Syntax

Course content

This course is designed as an introduction to the most recent theory of generative syntax, The Minimalist Program (Chomsky 1995). The Minimalist Program explores the fascinating idea that language, in particular, syntax, is optimal and can be reduced to a small set of universal economy principles. The Minimalist Program aims towards a powerful and universal explanation of sentence structure across languages. This course will exemplify the rationale and the implementation of the Minimalist approach to syntax. Using plenty of examples from English and other languages, you will get a step-by-step introduction to syntactic categories and structure, principles of syntactic movement, and parameters of cross-linguistic differences in word order. This course will provide you with a sound foundation in syntactic theory and analysis; it is ideal for students who enjoyed the syntax part of the Introduction course.