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This course follows on from second-year syntax, covering selected advanced topics and current research in syntactic theory.
Syntactic theories systematically represent and explain the grammatical structure of human languages. Why are some combinations of words meaningful while others are never produced by speakers? How do children learn productive combinations without observing ungrammatical alternatives? What syntactic structures are possible in human languages? The goal of a syntactic theory is to maintain descriptive adequacy (i.e., to explain as much of the grammatical structure of as many languages as possible) while limiting the complexity of its representations. This course explores representations of syntactic structure ranging from simple phrase structure grammars to more complex transformational grammars and construction grammars. The descriptive adequacy of each approach involves four primary sources of evidence: introspection, corpus data, psycholinguistic measurements, and language acquisition. Specific syntactic phenomena include arguments vs. adjuncts, active/passive alternations, local reorderings, verb position, and phrase fronting. The goal is to use these phenomena to understand the empirical foundations of syntactic theories.Relation to other courses:This is one of a range of 300-level courses available for students majoring in Linguistics either for the BA or the BSc, alongside LING307, LING310, and LING320. It can also be taken by students majoring in English Language or other disciplines.
Through their experiences with this course, students will be able to: work both independently and collaboratively to identify patterns in syntactic data collect language data and use them to test the limitations of a given theoretical approach develop original arguments based on the analysis and comparison of syntactic data communicate their findings effectively and support their arguments with empirical data
This course will provide students with an opportunity to develop the Graduate Attributes specified below:
Critically competent in a core academic discipline of their award
Students know and can critically evaluate and, where applicable, apply this knowledge to topics/issues within their majoring subject.
LING201 or LING206 or LING211 or LING217
Jonathan Dunn
Stefan Müller; Grammatical theory: From transformational grammar to constraint-based approaches ; 2015 (Available for free at http://langsci-press.org/catalog/book/195).
Library portalThe course outline is available on LEARN (only for students enrolled in this course). LEARN
Domestic fee $1,493.00
International fee $6,075.00
* All fees are inclusive of NZ GST or any equivalent overseas tax, and do not include any programme level discount or additional course-related expenses.
For further information see Language, Social and Political Sciences .