English 2810a: English Grammar (Winter 2026)
Note: This is a draft syllabus and is subject to revision before the last day of the add/drop period.
English 2810 Grammar is a technical course in the form and structure of the English language. Our focus will be descriptive rather than prescriptive. Students will learn how the language works in actual practice rather than how people think it ought to be spoken or written.
In addition to its intrinsic interest, the study of descriptive grammar can be useful for anybody interested in working with the English language, as it provides a framework and set of terms for understanding how the language works.
Contents
Instructors
- Daniel Paul O’Donnell (daniel.odonnell@uleth.ca). Department of English, University of Lethbridge (bio)
Contact information
My email is daniel.odonnell@uleth.ca.
If you wish to set an appointment for an in-person or online (Zoom) meeting, you can use my “Student Meeting Times”:
https://outlook.office.com/bookwithme/user/a14f92d19eb24afdab3a3bc6938f09f7@uleth.ca/meetingtype/HvxjGHg7YEq0s6c_f-m78g2?anonymous&ismsaljsauthenabled&ep=mlink
My office hours are TBA.
Times and location
- Tuesday 12:00–14:45
- AH176
About this course
The Calendar describes the course as follows:
The basic structures of English: word classes, sentence elements and basic aspects of syntax and morphology. Primary emphasis on descriptive grammar, though some attention will be paid to prescriptive approaches.
In other words, this is a course on how English is spoken and written in a variety of contemporary contexts (descriptive grammar), rather than, primarily, a course on how we are expected to write in, for example, university essays (prescriptive grammar). We will be looking at how words are formed (morphology), and how they are used in phrases, clauses, and sentences (syntax), and how they work together to create meaning (grammatical function). We will be considering examples of standard, formal, “correct” English (though we will also be learning why this term is something of a misnomer), but also informal, regional, and slang variants. The goal is to learn how the language is put together.
A central goal of the course is to move away from the idea that grammar is a list of rules to be followed or terms to memorise. Instead, we will approach grammar as a problem-solving discipline: students will begin with examples they already understand well and work toward explicit generalisations and terminology.
Learning goals
By the end of the course, students should be able to:
- identify and analyse major word classes and inflectional patterns in English
- explain grammatical structure using evidence-based arguments
- apply tests for constituency and grammatical function
- analyse clause and sentence structure, including tense and complementation
- articulate why particular grammatical analyses are preferable to alternatives
Students should also leave the course with increased confidence in working with technical grammatical descriptions and a clearer sense of how grammatical knowledge is constructed.
Texts
Required
- van Gelderen, Elly. An Introduction to the Grammar of English. John Benjamins, 2010. The ebook is available here: https://www.jbe-platform.com/content/books/9789027288622 (and eslewhere if you search).
- O’Donnell, Daniel Paul.
Additional readings and handouts may be provided during the term.
Assessment
This course uses two types of evaluation:
- Formative (intended primarily to help students measure progress and identify areas for improvement)
- Summative (intended primarily to assess success in achieving the course’s learning goals)
You can read more about my approach to grading here and, in greater depth, here
- Academic Citizenship 15% (Appropriate/Inappropriate/Fail)
- Attendance and participation
- Moodle profile (due early in term)
- In-class engagement and preparedness
- Formative Exercises 25% (Appropriate/Inappropriate/Fail)
- Weekly blog (about blogs)
- Short Moodle check-ins
- Two term tests
- Summative Work 45% (A+ through F)
- Inquiry project / unessay 25%
- Final synthesis exam (Moodle) 20%
- Badges 10% (Read more)
- Distinction (1.5%)
- Great Distinction (3.0%)
Students may request permission to resubmit one piece of inappropriate formative work, subject to the standard -2.5% resubmission penalty.
Policies
The following policies apply to this course and to all my classes unless otherwise announced. You are expected to be familiar with the policies reproduced here and on my Academic Policies page:
http://people.uleth.ca/~daniel.odonnell/Academic-Policies/
This course also follows my policy on the use of generative AI tools:
https://people.uleth.ca/~daniel.odonnell/academic-policies/policy-on-the-use-of-generative-artificial-intelligence-ai-such-as-chatgpt
Use of AI tools in academic work should be documented. Students are responsible for the accuracy and quality of all work they submit. This means that errors made by AI agents and bots (such as hallucinated facts and bibliography) can affect the grade of the students who submit them.
Class schedule (Winter 2026)
This schedule is provisional and may be adjusted.
| Week | Date | Topic | Readings |
| 1 | Tue Jan 13 | What is grammar? Data, judgement, explanation | Chapter 1; Chapter 2 |
| 2 | Tue Jan 20 | Inflectional morphology and distribution | |
| 3 | Tue Jan 27 | Word classes and diagnostics | Chapter 2 |
| 4 | Tue Feb 3 | Grammatical function: subject ≠ agent | |
| 5 | Tue Feb 10 | Constituency and grouping | |
| — | Tue Feb 17 | Winter Term Break — no class | |
| 6 | Tue Feb 24 | Phrase structure and hierarchy | |
| 7 | Tue Mar 3 | Clause structure and tense | |
| 8 | Tue Mar 10 | Complementation | |
| 9 | Tue Mar 17 | Questions and surface variation | |
| 10 | Tue Mar 24 | Subordination and recursion | |
| 11 | Tue Mar 31 | Relative clauses | |
| 12 | Tue Apr 7 | Synthesis and review |
Final exam: on Moodle and available throughout the scheduled exam period.
