(BA) (4-year-programme) - The University of Hong Kong

76ENGL2116. Theories of language acquisition II (6 credits)Prerequisite: ENGL2115. Theories of Language Acquisition I or EDUC2203 or LING2036This advanced course will deal with some of the critical issues addressed in Theories of LanguageAcquisition I in greater depth. It covers theoretical perspectives ranging from innateness, empiricism,to emergentism. We will study a survey of research on language acquisition and examineobservational and experimental empirical data from various schools.Assessment: 100% coursework.ENGL2117.English phonology and morphology (6 credits)This course provides a comprehensive study of the sounds (phonemes) and building blocks(morphemes) of English words. Students will examine the phonemes of English as they occurseparately and in context, and the processes involved in producing those sounds. The course involvesproblems that Cantonese speakers might have in mastering English phonemes (and why) and ways inwhich those problems can be overcome. Students will also develop an understanding of thefoundation of English words. In learning the various ways in which English words are formed, eachstudent will be able to increase his/her own lexicon and develop an understanding of how and whywords are constantly being added to or deleted from the English language, and who is generallyresponsible for those changes.Assessment: 100% coursework.ENGL2123.Language and identity in Hong Kong (6 credits)This course is a continuation of ENGL2002 Language in Society with a special focus on language andidentity in Hong Kong. Students who have taken ENGL2002 will have a foundation insociolinguistics, which certainly will be helpful, but ENGL2002 is not a prerequisite.This course examines identity studies and related language ideology research in sociolinguistics andlinguistic anthropology (including some relevant literature from sociology and social psychology). Itspecifically draws on research based in Hong Kong for comparison understanding, and application ofcurrently available theoretical models.Assessment: 100% coursework.ENGL2125.English construction grammar (6 credits)This course will introduce students to two burgeoning paradigms in present-day linguistics:construction grammar and grammaticalization theory. The first of these is a general semanticosyntacticlanguage theory; the second a (historical) linguistic discipline that focuses on howgrammatical constructions come into being. The compatibility and complementarity of bothapproaches will be looked at through a detailed case study of English clausal complementconstructions.Assessment: 100% coursework.ENGL2126.Law, meaning, and interpretation (6 credits)In this course law is used as a means of focusing discussion on a range of issues in the study oflanguage, meaning and interpretation. No prior knowledge of law is assumed. The course shows howthe interpretative issues that arise in law reflect fundamental questions in the way societies,institutions and individuals assign meaning to words, phrases and texts. Theories of language andmeaning derived from linguistics and literary theory are applied to problems in legal interpretation,