LGCS118 PO - Morphosyntax

When Offered: Spring 2025.
Instructor(s): M. Diercks
Credit: 1

Human languages display an impressively diverse range of grammatical structures, from obvious differences in fundamental patterns of word order to very nuanced distinctions in a wide range of morphosyntactic constructions, such as: agreement patterns, case-marking patterns, morphological representation of the participants in an event, noun classification systems, voice (e.g. active, middle, passive, anti-passive), expression of tense, whether word order is rigid or flexible, and even the expression of sociolinguistic/discourse phenomena like politeness or reliability of evidence in grammaticalized forms. This course does not focus on syntactic theory, but instead introduces students to the wide range of grammatical structures that are possible in human language. The course includes overview readings and discussions of broadly attested morphosyntactic patterns. In addition, students will research an individual (unfamiliar) language over the course of a semester (based on existing research on the language) and will present the structures of their chosen language back to the class on a regular basis in both written and oral form. In this way the class serves to introduce students to the range of morphosyntactic constructions in a broad range of the world’s languages. This course satisfies the ‘Syntax’ requirement of the Linguistics major, but it does not serve as a prerequisite for LGCS 183 Topics in Generative Syntax. Letter grade only. Prerequisites: LGCS 010 PO or equivalent.

Satisfies the following General Education Requirement(s), subject to conditions explained in the Degree Requirements section of this Catalog:
Area 2; Speaking Intensive; Writing Intensive