SEL8026 : Generative Syntax
- Offered for Year: 2024/25
- Module Leader(s): Professor Michelle Sheehan
- Owning School: English Lit, Language & Linguistics
- Teaching Location: Newcastle City Campus
Semesters
Your programme is made up of credits, the total differs on programme to programme.
| Semester 1 Credit Value: | 20 |
| ECTS Credits: | 10.0 |
| European Credit Transfer System | |
Aims
Students are familiarised with a scientific approach to syntax. Major syntactic phenomena (categories, features, rules, principles) are dealt with in the context of contemporary syntactic theory. Students develop their skills in sentence analysis, learn how to test hypotheses and argue for theoretical explanations.
Outline Of Syllabus
- Aims and context: the scientific study of language;
- Phrase structure, X' theory, Merge, Bare Phrase Structure
- Argument structure, theta-theory;
- Case, Agreement, Binding
- Movement: A'-movement, A-movement, head movement;
- Syntactic features and valuation
- Discourse and syntax; the left periphery
- The architecture of grammar: Logical Form, Phonetic Form;
- Cross-linguistic syntactic variation
Teaching Methods
Teaching Activities
| Category | Activity | Number | Length | Student Hours | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Guided Independent Study | Assessment preparation and completion | 1 | 167:00 | 167:00 | N/A |
| Scheduled Learning And Teaching Activities | Lecture | 21 | 1:00 | 21:00 | Shared with SEL2089 |
| Scheduled Learning And Teaching Activities | Small group teaching | 10 | 1:00 | 10:00 | N/A |
| Scheduled Learning And Teaching Activities | Drop-in/surgery | 2 | 1:00 | 2:00 | essay consultation |
| Total | 200:00 |
Jointly Taught With
| Code | Title |
|---|---|
| SEL2089 | Syntactic Theory |
Teaching Rationale And Relationship
Lectures (shared with SEL2089): To introduce and discuss theoretical concepts and methodology.
Seminars: To apply theoretical concepts and methods to linguistic examples, and practice analysis of linguistic expressions.
Assessment Methods
The format of resits will be determined by the Board of Examiners
Other Assessment
| Description | Semester | When Set | Percentage | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Essay | 1 | A | 100 | 4000 word essay |
Formative Assessments
Formative Assessment is an assessment which develops your skills in being assessed, allows for you to receive feedback, and prepares you for being assessed. However, it does not count to your final mark.
| Description | Semester | When Set | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Portfolio | 1 | M | Portfolio of semi-weekly problem sets (pre- and post-seminar) |
Assessment Rationale And Relationship
The problem set portfolio gives the students a sense of their progress across the semester with respect to the necessary basic analytic skills in syntactic theory which will be relevant for the final assessment.
The final assessment is an extended problem set through which the students demonstrate understanding of syntactic theory, analysis, and argumentation, and ability to apply knowledge of theory and analysis to empirical and/or theoretical problems, using methods of scientific inquiry.
Reading Lists
Timetable
- Timetable Website: www.ncl.ac.uk/timetable/
- SEL8026's Timetable