The course is meant for absolute beginners in Generative grammar. It is divided into two weeks.
The first week it will deal basically with some general issues and will encompass most of the observations and evidence from different scientific areas piled up through time, which lead to the basic nowadays presumption, that language is a species-specific faculty and biological endowment. A step-by step approach will be followed, starting with the biology of language, going through language acquisition and developments in Creole languages and American Sign Language. Distinction will be drawn between Internal language and External language. A classification of the linguistic disciplines in nowadays state of affairs will be provided, concerning the methods they use in the investigation of the language phenomenon. Some of the basic ideas of leading philosophical schools will be presented. A special focus will be put on the basic presumptions underlying the methodology applied by the generative approach. A detailed discussion will follow which will aim at comparing the contributions of the modern formal approach to language in comparison to the traditional structural method in contemporary linguistics. Finally a discussion over the different stages in the development of the theory will be held, starting with the basic ideas in Chomsky's Structures, their further development in his Aspects, going through Minimalism and finishing with Optimality.
No background reading is required. Course materials will be provided on the spot. If you can answer the following questions this course will be boring for you!!!
1. How many centers of language are there in human brain?
2. What unites language acquisition with foreign language acquisition and Creole?
3. What is the difference between 'language' and 'a language'?
4. What type of ambiguity the following sentences present?
a. John drew a cart.
b. Bill hit the boy with the red bowling hat.
c. John kissed his wife and so did Bill.
The second part of the course will deal with some basic technicalities. It will involve some exercises - do not be afraid! No homework unless you want it! Here are some questions to be discussed:
What is a sentence? What are the main parts of the sentence? How do we know which word to place in which position? What does the morphological form of the word tells us about its position? Is there any difference between clause and a sentence whatsoever?
The three main modules that will be discussed are: Basic principles in X-bar syntax, A-movement and Binding. These classes will have the atmosphere of seminars - you will have the chance to try to draw trees on a 'do it yourself' principle. It will be fun, especially for beginners!
A requirement might be to have been to the first-part intro course, but it is not compulsory.
Don't come to these classes if you know
1. what CP is and why you need it.
2. what the difference between N and N' is.
3. why there is no fundamental difference between passive and active, a statement and a question.