EM04
Level : Bachelor 2 (Licence 2)
Semester : 1
3 groups :
Monday 9:30am-12noon
Tuesday 3-5:30pm
Thursday 12:30-3pm
See the DEPA timetable/schedule for the room numbers.
Description
This course is devoted to contrastive lexicology and morphology ; in particular, we will be comparing the linguistic systems of English and French at the level of both the lexicon and grammatical categories such as tense, aspect, and noun determination. By analysing the correspondence (or lack thereof) between lexemes (e.g. : beau-père // father-in-law vs stepfather ; owl // hibou vs chouette) or between grammatical categories (e.g. verbal aspect : il fume // he smokes vs he’s smoking), we will consider the differences in the way the world is “divided up” or conceptualized depending on the language. We will also examine how verbal and nominal categories are structured in English and in French. The analysis of usage will be based on a corpus of translated texts. Data from other languages may also be included.
Aims
- Understand the similarities and differences between the morphological categories of English and French.
- Understand differences between languages in lexical conceptualization.
- Understand the linguistic aspects of translation (English/French) through the study of translated texts.
Assessment
2 in-class tests/exams + other assignments
Prerequisites
Introduction to Linguistics (L1)
Bibliography
Chuquet, H. & Paillard, M. 1987. Approches linguistiques des problèmes de traduction. Paris : Ophrys.
Denis, D. & Sancier-Chateau, A. 1994. Grammaire du français. Paris : Librairie Générale Française.
Jakobson, Roman. 1959. "On Linguistic Aspects of Translation", in R. A. Brower, ed., On Translation, Cambridge (Massachusetts), Harvard University Press, 232-239.
Larreya, P. & Riviere, C. 2010. Grammaire explicative de l’anglais. Quatrième édition. Montreuil : Pearson.
Paillard, M. 2000. Lexicologie contrastive anglais-français, formation des mots et Construction du sens. Paris : Ophrys.
Riegel, M., et al. 1994. Grammaire méthodique du français. Paris : PUF.
Tournier, J. 1993. Précis de lexicologie anglaise. Paris : Nathan.
Van Roey, J. 1990. French-English Lexicology. An introduction, Leuven : Peeters.
Linguistique : forme (L2S3)
Code Apogée : DL23EM04
Niveau : Licence 2
Semestre : 1
(3 groupes au 1er semestre ; pour les créneaux, voir plus haut sous le descriptif en anglais)
Descriptif
Ce cours est consacré à la lexicologie et à la morphologie contrastives, en particulier à la comparaison des systèmes linguistiques de l’anglais et du français au niveau du lexique et des traits grammaticaux tels que temps, aspect et détermination nominale. Nous examinerons les différences de “découpage” du monde réel selon les langues, en posant le problème de (non-)correspondance entre lexèmes (par exemple : beau-père // father-in-law vs stepfather ; owl // hibou vs chouette) ou entre traits grammaticaux (par exemple, l’aspect verbal : il fume // he smokes vs he’s smoking). Nous montrons comment ces catégories se structurent en anglais et en français. L’analyse sera principalement basée sur un corpus de textes traduits. D’autres langues pourront également être abordées.
Objectifs
- Comprendre les différences et similitudes entre les catégories morphologiques de l’anglais et du français.
- Comprendre les différences de découpage lexicologique entre les langues.
- Comprendre les enjeux linguistiques de la traduction (anglais/français) par le biais de l’étude d’un corpus de textes traduits.
Evaluation
2 devoirs sur table + autres devoirs
Prérequis
Introduction à la Linguistique (L1)
Bibliography / Bibliographie
Chuquet, H. & Paillard, M. 1987. Approches linguistiques des problèmes de traduction. Paris : Ophrys.
Denis, D. & Sancier-Chateau, A. 1994. Grammaire du français. Paris : Librairie Générale Française.
Jakobson, Roman. 1959. "On Linguistic Aspects of Translation", in R. A. Brower, ed., On Translation, Cambridge (Massachusetts), Harvard University Press, 232-239.
