175-015 Syntax

Formerly available as 175-211/311. Students who have completed 175-211 or 175-311 are not eligible to enrol in this subject.

Completion of 175-105 Introduction to Language or 175-106 The Linguistics of English or approval of the coordinator.

This subject is an introduction to basic concepts and methods of syntactic analysis and description. Emphasis is on practical analysis and description of a wide range of phenomena from a variety of languages. Students should become familiar with topics such as constituent structure; syntactic categories; grammatical functions (interface with morphology); thematic relations (interface with semantics); word order; multi-clausal constructions, including complement clauses, relative clauses and clause linking; and unbounded dependencies.

• have acquired skills in critical thinking and analysis;

• have acquired skill in thinking in theoretical terms;

• have developed skills in thinking creatively in evaluating and formulating analyses;

• have developed skills in observation and attention to detail;

• have developed skills in communicating knowledge intelligibly and economically.

Practical assignment problems totalling 2000 words 50% (due throughout the semester) and a take-home examination of 2000 words 50% (due at the end of semester).

• Paul Kroeger, Analyzing Grammar. CUP (2005).