Introduction to Syntax

Description

Course Description:

This course provides an introduction to the study of syntax, the component of grammar that governs the structure of sentences. Students will learn to analyze sentence structure, understand different syntactic theories, and explore how syntax interacts with other areas of linguistics such as semantics and morphology. The course will cover key syntactic phenomena, including phrase structure, constituency, movement, and syntactic variation across languages.

Course Objectives:

• Understand the basic principles of syntactic theory.
• Analyze the structure of sentences using syntactic trees.
• Identify constituents and grammatical functions within sentences.
• Explore syntactic variation across different languages.
• Apply syntactic rules to explain sentence formation and transformation.
• Develop the ability to read and understand syntactic literature.

Weekly Outline:

Week 1: Introduction to Syntax and Grammaticality

• Topics Covered:
  • What is syntax? The role of syntax in language.
  • Grammaticality and acceptability.
  • Overview of prescriptive vs. descriptive grammar.
  • Introduction to syntactic analysis: words, phrases, and sentences.
• Practice:
  • Identifying grammatical vs. ungrammatical sentences.
  • Introduction to syntactic patterns in simple sentences.

Week 2: Basic Sentence Structure and Constituency

• Topics Covered:
  • Basic sentence constituents: Subject, verb, object.
  • Constituents and tests for constituency (substitution, movement, coordination).
  • Phrase structure: Introduction to noun phrases (NPs) and verb phrases (VPs).
• Practice:
  • Identifying constituents in sentences using constituency tests.
  • Building simple syntactic trees.

Week 3: Phrase Structure Rules and X-bar Theory

• Topics Covered:
  • Phrase structure rules (PSRs) for English.
  • Introduction to X-bar theory: Head, complement, specifier.
  • Cross-linguistic phrase structure.
• Practice:
  • Drawing phrase structure trees for different sentence types.
  • Applying X-bar theory to different syntactic categories (NP, VP, PP).

Week 4: Argument Structure and Thematic Roles

• Topics Covered:
  • Arguments vs. adjuncts in sentence structure.
  • Thematic roles: Agent, theme, goal, experiencer, etc.
  • Argument structure and valency: Transitive, intransitive, and ditransitive verbs.
• Practice:
  • Identifying thematic roles and argument structure in sentences.
  • Analyzing the syntactic representation of different verb types.

Week 5: Case and Agreement

• Topics Covered:
  • Grammatical relations and case marking (nominative, accusative, ergative systems).
  • Subject-verb agreement and its syntactic significance.
  • Cross-linguistic variation in case and agreement systems.
• Practice:
  • Identifying case and agreement markers in English and other languages.
  • Analyzing agreement patterns and their role in syntactic structure.

Week 6: Clause Structure and Embedded Clauses

• Topics Covered:
  • Introduction to clause types: Main clauses, embedded clauses.
  • Finite vs. non-finite clauses.
  • Complement clauses, relative clauses, and adverbial clauses.
• Practice:
  • Analyzing embedded clauses and their syntactic roles.
  • Tree diagrams for sentences with multiple clauses.

Week 7: Movement and Transformations: Wh-Movement and Passives

• Topics Covered:
  • Introduction to syntactic movement.
  • Wh-movement and the formation of questions.
  • Passivization and other syntactic transformations.
• Practice:
  • Diagramming wh-questions and passives.
  • Identifying movement phenomena in various sentence types.

Week 8: Syntactic Dependencies: Binding and Control

• Topics Covered:
  • Binding theory: Anaphors, pronouns, and their antecedents.
  • Principles A, B, and C of binding.
  • Control structures: Obligatory control vs. non-obligatory control.
• Practice:
  • Analyzing sentences for binding relationships.
  • Identifying control structures in complex sentences.

Week 9: Syntactic Variation Across Languages

• Topics Covered:
  • Word order typology (SVO, SOV, VSO, etc.).
  • Head directionality: Head-initial vs. head-final languages.
  • Null subjects and pro-drop phenomena.
• Practice:
  • Comparing syntactic structures across languages.
  • Analyzing syntactic patterns in unfamiliar languages.

Week 10: Advanced Syntactic Phenomena: Raising and A-Movement

• Topics Covered:
  • Raising verbs and raising constructions.
  • A-movement vs. A-bar movement.
  • Cross-linguistic examples of raising phenomena.
• Practice:
  • Analyzing sentences with raising constructions.
  • Identifying A-movement in tree diagrams.

Week 11: Syntax-Semantics Interface

• Topics Covered:
  • The relationship between syntax and semantics.
  • Syntactic structures and how they convey meaning.
  • The role of syntactic structure in determining scope and interpretation.
• Practice:
  • Analyzing how changes in syntactic structure affect meaning.
  • Discussing scope ambiguity and its syntactic representation.

Week 12: Review and Application of Syntactic Analysis

• Topics Covered:
  • Review of major syntactic concepts and theories.
  • Applying syntactic analysis to complex sentences and texts.
  • Introduction to contemporary debates in syntactic theory.
• Practice:
  • Analyzing real-world examples of syntactic phenomena.
  • Final project preparation: Applying syntactic theory to a chosen topic or language.

Assessment Methods:

• Weekly Quizzes: To assess understanding of basic concepts and syntactic structures.
• Problem Sets: Focused on tree diagrams, constituency tests, and syntactic analysis.
• Midterm Exam: Covering the first half of the course (basic sentence structure, constituency, movement).
• Final Project: A syntactic analysis of a selected language or linguistic phenomenon, applying concepts learned in class.
• Final Exam: Comprehensive test on all topics covered.

Recommended Textbooks and Resources:

• Carnie, Andrew. Syntax: A Generative Introduction (3rd Edition).
• Radford, Andrew. Minimalist Syntax: Exploring the Structure of English.
• Haegeman, Liliane. Thinking Syntactically: A Guide to Argumentation and Analysis.
• Additional journal articles and syntactic problem sets provided by the instructor.

This course outline gradually builds students’ understanding of syntactic theory, from foundational concepts to more advanced topics like movement, clause structure, and syntactic variation. It emphasizes both theoretical learning and practical analysis, preparing students to engage with syntactic research and analysis independently.