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

• 3 Analysis problems worth 40%, addressing outcomes 2,3, due weeks 4,7,11 
• 1 Research Report of 1500-2000 words worth 25%, assessing outcomes 1-4, due week 12
• One bibliography of a potential research area worth 10%, assessing outcome 4, due week 11
• 1 Takehome exam worth 25%, assessing outcomes 2,3

2 hr Lectures for 13 weeks and tutorials (wks 2-11). Students can expect to spend about 5 hrs/week outside lectures.

No special knowledge and skills beyond the Requisite Statement

An anthology of texts to be studied will be supplied in electronic brick form, and additional material will be available on line.

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

Comrie, B., Language Universals and Linguistic Typology, Revised edition, Oxford: Blackwell, 1989

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

Shopen, T., Language Typology and Syntactic Description, 2nd edition, 3 vols, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007