Syllabus — the official map

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Official exam description (Czech)

Státní bakalářská zkouška z anglického jazyka a literatury má podobu písemného testu, který ověřuje znalosti studentů ve dvou oblastech:

  1. lingvistika anglického jazyka
  2. anglická a americká literatura

Testované znalosti odpovídají obsahu všech povinných literárních a lingvistických kurzů bakalářského studia (Starší anglická literatura, Anglická literatura do konce 19. století, Americká literatura do konce 19. století, Anglická a americká literatura od 20. století do současnosti, Morfologie, Lexikologie, Fonetika a fonologie, Syntax).

Lingvistická část se skládá z anglického textu a otevřených otázek, které se k němu vztahují, a případně dalších teoretických nebo praktických otázek bez přímého vztahu k textu. Otázky ověřují znalosti z oblasti anglické fonetiky a fonologie, morfologie, syntaxe a lexikologie a současně schopnost využít teoretické poznatky v komplexní lingvistické analýze autentického textu. Tato část testu trvá 90 minut čistého času.

Literární část – první polovina otázek s výběrem odpovědí (multiple choice), které ověřují literárně-historické znalosti z oblasti vývoje anglické a americké literatury od jejich počátků až do současnosti. Druhá polovina jsou otevřené otázky založené na textech probíraných v seminářích povinných literárních kurzů. Tato část testu trvá 90 minut čistého času.

Hodnocení: Výsledná známka se skládá z dílčích hodnocení obou částí, přičemž v každé části je nutné získat alespoň 50 % z maximálního počtu bodů. Výsledek pod 50 % z jedné části testu znamená automaticky neúspěšné složení zkoušky jako celku. Pro úspěšné složení zkoušky je potřeba dosáhnout celkově z obou částí alespoň 70 %. Součástí hodnocení je i celková jazyková úroveň písemného projevu.

Požadavky: Celkové ovládnutí anglického jazyka na velmi pokročilé úrovni (tj. C1+ podle CEFR). Prokázání přehledu a znalosti oboru na základě povinných (a případně i absolvovaných povinně volitelných) kurzů bakalářského programu na KAJL PedF UK.

Part 1 — Linguistics

Morfologie → Morphology

  1. Basic units of morphology. Parts of speech (criteria; open vs. closed-system items). Analytic and synthetic features of the English language. Centre and periphery in the English grammatical system.
  2. Grammatical categories of English nouns (number, countability, case, definiteness, gender).
  3. Grammatical categories of English verbs (person, number, voice, aspect, mood, tense); classes of verbs; modality and modal verbs; non-finite verb forms (the infinitive, gerund, participle).
  4. Pronouns and quantifiers (classification, morphology and syntax of pronouns and quantifiers).
  5. Adverbs (classification, morphology and syntax of adverbs).
  6. Adjectives (classification, morphology and syntax of adjectives).

Lexikologie → Lexicology

  1. Internal structure of words; types of morphemes. The linguistic sign; arbitrariness and motivation in language.
  2. Word formation (major and minor word-formation processes, types and sub-types).
  3. Basic characteristics of the English word stock. Borrowing.
  4. Collocation.
  5. Set expressions.
  6. Paradigmatic sense relations (synonymy, antonymy, hyponymy, meronymy). Polysemy and homonymy.

Fonetika a fonologie → Phonetics & Phonology

  1. Classification of vowels (quality and quantity) and consonants (place and manner of articulation, voicing).
  2. Allophonic variation (aspiration, pre-fortis shortening, devoicing).
  3. Word stress (vowel reduction, stress in complex and compound words, stress shift).
  4. Rhythm and sentence stress (strong and weak forms of grammatical words).
  5. Intonation (functions of intonation, tones).
  6. Aspects of connected speech (assimilation, assibilation, elision, linking).

Syntax → Syntax

  1. Basic units of the syntactic description of English.
  2. Sentence types and their discourse functions.
  3. Clause patterns and clause elements; valency, verb classes; constitutive (vs. non-constitutive), obligatory (vs. optional) clause elements (subject, object, complement, adverbial, modification).
  4. Semantic roles of clause elements. Negation.
  5. The compound and complex sentence; coordination and subordination. Relations between coordinated clauses. Types of dependent clauses (content, relative, adverbial clauses); non-finite clauses and complex condensation. Complex analysis of sentence structure.
  6. Word order (functions; fixed WO in English). Functional Sentence Perspective.

