Høst 2018

HIF-3010 Syntax I - 10 stp

The course is administrated by

Institutt for språk og kultur

Type of course

This course may be taken as a single course by students who meet the admission requirements for the MA programme in Theoretical Linguistics and/or the MA programme in English Linguistics and/or the MA programme in English Acquisition and Multilingualism.

Course contents

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.

Application deadline

Applicants from Nordic countries: 1 June for the autumn semester and 1 December for the spring semester.

Exchange students and Fulbright students: 1 October for the spring semester and 15 April for the autumn semester.

Objective of the course

The aim of the course is to enable students to work independently with the analysis of syntactic data. The students should be able to show thorough knowledge of the materials described in the course description. Students must also develop the skills for oral presentation and argumentation, as well as the skills necessary for group work and individual project work.

Language of instruction

Language of instruction and examination: English.

Teaching methods

Lectures, exercises, seminars, project work.

Quality assurance: All courses undergo a halfway evaluation once in a 2-year period at the masters level.

Assessment

The following coursework requirements must be completed and approved in order to take the final exam:

Coursework requirements: Students are required to hand in 6 homework assignments.

The exam will consist of:

Assessment method: Term paper (7000 words) in Wiseflow.Performance in the course will be assessed on an A-F grades scale. Grades are A-E for passed and F for failed. A re-sit examination is offered in the event of an F grade.

The deadline to register for a re-sit examination is January 15th for the autumn semester and August 15th for the spring semester. For the re-sit exam the student may submit a revised version of his/her term paper.