Larreya, P. & Riviere, C. 2019. Grammaire explicative de l’anglais. 5ème édition (or any edition after the 1st). Montreuil : Pearson.
Paillard, M. 2000. Lexicologie contrastive anglais-français, formation des mots et Construction du sens. Paris : Ophrys.
Riegel, M., et al. 1994. Grammaire méthodique du français. Paris : PUF.
Tournier, J. 1993, Précis de lexicologie anglaise. Paris : Nathan.
Van Roey, J. 1990. French-English Lexicology. An introduction, Leuven : Peeters.
Other references will be provided on the course website. / D’autres références seront données au cours du semestre.
Apogée code : DL23EN03
Level : Bachelor 2 (Licence 2)
Semester : 1
1 group :
Tuesday 12-2:30pm
See the DEPA timetable/schedule for the room number.
Description
In this course we will study the history of the English language, from its Anglo-Saxon origins up through the modern period. Rather than following a strictly chronological approach, we will focus on certain major changes that have had a significant impact on English, e.g. lexical borrowing (especially from Old Norse & French), loss of the 2nd-singular pronoun thou, evolution of the verbal system (modals, aspectual distinctions, auxiliary usage, etc.), the Great Vowel Shift, etc. Through the study of these developments, we will gain insight into the different mechanisms underlying language change in general.
Aims
– learn how English has changed throughout its history
– understand the mechanisms of language change
Assessment
Midterm exam & homework assignments (including Moodle quizzes & research project) : 50%
Final exam : 50%
Prerequisites
Introduction to linguistics
Bibliography
BARBER, C., BEAL, J. C., & SHAW, P. A. 2009. The English Language : A Historical Introduction. 2nd edition. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press.
BRINTON, L. J., & ARNOVICK, L. K. 2017. The English Language. A Linguistic History. 3rd edition (or an earlier edition). Oxford : Oxford University Press.
NB : A detailed bibliography will be provided on the course website.
Code Apogée : DL24EM05
Level : Bachelor (Licence 2)
Semester : 2Description
How do we understand each other ? How do we know what words mean ? How do we shape the experienced world ? Meaning, or the symbolic representation of thought, is arguably fundamental not only to language but to all human society and civilisation. Semantics is the scientific study of the structure of meaning in language. Where semantics focuses on the meaning in our mind, pragmatics turns to how we use that meaning inter-personally. Instead of a conceptual structure, meaning is understood as a device, a communicative tool. Relying on the different theories studied throughout the course, students are able to describe how speakers exploit various (possibly interacting) semantic and pragmatic phenomena to handle everyday communication. The course seeks to encourage the students to wonder about how meaning is structured and how that structure is employed ; the course thus examines the different ways that linguists try to answer fundamental questions in semantics and pragmatics. To these ends, the students are introduced to scientific reading and are asked to engage with specific research papers.Prerequisites
Introduction to Linguistics (L1)
Linguistics : Form (L2)Assessment :
– End-of-term exam (50% of the final grade ; week 12)
– Scientific reading tasks (30% of the final grade ; week 6 & week 10)
- Online moodle quick quiz (20% of the final grade ; week 8)
Linguistics : society (L3S5)
Apogée code : DL25EM03
Level : Bachelor (L3) & Master (M1/2)
Semester : 1
2 groups :
Wednesday 9:30am-12noon
Friday 12:30-3pm
See the DEPA timetable/schedule for the room numbers.
Description
Language and the society it encodes are entirely entwined. Firstly, language is as varied as the society that produces it. In simple descriptive terms, an accurate picture of language, or a “grammar”, must be sensitive to this variation. How can we scientifically include the effects of social variation on linguistic structure in its description ? Secondly, language is a social vehicle and instrument of social expression which can, therefore, be studied as the basis for understanding society per se. Can we identify hidden structures in our society through such analysis ? By revealing these structures, can we improve our society ? This course is concerned with each aspect, both the Variationist Linguistics and Critical Discourse Analysis. The course will have a practical component, and students will be required to submit individual original projects.
