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DEGREE REGULATIONS & PROGRAMMES OF STUDY 2024/2025

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DRPS : Course Catalogue : School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences : Language Sciences

Undergraduate Course: Syntax: Theory and Practice (LASC10084)

Course Outline
SchoolSchool of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences CollegeCollege of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
Credit level (Normal year taken)SCQF Level 10 (Year 3 Undergraduate) AvailabilityAvailable to all students
SCQF Credits20 ECTS Credits10
SummaryThe course will situate the work that students have already done in syntax in years 1 and 2 with respect to basic issues in syntactic theory: the domain of syntax, the nature of syntactic systems. It will develop a systematic overview of the properties of a generative grammar, working through some of the most basic syntactic constructions that have been studied, and focussing on reasoning and argumentation in developing a syntactic analysis.
Course description The aim of this course is to provide an introduction to the modern generative approach to syntax. Students taking this course will already be familiar with a number of important syntactic phenomena and with some of the important concepts and terms that make it possible to describe the syntax of human languages in a precise way, and to understand descriptions in the current literature. In this course we will be building on these foundations, in order to gain an understanding of how researchers have tried, and are trying, to address questions such as: What is a possible syntactic system? What are the primitives of syntax? How different can the syntax of one language be from the syntax of another?


The course will set out in a systematic way a generative approach to these questions, with the aim of bringing students to the point at which they will be able to begin to read, in a critical way, the primary literature in the field. At the same time, there will be an emphasis throughout on understanding how hypotheses about syntax - syntactic analyses - are developed, tested, compared, and evaluated.
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
Pre-requisites Students MUST have passed: LEL2A: Linguistic Theory and the Structure of English (LASC08017)
It is RECOMMENDED that students have passed LEL2D: Cross-linguistic Variation: Limits and Theories (LASC08020)
Co-requisites
Prohibited Combinations Students MUST NOT also be taking Syntactic Theory and English Syntax (LASC10065)
Other requirements None
Information for Visiting Students
Pre-requisitesVisiting students should have completed at least 3 Linguistics/Language Sciences courses at grade B or above. We will only consider University/College level courses. One of these courses must have a substantial focus on syntax.
High Demand Course? Yes
Course Delivery Information
Academic year 2024/25, Available to all students (SV1) Quota:  22
Course Start Semester 2
Timetable Timetable
Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) Total Hours: 200 ( Lecture Hours 27, Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4, Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours 169 )
Assessment (Further Info) Written Exam 0 %, Coursework 100 %, Practical Exam 0 %
Additional Information (Assessment) Assignment 1: 40%
Assignment 2: 60%
Feedback Not entered
No Exam Information
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
  1. Have an overview of a current syntactic theory
  2. Have an overview of some of the syntactic phenomena that have been central to syntactic theorizing
  3. Be able to give syntactic arguments for and against particular analyses
  4. Be able to approach the primary literature
Reading List
None
Additional Information
Graduate Attributes and Skills Through the lectures, tutorials, readings and assessments, students will start learning how to analyse syntactic data and critically compare theories of grammar architecture. Students will be encouraged to apply the concepts and analyses developed to other languages they are familiar with, thereby developing data collection, analysis, and critical thinking skills. Tutorials and assessments will further develop written and oral communication skills, as well as the ability to formulate original arguments and justify these.

Core skills gained or developed on this course:
Being open to different perspectives; Challenging own perspectives and assumptions; Critical thinking; Critical analysis and evaluation; Data collection; Data analysis and evaluation; Formulating original arguments and justifying it; Independence; Oral communication (discussion, debating respectfully, influencing); Preparation, planning and organisation; Problem solving; Academic reading skills; Research skills; Taking initiative; Time management; Workload management; Written communication; Writing clearly and concisely
KeywordsNot entered
Contacts
Course organiserProf Caroline Heycock
Tel: (0131 6)51 1999
Email: Caroline.Heycock@ed.ac.uk
Course secretaryMs Susan Hermiston
Tel: (0131 6)50 3440
Email: Susan.Hermiston@ed.ac.uk
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