Introduction
All the material for this course is from the textbook. However whilst we won't be failed for not coming to class, the lecturer thinks we won't be able to learn the content ourselves.
This course will be using the scientific method (it will not be "a feely feely class"). There will be no essays, our assignments will be worksheet based.
We're focussing on Chomskyan linguistics; the dominant theory in syntax at the moment. Everything else is related to it, either by similarity or opposition.
The Scientific Method in ARTS2692
A Generative Grammer is a group of rules that generate the sentence of a language, it's a model of what you know.
Hence our aim in this course is to create a general theory that accounts for all grammatical/ungrammatical sentences.
Topics
- Introduction to Syntax
- Parts of Speech
- Phrase Structure Trees
- Structural Relations (Linguistic Trees)
- Binding Theory
- X-Bar Theory
- Limits of X-Bar Theory
- Types of Clauses
"Languages differ not by what they can say, but by what they must".
"To say that language is communication is wrong - language enables us to engage in abstract thinking."
