EN-458 Syntax: A theoretical introduction to English sentence structure (Autumn 2024)

On successful completion of this course, students will have

• advanced understanding of the structure of English sentences
• thorough knowledge of theories of sentence structure
• broad knowledge of general issues in studies of syntax
• knowledge of methods for exploring syntactic questions

On successful completion this course, students will be able to

• syntactically analyse English sentences
• critically evaluate theories of language structure
• critically evaluate evidence for and against syntactic analyses
• use corpora to identify syntactic patterns in varieties of English
• describe and analyse English data in a well-structured paper

This course is a theoretical introduction to language structure, with a focus on English sentence formation. Although languages can be strikingly different, generative syntactic theory proposes that they share a common core, a universal grammar. This course develops this hypothesis with respect to standard English, but also takes a comparative look at other varieties of English and other languages, both related and unrelated. The course will address the basic structure of sentences, as well as grammatical phenomena, such as for example, displacement, case, and agreement. Key syntactic proposals will be discussed and evaluated, and students will explore their application to English. Students will also investigate a syntactic phenomenon in (varieties of) English through the use of corpora (e.g. BNC, COCA) and apply their knowledge of English syntax and syntactic theories to a dataset.

Topics to be covered focusing on English:

• basic sentence structure
• grammatical mechanisms (e.g. displacement, case, agreement)
• the architecture of grammar
• methods and approaches to syntactic theorizing
• using corpora to explore varieties of English