Advanced Syntax

Course content

The course is a continuation of FLE 333 Introduction to Syntax, in which students are introduced to the ideas underlying the generative tradition and where they attain basic knowledge of generative syntax, including the notions of phrase structure (head, complement, specifier), structural relations between elements in a syntactic structure, constituency, lexical and functional categories/projections, subcategorization (selection), Theta theory, head movement. The topics covered in FLE 433 include more advanced concepts in syntactic theory, such as Binding theory, Case theory, passivization, local and long distance (A and A’) movement, and related notions such as syntactic locality, successive cyclicity, islandhood, quantifier raising. The course will advance students’ proficiency in syntactic analysis, with an emphasis on individual research, as well as provide them with the basics of syntax-semantics interface.