Welcome to Semantics.

Here you will find all the required information about the course, syllabus, acivities and modifications. Please comment on every single video we post, and prepare for discovering meaning.


Syllabus

FACULTAD DE CIENCIAS DE LA EDUCACIÓN

SYLLABUS DEL CURSO SEMANTICS

 

GENERAL INFORMATION.

 

FACULTY	Faculty of Education	PROGRAM	B. A in English Teaching
AREA	AREA DE FORMACION DISCIPLINAR	COURSE	SEMANTICS
COURSE ID NUMBER	BFE22B00A123	SEMESTER	Third
NUMBER OF CREDITS	2	DATE	11/08/2014
HOURS OF IN-CAMPUS WORK	32	HOURS OF INDEPENDENT WORK	64
PROFESSOR	CARLOS CARRILLO	E-mail	eccicarrillo@gmail.com

 

2.    RATIONALE.

Students are not used to reflect upon the meaning of the mother tongue and not in a second language. This course is intended to get them acquainted with what it means to do it and especially with the language they are learning. Semantics deals with the communicative content a word may have and how the combination of many words can provide more complex meanings. Some basic concepts used in the analysis of the meaning of a specific language are developed throughout the course; in order to engage students in further analysis and research on this matter and make them aware of the importance of apply new knowledge to their teaching methods and practices.

 

GENERAL OBJECTIVE.

At the end of the course, the students will be able, among other things, to understand and reflect on the basic concepts related to Semantics, to prepare them for simple analysis of meanings in a second language, leading them to higher thinking processes. They will show the acquisition of these processes by generating a virtual product (Website) that demonstrates their ability to show their new knowledge to others by using ICTs.

 

SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES.

On successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

·         State the role of Semantics within the Linguistics area.

·         Differentiate the differences between Semantics and Pragmatics.

·         Explain the scope and basic concepts of Semantics.

·         Outline the Parts of Speech and make good use of them.

·         Discuss about word formation processes.

·         Differentiate the word meaning properties.

·         Justify the use of ambiguity in Language.

·         Generate a possible research question at the end of the course.

·         Display in a creative way the products of the course in a website.

 

AREA DISCUSSION PROBLEM

Which are the linguistic aspects of meaning of the English language that increase the students’ reflection on its structure, in order to develop their awareness of it and to develop higher thinking processes when generating possible research questions about this subject?

6.            COURSE DISCUSSION ISSUES.

·         State the role of Semantics within the Linguistics area.

·         What are the differences between Semantics and Pragmatics?

·         How are words created?

·         What aspects of language meaning must be taken into account to analyze meaning in language?

 

7.            COMPETENCES.

The students must develop the following competences:

·         Good autonomous learning habits, reinforced with good verbal communication.

·         Deep analysis of theoretical concepts that allows questioning them and suggesting new perspectives.

·         Discuss the sense relations in the study of words.

·         Awareness of innovative instructional methods which include information technologies.

·         Reflect about the best transformative educational learning and teaching methods.

·         Apply new knowledge to daily life in order to improve pronunciation.

·         Ability to transmit new knowledge to others.

 

8.            ACTIVITIES.

 

Students will design a website, which will be their course project. In it, they will display the products of each one of the sessions, according to the topic presented.

WEEKS	TOPICS	INDEPENDENT WORK
1	What are the general principles of the course? What is the syllabus, the methodology and evaluation criteria of the course?	Start the design of the tool that will allow the student to present the final project that comprises the work of the semester. Finding information related to the Components of the Language. Create a Concept Map that states the differences between components of the language by using http://popplet.com/
2	What are the Components of the Language and why are they important for language reflection and research? How to differentiate Sentences Utterances and Propositions?	Finding information related to Sentences Utterances and Propositions.  Creating a Graphic organizer, explaining the differences between the concepts.
3	How to differentiate Sentences Utterances and Propositions?	Draw a chart that includes the parts of Speech, their functions and examples. Finding information related to  Morphology
4	What are the functions of the Parts of speech? Are they the same in Spanish?	Create a short video stating the morphological relation between the structure of words and their meaning. Use Powtoon.  Prepare the Exam.
5	Is there any relation between the structure of words and their meaning? How can that relation be stated?	Create a video Developing the exam. Finding information related to Word Relations and Word relations.
6	FIRST STRIKE EXAM	Developing the exam. Finding information related to Word Relations and Word relations.
7	What are the word formation processes? How are the word relations stated?	Create a chart which presents the differences between the concepts and the examples for each case. Finding information related to Ambiguity.
8	How is ambiguity given in a language?	Design a cartoon where you present oral texts which contain ambiguity. Use generators like Pixton: http://www.pixton.com/es/ Finding information related to Reference.
9	Can different expressions have the same referent? Can the same expression have different referents?	Complement the cartoon from last session. Finding information related to Word Meaning. Dictionaries, Meaning Postulates.
10	What type of information does a Dictionary provide? How is that information related to predicates?	Design a mini dictionary following the postulates studied in class. You can use ISUU. Finding information related to Word Meaning. Properties of predicates, derivation, participant roles.
11	What does it mean to say that the sense properties make no mention of other predicates?	Complement the essay with the new information. Prepare the exam.
12	SECOND STRIKE EXAM.	Developing the Exam. Finding information related to Derivation.
13	What are the three steps involved in the derivation of new words? How to identify the component morphemes in English words and how to describe the steps (rules) involved in their derivation?	Draw a syntactic “derivation” tree which expresses the same proposition as the English sentence “Everyone who Mary loves is happy”, showing all the rules of derivation. Finding information related to Logic.
14	What aspect of rational behavior does logic (in our narrow semantic sense) refer to?	Write a short essay, discussing the aspects discussed in class. Finding information related to Connectives.
15	What do Connectives deal with?	Finishing the final product that comprises the work of the entire course.   Find information related to Meaning Postulates.
16	What are meaning postulates and why are they an important part of the linguistic semanticist’s dictionary?	Presenting their final product. Prepare the Final Exam.
17-18	FINAL EXAM AND FEEDBACK SESSION	Developing the Exam.

9.            READING PLAN.

 

Hurford, J. R., & Heasley, B. (2007). Semantics: a Coursebook (2nd ed.). Cambridge. Cambridge University Press.

 

ASSESSMENT CRITERIA.
TYPE OF ASSESSMENT:	PERCENTAGE%	DATE	ASSESSMENT ACTIVITIES
PROFESSOR' ASSESSMENT	90%	6th - 12th and 17th week	Continuous assessment of website design (60%)  1-hour written examination at the end of Semester (40%)
SELF-ASSESSMENT	5%	6th - 12th and 17th week	Checklist with established criteria.
PEER-ASSESMENT	5%	6th - 12th and 17th week	Checklist with established criteria.