Aims
At the end of the course, the students will
- be aware of many of the social structures that determine language structure
- be aware of many of the language structures that determine social structure
- have experience developing and working with questionnaires to perform elicitation research
- have experience working with and extracting data from corpora
- have rudimentary notions of statistics for linguistics
Assessment
Midterm exam + individual project submitted at the end of the semester.
Prerequisites
Introduction to Linguistics (L1)
Linguistics : form (L2)
Linguistics : meaning (L2)
Reading and Materials
The students will need access to a personal computer. A laptop is preferred but not necessary.
The cross-platform and free program AntConc is needed. Access to the program Microsoft Excel is also needed.
A compiled reader in electronic format will be made available at the start of the course.
Comparative Syntax (L3S5)
Apogée code : DL25EN04
Level : Bachelor 3 (Min. Ens. & Trad.) / Master 1/2
Semester : 1
1 group :
Tuesday 3-5:30pm
See the DEPA timetable/schedule for the room number.
Description
We will read and discuss selected chapters from Vinay & Darbelnet’s Stylistique comparée de l’anglais et du français and Chuquet & Paillard’s Approche linguistique des problèmes de traduction anglais-français.
Students will be expected to think critically about the ideas presented by the authors :
—Do we have a few isolated examples, or can we really generalize from them ?
—How can we express the claims made by Vinay & Darbelnet/Chuquet & Paillard in the form of a verifiable hypothesis ?
Students will learn to think in terms of two different kinds of variables :
1. categorical variables i.e. different types which can not be measured (e.g. English vs. French, authors vs. translators, noun/verb/adjective – we can distinguish between authors and translators and examine each group separately, but there is no way to measure “authorness”)
2. continuous variables, i.e. a parameter that can be measured such as a frequency or percentage, for example the number of adverbs per 1000 words.
Students will learn to test 2-variable hypotheses involving a predictor-variable (a.k.a. “independent variable”) and an outcome-variable (a.k.a. “dependent variable” or “response variable”). The predictor will typically be the languages under investigation (English vs. French), and the outcome will often be the frequency of a syntactic construction. For example :
“If Vinay & Darbelnet are right, then when we look at a corpus of English (=predictor variable), we will find a higher frequency of ?ly adverb+adjective combinations (=outcome), and when we look at a corpus of French (=predictor variable) we will find a lower frequency of ?ment adverb+adjective combinations” (=outcome)
The examples given in Vinay & Darbelnet and Chuquet & Paillard are typically translation pairs, i.e. an original “source-text” in one language and the corresponding translation or “target-text” in the other language. Research has shown, however, that English-translated-from-French and French-translated-from-English have characteristics that are different from original English and French : interlinguistic influence or “shining through” when English-translated-from-French imitates French and vice versa, and interlinguistic interference or “translationese” as when translators use a contrived paraphrase to overcome a translation difficulty. We will therefore use corpora of original texts in both languages to determine whether the claims about supposed differences between English and French really describe general tendencies that characterize these languages, or rather something related to the process of translation.
Given the importance of translation processes in contrastive studies, students will learn to identify and analyze translation pairs in terms of the processes described by Vinay & Darbelnet and Chuquet & Paillard, most importantly “recatorization” or “transposition”, when similar concepts are expressed using different parts of speech in two languages (e.g. “she’s out(1) shopping(2)”/« elle est partie(1) faire les magasins(2) »), and “modulation” when a concept in one language is expressed from a complementary point of view in the other language (e.g. “school would start again soon”/« les vacances étaient presque finies »).
Prerequisites
Introduction to linguistics (L1)
Linguistics : form (L2)
Thorough knowledge of both English and French.
Bibliography
Chuquet, H., & Paillard, M. (1987). Approche linguistique des problèmes de traduction anglais-français. Editions Ophrys.
Vinay, J. P., & Darbelnet, J. (1958). Stylistique comparée de l’anglais et du français. Paris : Didier.