Part 2 — Literature

British topics (23) → British Survey

  1. Old English Literature
  2. Middle English Literature
  3. English Renaissance Poetry
  4. English Renaissance Drama
  5. William Shakespeare – a poet and a playwright
  6. 17th century – key literary texts
  7. 18th century Novels
  8. Pre-romantic and Romantic Poetic Sensibility
  9. Romantic Poetry
  10. Romantic Fiction
  11. Victorian Poetry
  12. Victorian Fiction
  13. Literature of the Turn of the Century
  14. Edwardian literature
  15. British Modernist Fiction
  16. British Modernist Poetry
  17. British Interwar Fiction and Poetry
  18. British Literature of the 1950s and 1960s – poetry, fiction and drama
  19. British drama of the 20th century
  20. Multicultural British Fiction and Poetry
  21. Postmodern British Literature
  22. Contemporary British Fiction (1990s until the present)
  23. British Poetry from the 1960s until the present

American topics (15) → American Survey

  1. Early American and colonial period
  2. American revolutionary writers and Enlightenment thinkers
  3. American Romanticism in fiction
  4. American Romanticism in philosophy and social reform
  5. American Romanticism in poetry
  6. American Realism
  7. American Naturalism
  8. American Modernism in fiction, The Lost Generation
  9. American Modernism in poetry
  10. Literary reflections of American society in the 1930s through the 1960s
  11. Modern American Gothic
  12. Reflections of WWI and WWII in American literature
  13. Late 20th century American literature: Postmodernism and multicultural canon
  14. Representative American drama
  15. African American literature

Required texts — British

Required texts — American

Official sample questions

Find the explanation for each sample task below. Open the sample papers for the passages and full question wording: Linguistics (PDF) · Literature (PDF).

Linguistics · 20 questions
  1. Stress, suffix behaviour and prominence
    3. Word stress
  2. Sentence transcription, phrasing and weak forms
    7.4 Transcribing a sentence into tone units (worked model) · 5. Intonation
  3. Regular plural allomorphs
    7.2 Regular -s allomorphs (plural / 3rd-person sg / genitive): /s/, /z/, /ɪz/
  4. Aspiration and pre-fortis shortening
    2. Allophonic variation
  5. Contextual forms of the definite article
    7.1 The definite article: /ðə/ vs /ði/ (vs strong /ðiː/)
  6. Sense relation: lexicon–word and a parallel pair
    6.4 Meronymy
  7. Collocation: definition and three patterns
    4. Collocation
  8. Function-word origins and evidence
    3.10 How to recognize origin — the justification toolkit (sample-test Q8)
  9. Connotation and an example
    6.6 Denotation vs connotation (sample-test Q9)
  10. Derivation versus compounding; morpheme analysis
    2.3 Derivation vs compounding — the exam table (sample-test Q10)
  11. Finite clauses, dependency and adverbial meaning
    Analysis 1 — the sample-test sentence
  12. Pronoun class versus determiner or head function
    4. Pronouns and quantifiers
  13. Relative pronouns and their choice
    5.3.2 Relative (adjectival) clauses
  14. Subject raising and an anticipatory-it alternative
    6.4 Departures III: extraposition, raising, postponement, passive
  15. Generic we and alternative reference
    4.1 Classification of pronouns
  16. Contextual meanings of modal verbs
    4.6 Modality of may / could / cannot (published sample-test Q16) · 3.7 Modality and modal verbs
  17. Adverbials: form, integration and function
    3.6 Adverbial classes by integration (needed for the "compare two adverbials" task)
  18. Nonfinite form versus clause function
    5.3.4 Non-finite clauses and their functions
  19. Clause patterns at the relevant clause level
    3.2 Quirk's seven clause patterns
  20. Perfect auxiliary, lexical and semi-modal HAVE
    Special focus: the verb HAVE
British literature · selection · 6 questions
  1. Shakespeare: sonnet addressees
    William Shakespeare — Sonnet 3 ("Look in thy glass and tell the face thou viewest") (published 1609) — procreation sonnet
  2. Authorship of The Passionate Shepherd
    Christopher Marlowe — "The Passionate Shepherd to His Love" (written late 1580s–early 1590s; published 1599) — pastoral lyric
  3. Doctor Faustus: author
    4. English Renaissance Drama
  4. Lyrical Ballads: human subjects
    9. Romantic Poetry
  5. Austen: social scope
    10. Romantic Fiction
  6. Yeats: apocalyptic vision
    W. B. Yeats — "The Second Coming" (1919/1920) — lyric poem
British literature · written · 4 questions
  1. Astrophil and Stella: etymology and relationship
    Sir Philip Sidney — Astrophel and Stella, Sonnet 1 ("Loving in truth...") (written early 1580s; published 1591) — Elizabethan sonnet
  2. Keats: interpreting the opiate image
    John Keats — "Ode to a Nightingale" (May 1819; published 1819/1820) — ode
  3. Church Going: a supported thematic paragraph
    Philip Larkin — "Church Going" (1954/1955) — poem
  4. Eveline: claustrophobia
    James Joyce — "Eveline" (1904/1914) — short story
American literature · selection · 3 questions
  1. The Jungle: historical impact
    7. American Naturalism
  2. Faulkner: narrative technique
    8. American Modernism in fiction, The Lost Generation
  3. Naturalism: biological determinism
    7. American Naturalism
American literature · written · 2 questions
  1. Gatsby: critique of the American Dream
    6. F. Scott Fitzgerald — The Great Gatsby (1925) — novel; Jazz Age tragedy, Modernist first-person narration
  2. Guterson and Lee: supported comparison
    15. David Guterson — Snow Falling on Cedars (1994) — novel; courtroom drama + love story + Bildungsroman
Read the sample questions here

