Introduction to Syntax
Syllabus
Ling 300 / Psyc 300

TIME: 11-12:45 MTWRF throughout Summer 2 Session (July 8th; Aug. 7, 2002)
PLACE: 114 Social Sciences Bldg.
INSTRUCTOR: O'Bryan

Course POLIS site: http://www.u.arizona.edu/ic/polis/summer202/Course-Homesite.cgi?LING_300-1

PREREQUISITE:
an Intro. Linguistics course, such as LING/PSYC 201

COURSE DESCRIPTION:
In this course, you will discover patterns in the organization of words and phrases within your language and across all of the world's languages. You will also learn about a theory of how human infants acquire language. You will learn the core principles of syntactic theory, focussing on Chomsky's theories of Generative Grammar, particularly Government and Binding Theory (GB). You will also learn the arguments that have been made for major components of the theory, as well as how to make your own arguments in order to account for the structure of linguistic data. By the end of the course, you will be able to understand much of the terminology in many syntax articles that you find in linguistics journals such as Linguistic Inquiry and Natural Language and Linguistic Theory.

TEXTBOOK:
Carnie, Andrew. 2002. Syntax: A Generative Introduction. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers.

RECOMMENDED SOFTWARE:
For almost all assignments, you will draw syntactic trees. The quickest and easiest way to do this is to use Trees tree-drawing software. You can download it from http://www.ling.upenn.edu/~kroch/Trees.html. It is available for Macintosh and for Windows. The registration fee for the software is $25, but you may use the free demo for 30 days.

Another tree-drawing tool that you can use instead of Trees is Arboreal by Cascadilla Press. Arboreal is a tree-drawing font available for Macintosh and for Windows. The cost is $20, which pays for instructions and the software on a floppy disk that is sent to your address. You will find the ordering information at http://www.cascadilla.com/arboreal.html.

You are not required to purchase either of these programs, but you are strongly encouraged to try the Trees demo.

LISTSERV:
You are encouraged to subscribe to the course listserv, because I will post responses to your questions about assignments and course material. You can send questions about assignments and course material to me or to the listserv.

Important listserv rule: Disclosing the answer to an assignment question or exam review question on the listserv will be considered cheating which is punishable under University policy.

To subscribe, send an email from the account that you want to subscribe. TO: listserv@listserv.arizona.edu. Subject: (leave blank). Body: sub ling300 FirstName LastName

EVALUATION CRITERIA:

• Assignments 30%
• Participation 5%
• Rough draft of language research paper 5%
• Language research paper 15%
• Midterm exam 20%
• Final exam 25%

TIPS FOR SUCCEEDING IN THIS COURSE:

• Attend every class.
• Complete every assignment after reading the relevant material.
• Turn in every assignment on time.
• Meet with other class members to talk about the assignments, but write up your own work.
• Start the language research paper plenty early.
• If you don't understand something, ask about it!
• If you feel uncertain about the material or just would like more explanation, come to office hours!
• Study before exam review sessions, and then ask questions at the review sessions.

WAYS TO FAIL THIS COURSE:

• Miss 3 class periods.
• Fail to turn in 3 assignments on time.
• Fail to show up for an exam.

(Exceptions will be made only with proof of a severe medical emergency.)

POLICIES:

• Late or missing work will be given a zero grade.
• All assignments must be typed. Syntactic trees can be drawn, but the explanation of them in the assignments must be typed.

EXTRA CREDIT
There will be 2 extra credit opportunities in the course. These will be linguistics-related experiments that you can participate in. To get credit, after you participate, type up the name of the study, the experimenter's name, and a brief description (a few sentences) of which aspect of language knowledge the experiment was investigating. Participating in each experiment will add one percentage point to your final grade.

WORKING IN GROUPS
You are enthusiastically encouraged to work with other class members on the problem sets in the assignments. Please write up your answers independently and include at the top of your assignment the names of the class members that you worked with. Meeting with other class members outside of class to discuss assignments may boost your participation grade.

BREAKTIME
We will have a 5-minute break about halfway through each class period (approximately noon), except for during exams.

Last modified Monday, July 29, 2002 1:58PM