Admission requirements
BA English language and literature, BA Linguistics or something comparable.
Description
All humans can learn any language as a native tongue. For this reason, the most central hypothesis in current linguistic research is that all languages share abstract syntactic principles. The first goal of comparative syntactic investigations is to discover whether syntactic principles are shared in this sense and what kind of principles are shared this way. The second goal is to understand how these principles allow for variation among languages and how syntactic variables are connected. This leads to a general theory of syntax for natural languages. The first part of this course (Blok 1) is an introduction to comparative syntax. We discuss and compare the most imporant theories, such as Principles and Parameters, Minimalism, Parameter hierarchy and the different levels of syntactic variation, microvariation (between dialects), mesovariation (between typologically related languages) and macrovariation (between typologically different languages). We also discuss possible research methods in comparative syntax and get to know online databases that are available.
The second part (Blok 2) deals with microvariation in English concering the fine structure of various clauses (declaratives, interrogatives). We will pay special attention to word order in the left periphery of the clause, and will study variation in the following phenomena among others: auxiliary inverstion, negative inversion, the position of topics, the position of focus and split subjects.
Course objectives
When you have completed this course you are able to:
Report and discuss orally and in writing on the most important questions, findings and theories in comparative syntactic research, in relation to the English language.
Use the most relevant methods and data collections for comparative research.
Carry out their own comparative syntactic research on English, including a presentation and writing of an essay.
Timetable
The timetable is available on the MA Linguistics website.
Mode of instruction
- Seminar
Course Load
Total 10 EC x 28 hours = 280 hours.
Weekly seminars: 13 X 2 = 26 hours
Preparation seminars: 13 x 3 = 39 hours
Literature study: 65 hours
Presentation: 20 hour
Own research, essay and presentation: 130 hours
Assessment method
Paper and presentation of own research (80%)
Presentation of a paper (10%)
Active participation (10%)
Exam Review
Students are entitled to view their marked examination within a period of 30 days, following publication of the results of a written examination.
Blackboard
Blackboard will be used for course materials.
Reading list
Blackboard (https://blackboard.leidenuniv.nl/) will be used to store course material when possible.
Registration
Enrolment through uSis is mandatory.
General information about uSis is available on the website.
Students other than MA Linguistics need permission from the coordinator of studies before enrolling.
Registration Studeren à la carte and Contractonderwijs
Not applicable
Contact
Please contact Student administration van Eyckhof
Remarks
This first part of this course is shared between Comparative Syntax in de MA Linguistics. In the first block, all students follow the same classes, in the second block there are 3 groups (Dutch, English and Chinese). The course instructor in the first blok is Sjef Barbiers. The course instructors in the second block are Anikó Lipták (English), Rint Sybesma (Chinese), and Sjef Barbiers (Dutch).