Literature questions are transcribed; linguistics tasks are summarized.

Příklady otázek – literatura

Britská literatura

Multiple-choice / T-F:

  1. Shakespeare's sonnets are addressed to three people primarily. Which of these is not among them? a. the Dark Lady b. the Rival Poet c. the Fellow Playwright d. the Fair Youth

  2. "The Passionate Shepherd to his Love" was written by a. Edmund Spencer b. William Shakespeare c. Thomas Wyatt d. Christopher Marlowe

  3. Christopher Marlowe is the author of The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus. T/F

  4. Who is at the centre of Lyrical Ballads? a. the powerful and aristocratic b. the powerless and dispossessed

  5. In her works, Jane Austen attempted to portray a. great historical movements b. nature and its splendour c. a part of contemporary society

  6. "The Second Coming" by W. B. Yeats features apocalyptic vision. T/F

Open questions:

  1. Explain the etymology of the sonnet sequence title Astrophil and Stella. What does it indicate about the relationship between the protagonists?

  2. In John Keats's "Ode to a Nightingale", the opening lines are "My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains / My sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk, / Or emptied some dull opiate to the drains". Which activity do the words "Or emptied some dull opiate to the drains" refer to?

  3. Using complete sentences (min. 3), describe the theme(s) of "Church Going" by Philip Larkin.

  4. How does the short story "Eveline" by James Joyce develop the motif of claustrophobia?

Americká literatura

Multiple-choice:

  1. Upton Sinclair's 1906 novel The Jungle had a significant impact on a. English wordstock b. workplace safety legislation c. the Modernist literary tradition

  2. Which is the least typical literary device associated with William Faulkner? a. multiple narration b. linear chronology c. symbolism

  3. Which of the following is the best summary of biological determinism as used in Naturalist fiction? a. People's behaviour is often driven by instinct rather than free will. b. Authors should get acquainted with biology and write about the animal kingdom. c. People should be strong willed and determined.

Open questions:

  1. How can The Great Gatsby be perceived as a perverted American Dream narrative?

  2. David Guterson wrote his most celebrated novel while teaching To Kill a Mockingbird to high school students. Does it show?

Příklad testu – lingvistika

Zadání vychází z krátkého anglického textu (cca 13 řádků odborné prózy). Ukázkové otázky pokrývají všechny čtyři lingvistické oblasti:

Fonetika a fonologie:

  1. Mark primary word stress; classify suffixes by stress-shifting behavior; name four prominence factors.
  2. Transcribe a sentence – divide into tone units, mark stresses, indicate linking devices, use weak forms.
  3. Transcribe plural allomorphs; give the regular plural pronunciation rule.
  4. Find words with strongly aspirated plosives and shortened vowels; explain aspiration.
  5. Explain different pronunciations of the definite article (the other hand vs. the lexicon).

Lexikologie:

  1. Identify the sense relation between lexicon and word; find another pair with the same relation in the passage.
  2. Explain collocation; find examples of adjective + noun, verb + noun, adverb + adjective patterns.
  3. Determine Germanic/Anglo-Saxon vs. borrowed origin of function words; justify.
  4. Explain connotation with an illustrative example.
  5. Compare derivation and compounding – morphemic status, examples, morpheme analysis.

Syntax a morfologie (otázky oblasti propojují):

  1. Identify finite clauses; give syntactic function and type of dependent clauses; semantic roles of adverbial clauses.
  2. Compare syntactic functions of a pronoun in different positions; find other pronouns with dual function.
  3. Find three different relative pronouns; explain why each is used.
  4. Explain subject raising – compare with structural alternative using it.
  5. Identify referent of we; give another means of referring to the same type of referent.
  6. Identify type of modality expressed by modal verbs (may, could, cannot).

  7. Compare adverbials in terms of form, degree of integration, and function.

  8. Identify nonfinite forms (infinitive, participle, gerund) and syntactic functions of nonfinite clauses.

  9. Give valency clause patterns of specified clauses.
  10. Identify uses/meanings of the verb HAVE in different clauses; explain differences.