Instructor:
Francis Bond, 2026,
2025, 2020, 2017.
This course covers fundamental concepts in morpho-syntactic analysis such
as part of speech types, constituent structure, the syntax-semantics
interface, and phenomena such as complementation, raising, control,
passive and long-distance dependencies. We will emphasize formally
precise encoding of linguistic analyses. Through the course, we will
progressively build up a consistent grammar for a fragment of
English. Problem sets will introduce data and phenomena from other
languages. We will start and finish by comparing various approaches
to the study of syntax.
An earlier version of this course (with no morphology) was called Theories of Grammar when I taught it at NTU.
If you enjoyed this, then you may also enjoy Grammar Engineering.
Wed 16:45–18:15;
Room KB-1.11, Křížkovského 513/12,
771 47 Olomouc
Course Outline
| Lecture |
Date |
Topics |
Readings |
Problems (due) |
| 1 |
Sep 23
| Introduction to Morpho-Syntax
| SWB: Ch 1
| Set 1 (next Monday)
|
| 2 |
Sep 30
| Some Simple Theories of Grammar and Morphology
| SWB: Ch 2
| 2.1
|
| 3 |
Oct 07
| Feature Structures
| SWB: Ch 3
Introduction
to Overleaf and LaTex
HPSG and
LaTeX (to get you started)
| 1, 3
|
| 4 |
Oct 14
| Complex Feature Structures
| SWB: Ch 4
| 1, 5, 6
|
| 5 |
Oct 21
| Semantics & How the Grammar Works
| SWB: Ch 5, 6.1, 6.2 (6.3 only if you feel like it)
| 5: 1; 6: 1, 3, 4, 5
|
|
Oct 28 |
Public Holiday
| Den vzniku samostatného československého státu
|
|
| 6 |
Nov 04
| Binding
| SWB: Ch 7
| 6.3, 6.4, 7.2
|
| 7 |
Nov 11
| The Structure of the Lexicon:
(Types;
Rules)
| SWB: Ch 8 | 6 & mid-term
|
| 8 |
Nov 18
| Realistic Grammar
& Sign-based Construction Grammar
| SWB: Ch 9, 16
Introduction to SBCG Ivan A. Sag (2011)
| 1 (Ch 9)
|
| 9 |
Nov 25
|
Passives
| SWB: Ch 10
| 1, 3
|
| 10 |
Dec 02
| Dummies and Idioms
| SWB: Ch 11
| 1, 3, 4
|
| 11 |
Dec 09
| Raising and Control
| SWB: Ch 12
| 1, 2, 4, 6
|
| 12 |
Dec 16
| Long Distance Dependencies
& Wrap Up
| SWB: Ch 14
(SWB: Ch 16)
| final |
|
Jan 15
| Assignment Hard copy due by 17:00 (online)
|
|
|
Textbooks, References and Links
- Andrew Carnie 2006. Syntax: A Generative Introduction 2nd ed. Blackwell
- Hans C. Boas and Ivan A. Sag (eds) 2012.
Sign-Based Construction Grammar
CSLI Publications.
Chapter 1: Introducing Sign-Based Construction Grammar (Sag, Boas and Kay)
Chapter 3: An Informal Synopsis (Sag)
- Borsley, Robert D. 1999. Syntactic Theory: A Unified Approach. Hodder Arnold.
- Bresnan, Joan. 2001. Lexical Functional Syntax. Malden, MA and Oxford: Blackwell.
- Chomsky, Noam. 1965. Aspects of the theory of syntax. Cambridge MA: MIT Press.
- Chomsky, Noam. 1981. Lectures on government and binding/the Pisa lectures. 7th Edn. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
- Croft, William. 2001. Radical construction grammar: syntactic theory in typological perspective. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Foley, William A. and Robert D. Van Valin Jr. 1984. Functional syntax and universal grammar. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Li, Charles N. (ed.) 1976. Subject and topic. New York: Academic Press.
- Pollard, Carl and Ivan Sag 1994 Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar. CSLI Publications
- Bybee, Joan. 2010. Language, usage and cognition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Van Valin, Robert D. 1993. Advances in role and reference grammar. New York and Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
- Van Valin, Robert D. And Randy J. LaPolla. 1997. Syntax: structure, meaning and function. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Learning Outcome
By the end of this course students will be able to:
- Recognize certain classes of syntactic phenomena
- Build analyses of those phenomena in a precise framework
- Apply the process of building a formalized analysis to test
linguistic hypotheses
- Use LaTeX to format linguistic papers
Course Assessment components
- Weekly problem sets: 50%
Students are encouraged to work on the problem sets in small
groups, but answers should be written up individually
Problems are due at 23:59 the following Monday evening
- Mid-term paper (testing critical concepts) 20%
- End-term paper (testing critical concepts) 30%
- Assignment Describing an interesting phenomenon 20% (MORS only: details here)
- All homework and exams should be turned online via Moodle as pdf files (only). Absolutely no .doc, .docx, .txt etc.
- You are encouraged to use LaTeX, but don't have to
- Make sure your name is clearly shown (not just in the file name)
- Late homework will not be marked unless you have contacted me at least one day before the deadline
If there is a genuine emergency then you will get the average of your other homework, otherwise you get zero
- You should not use generative AI to answer your homework or do
your exams. You only learn the material by doing the problems.
- MORS is worth 6 credits and JMORF 5, so people doing MORS get one extra task. MORS scores will be multiplied by 5/6 to get a score from 100.
Meta Resources
Acknowledgements
Course materials are heavily inspired by
Ling 566 Introduction to Syntax for Computational Linguistics at the University of Washington. Thanks to
Emily Bender for
letting us use them.
ChatGPT model GPT-5, OpenAI, 2025, was used to find up-to-date citations on morphology and
check formatting of bibliographic references. Claude model OPUS, Anthropic, 2026,
was used to update the slides and check for consistency.
These course materials are available on github and archived with Zenodo (DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17147961).