In this course students will become acquainted with the fundamental concepts of syntax and with a wide variety of syntactic structures found in the world's languages and will develop skills in syntactic analysis.  Examples will be used from languages from every inhabited continent, and students will learn how to go about analyzing the syntax of an unfamiliar language.

• read descriptive and typologically oriented books and articles about syntax
• apply a range of concept and terms from syntax to data that exemplify them
• solve simple problems in grammatical analysis
• undertake guided research in the grammatical structure of languages of different types, for example as in field methods courses on unfamiliar languages, or to support the teaching of more familiar ones

three Analysis problems worth 50%, one Research Report of 1500-2000 words worth 25%, one 2hr final exam, worth 25%

2 hours of lectures and 1 tutorial per week. Students can expect to spend about 5 hours/week outside lectures.

No special eligibility requirements

Introduction to the Study of Language (1001/2001), or with permission of the Convener, Structure of English (LING1020/2020 or LENG1020/2020). These may also be taken concurrently, with permission of the Convenor.

Pinker, S., How Language Works, ch 4, p 83-125, Harvard University Press, 1994

Dixon, R.M.W., Ergativity, Cambridge University Press, 1994

This course is required for Honours in Linguistics.