Syntax I

This course is mandatory for students in the MA programme in Theoretical Linguistics, and elective for students in the MA programme in English Acquisition and Multilingualism. This course may be taken as a single course by students who qualify for admission to the MA programme in Theoretical Linguistics.

This is a theoretical introduction to syntax. The course focuses on developing a theory of syntax by proposing, testing and modifying hypotheses. The ultimate goal is a universal theory which can account for both the similarities between and the differences across languages, thus comparison of data from several languages; especially the Germanic languages, will be a recurrent theme. The course starts with the basic building blocks of syntactic structure and the fundamental ways in which they can be combined. It then moves on to examine a series of syntactic phenomena, including basic constituency, selection, tense and verbal inflection, grammatical functions and case, thematic roles, clausal complementation and question formation. At each step along the way, the theory under development will be tested, expanded and revised to accommodate new data and insights.

Bachelor's Degree (180 ECTS), or equivalent qualification, in a language or linguistics, or a degree combining linguistics and literature (minimum 80 ECTS in linguistics/language/literature, of which minimum 60 ECTS must be in linguistics and/or language). Applicants must have a minimum grade average comparable to a Norwegian C (2,5) in the ECTS scale.

Application code 9371 Enkeltemner på masternivå (Nordic applicants).

The following learning outcomes are expected:

Knowledge:

The student having completed the course will be familiar with:

• The relationship of syntax and the lexicon
• Phrase structure and syntactic constituency
• Structural and lexical ambiguity
• The basic architecture of syntactic theory
• The concept of syntactic movement
• The concept of parametric variation

Skills:

The student having completed the course will be able to:

• Identify phrasal constituents in sentences
• Describe parametric variation between languages
• Identify and explain lexical and structural ambiguity
• Describe syntactic phenomena in a given language with appropriate terminology
• Use syntactic tools to gain a deeper understanding of sentence structure
• Discuss issues and problems in syntactic analysis

Lectures, exercises, seminars, project work.

Quality assurance:

All courses undergo a halfway evaluation once in a 2-year period at the master's level. The board of the programme decides which courses will be evaluated by students and teacher each year.

Language of instruction and examination

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Re-sit examination