LING 323 - Introductory Syntax

The goal of syntax is to characterize the (largely tacit) knowledge that enables speakers of a language to combine words into larger units such as phrases and sentences, and to “parse” (i.e., assign an abstract structural representation to) the phrases and sentences that they read and hear. This course, accessible to students with no previous training in linguistics, will introduce increasingly explicit grammar fragments of English. The goal is to present a range of phenomena of concern to syntax, and to explore formal devices that have been proposed to account for such phenomena. The course will consider such topics as constituent structure, lexical categories and selectional properties of words, movement and locality, case assignment, empty categories, and the interpretation of pronouns. The course also introduces central concepts and notation from contemporary theoretical syntax, focusing on the principles and parameters framework developed by Noam Chomsky and others.

Unit(s): 1
Group Distribution Requirement(s): Distribution Group II
Instructional Method: Conference
Grading Mode: Letter grading (A-F)
Group Distribution Learning Outcome(s):

Evaluate data and/or sources.
Analyze institutions, formations, languages, structures, or processes, whether social, political, religious, economic, cultural, intellectual or other.
Think in sophisticated ways about causation, social and/or historical change, human cognition, or the relationship between individuals and society, or engage with social, political, religious or economic theory in other areas.