Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) Structure of Modern English Language Syllabus - Mumbai University 2026

Module 1: Basic Concepts and Terms

• 1 Organs of Speech: Classification and functions of organs of speech
• 2 Grammatical Categories: Tense, Aspect, Case, and Mood
• 3 Syntax: Surface Structure, Deep Structure, Lexical and Structural Ambiguity
• 4 Semantics: Denotative and Connotative meaning; Collocation; Semantic Roles (agent and theme); Lexical Relations (synonymy, antonymy, hyponymy, meronymy)
• 5 Pragmatics: Speech Act theory (locutionary, illocutionary, and perlocutionary acts);
• Types of Speech Acts (assertives, directives, commissives, expressives, declaratives;
• Deixis

Module 2: Phonology and Morphology

• A. Phonemic Transcription: transcribing words using the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)
• B. Morphological analysis: morphological analysis using the concept of morphemes
• (free and bound morphemes, roots, prefixes, suffixes - inflectional and derivational)

Module 3: Phrasal Analysis

• A. Phrasal Structure: identifying the structure of noun phrases, adjective phrases, adverb phrases, prepositional phrases, and genitive phrases
• B. Verb Phrases: identifying the structure of verb phrases (main verbs and auxiliary verbs, tense, aspect, voice, and modality

Module 4: Clause Analysis

• A. Clause Analysis of Simple Sentences: identifying the S, P, O, C, A structure of the sentence and the form and function of its constituents (including head words and modifiers)
• B. Clause Analysis of Complex Sentences: identifying the S, P, O, C, A structure of the sentence and the form and function of the Subordinate Clause in it (NCl, ACl, RCl, CCl, and PCl)

Text Book

• Balasubramanian, T. A Textbook of English Phonetics for Indian Students. Macmillan, 1981.
• Leech, Geoffrey, et al. English Grammar for Today: A New Introduction. London, 1982. (Part B; Chapters 2-6)

Reference Books

• Aitchison, Jean. Linguistics. Teach Yourself Series. Hodder and Stoughton, 1983.
• Crystal, David. Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics. Blackwell, 1980 rpt. 1995.
• Huddleston, Rodney D, and Geoffrey K. Pullum. A Student's Introduction to English Grammar. Cambridge, 2005.
• Jeffries, Lesley. Discovering Language: The Structure of Modern English. Palgrave Macmillan, 2006.
• Levinson, S. C. Pragmatics. Cambridge University Press, 1983.
• Quirk, R and S. Greenbaum. A University Grammar of English. Longman, 1973.
• Trask, Robert Lawrence. Key Concepts in Language and Linguistics. Psychology Press, 1999.
• Yule, George. The Study of Language: An Introduction. CUP, 2006.
• Tallerman, Maggie. Understanding Syntax. London, 2005.