Linguistics : Discourse (L3S6)
Apogée code : DL26EM04
Level : Bachelor 3 (L3) / Master (M1/2)
Semester : 2
Description
This course provides an overview of discourse analysis in a theoretical and practical approach. We will examine the different theories to tackle the issue of the particular status of discourse analysis in linguistics. As it builds a bridge with other social sciences and humanities, discourse analysis falls into a very large field we will try to delimit. The analysis of political discourse, media discourse or advertisement for instance, shows complex linguistic phenomena, which can be analyzed with a series of linguistic tools. Students will be encouraged to collect and analyze their own data se. They will work on the notion of « discursive genre » so as to describe the features of language which interact with the context (sociological, institutional, ideological, etc …).
Aims :
- understand the role of discourse analysis in linguistics,
- learn how to use linguistic tools to analyze discourse(s),
- understand the role of (inter)subjectivity and interlocution in meaning construction,
- learn to make a distinction between textual genres,
- collect personal data set.
Evaluation : 2 in-class exams and a personal project
Prerequisites : basic notions of linguistics
Reading :
Fairclough, N. (1992, 2008), Discourse and Social Change Cambridge : Polity Press.
Gee, J. P. (2014), An Introduction to Discourse Analysis : Theory and Method.New York : Routledge.
Johnstone, B. (2008), Discourse Analysis (2nd ed.). Oxford : Blackwell.
Jones, R. (2012), Discourse Analysis. Abingdon : Routledge.
Kerbrat-Orecchioni, C. (2001), Les actes de langage dans le discours. Paris : Nathan.
Maingueneau, D. (2014), Discours et analyse du discours – Introduction. Armand Colin.
Maingueneau D. & Charaudeau P. (eds.) (2002), Dictionnaire d’analyse du discours. Paris : Seuil.
Linguistique : discours (L3S6)
Code Apogée : DL26EM04
Niveau : Licence (L3) / Master (M1/2)
Semestre : 2
Descriptif
Ce cours est consacré à l’analyse du discours à la fois dans sa dimension théorique et pratique. Nous examinerons les différentes théories (francophones et anglophones) en soulevant le statut particulier de l’analyse du discours dans le domaine de la linguistique. En constituant un pont avec les autres sciences sociales ou « humanités », l’analyse du discours s’inscrit dans un champ très large qu’il conviendra de définir. L’analyse du discours politique, des médias ou de la publicité, par exemple, permet de comprendre la complexité des mécanismes linguistiques mis en jeu dans ces discours grâce à différentes méthodes d’analyse. Il s’agira donc pour chaque étudiant d’élaborer un corpus (recueil de données) en travaillant sur la notion de « genre discursif » de façon à décrire des formes langagière en interaction avec leurs contextes au sens large (sociologique, institutionnel, idéologique, etc.).
Objectifs
- comprendre la place de l’analyse du discours en linguistique,
- apprendre à manier les outils linguistiques pour analyser des discours (au sens large),
- comprendre la place de l’ (inter)subjectivité et de l’interlocution dans la construction du sens,
- distinguer différents genres de discours,
- élaborer un corpus personnel.
Evaluation : 2 devoirs sur table et un projet personnel
Prérequis : Connaissances des bases de la linguistique
Bibliographie
Fairclough, N. (1992, 2008), Discourse and Social Change Cambridge : Polity Press.
Gee, J. P. (2014), An Introduction to Discourse Analysis : Theory and Method.New York : Routledge.
Johnstone, B. (2008), Discourse Analysis (2nd ed.). Oxford : Blackwell.
Jones, R. (2012), Discourse Analysis. Abingdon : Routledge.
Kerbrat-Orecchioni, C. (2001), Les actes de langage dans le discours. Paris : Nathan.
Maingueneau, D. (2014), Discours et analyse du discours – Introduction. Armand Colin.
Maingueneau D. et Charaudeau P. (dir.) (2002), Dictionnaire d’analyse du discours. Paris : Seuil.
(last updated on September 13, 2024)
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