Undergraduate Course: Advanced English Syntax (LASC10012)
Course Outline
| School | School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences |
College | College of Humanities and Social Science |
| Course type | Standard |
Availability | Available to all students |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 3 Undergraduate) |
Credits | 20 |
| Home subject area | Language Sciences |
Other subject area | None |
| Course website |
None |
Taught in Gaelic? | No |
| Course description | The course explores in depth the structure of English passive clauses, the structure of relative and interrogative clauses, and the distribution of reflexives in order to address a range of currently open theoretical questions and to introduce the main schools of contemporary syntactic theorising, including derivational theories such as minimalism, and lexicalist models such as lexical-functional grammar and head-driven phrase structure grammar, which do not permit movement. Topics may include: formal models and the syntax/lexicon distribution of labour; the morphosyntactic feature system of English; distribution of participles; argument movement; the passive lexical rule; status of 'argument structure'; long distance dependencies & gaps; distribution of interrogative and relative clauses; features on wh-words; 'enlightened self-interest' and 'shortest move'; island constraints; co-reference; disjoint reference; c-command and binding; feature accounts of binding; semantic approaches to binding. |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | Visiting students should have at least 3 Linguistics/Language Sciences courses at grade B or above (or be predicted to obtain this). We will only consider University/College level courses. |
| Displayed in Visiting Students Prospectus? | Yes |
Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |
Summary of Intended Learning Outcomes
| This course aims to deepen students' understanding of central syntactic phenomena; develop students' understanding of how syntactic theory has developed and why, and to prepare motivated graduates for further study in the subject. |
Assessment Information
(1) Coursework providing 50% of the final mark.
(2) A two-hour written examination providing 50% of the final mark. |
Special Arrangements
| None |
Additional Information
| Academic description |
Not entered |
| Syllabus |
Not entered |
| Transferable skills |
Not entered |
| Reading list |
Not entered |
| Study Abroad |
Not entered |
| Study Pattern |
Not entered |
| Keywords | Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Prof Nikolas Gisborne
Tel: (0131 6)50 3600
Email: n.gisborne@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Ms Stephanie Fong
Tel:
Email: S.Fong@ed.ac.uk |
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