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Regular version of the site
Master 2020/2021

Formal Approaches to Natural Language

Category 'Best Course for Career Development'
Category 'Best Course for Broadening Horizons and Diversity of Knowledge and Skills'
Area of studies: Fundamental and Applied Linguistics
Delivered by: School of Linguistics
When: 1 year, 1, 2 module
Mode of studies: offline
Master’s programme: Linguistic Theory and Language Description
Language: English
ECTS credits: 4
Contact hours: 32

Course Syllabus

Abstract

The course covers different topics in the formal studies of syntax, morphology and semantics, focusing on the generative framework as the most influential one in this domain. The course goes over a wide range of linguistic phenomena highlighting major debates in the field, advantages and disadvantages of formal approaches (in general and in their different varieties) and giving a wider perspective on their role in the study of various phenomena. A brief introduction is followed by several in-depth case studies selected to represent the foundational principles and questions of the formal approaches to natural language.
Learning Objectives

Learning Objectives

  • to introduce students to the methodology of formal grammar and semantics and to the major questions that these frameworks seek to answer
  • to discuss linguistic phenomena that played a crucial role for these frameworks
  • to teach students how to use up-to-date conceptual apparatus, methods and argumentation in these domains
Expected Learning Outcomes

Expected Learning Outcomes

  • understands the complexity of formal syntactic model
  • understands the diversity of formal semantic model
  • understands the argumentation the formal syntactic models rely on
  • is able to analyze sentence structure using different formal methods
Course Contents

Course Contents

  • The basics of generative grammar: a recapitulation
  • Modality, tense and aspect in the syntactic structure
  • The structure of noun phrases. The structure of relative clauses. Predicate-argument structure in formal approaches.
  • Information structure in formal approaches. On the crossroads of formal syntax and semantics: quantifiers; negative and positive polarity items.
Assessment Elements

Assessment Elements

  • non-blocking Homework 1
  • non-blocking Homework 2
  • non-blocking Homework 3
  • non-blocking Oral presentation in a group
Interim Assessment

Interim Assessment

  • Interim assessment (2 module)
    0.2 * Homework 1 + 0.3 * Homework 2 + 0.2 * Homework 3 + 0.3 * Oral presentation in a group
Bibliography

Bibliography

Recommended Core Bibliography

  • Carnie, A. (2012). Syntax : A Generative Introduction (Vol. 3rd ed). Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=531592

Recommended Additional Bibliography

  • Bayer, J., & Struckmeier, V. (2017). Discourse Particles : Formal Approaches to Their Syntax and Semantics. Berlin: De Gruyter. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=1466775