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Module Content

This course complements PLIN0003. It introduces students to several properties of "mental grammar" (the system of rules that determines a speaker/hearer's language).

We ask what sort of knowledge must be attributed to someone who "knows a language" and begin to answer that question by developing some of the essential building blocks of natural language grammars.

Teaching Delivery

Teaching is delivered as a mix of lectures (2/week) and backups (1/week). Student learning is based on solving homework problems in groups (1/week).

Indicative Topics

X-bar theory, binary branching, binding theory, raising, control.

Module Aims and/or Objectives

The aims of the course are: to introduce students to the scientific study of the structure of sentences; to analyse data sets and formulate appropriate generalisations that characterise them; to discover how such generalisations can be captured by abstract linguistic principles. The course builds on PLIN0003 to provide students with an overview of the current research programme in generative syntax.

The main module objectives are:

To consolidate students' knowledge of the basic architecture of mental grammar; to introduce students to binding theory, hidden movement and quantifier scope; to take note of locality effects in the various modules of grammar introduced so far; to sharpen students' analytical skills through problem discovery and problem-solving exercises. At the end of the course, students will have a basic understanding of the grammatical mechanisms involved in simple declarative sentences and in questions. This should enable them to tackle intermediate work in syntax.