Lexicalism and the growth of syntax

General data

Course ID:	3301-JF2618
Erasmus code / ISCED:	09.303 Kod klasyfikacyjny przedmiotu składa się z trzech do pięciu cyfr, przy czym trzy pierwsze oznaczają klasyfikację dziedziny wg. Listy kodów dziedzin obowiązującej w programie Socrates/Erasmus, czwarta (dotąd na ogół 0) – ewentualne uszczegółowienie informacji o dyscyplinie, piąta – stopień zaawansowania przedmiotu ustalony na podstawie roku studiów, dla którego przedmiot jest przeznaczony. / (0232) Literature and linguistics The ISCED (International Standard Classification of Education) code has been designed by UNESCO.
Course title:	Lexicalism and the growth of syntax
Name in Polish:	Leksykalizm a rozwój kompetencji składniowej
Organizational unit:	Institute of English Studies
Course groups:	(in Polish) Fakultatywne przedmioty dla studiów dziennych z językoznawstwa opisowego i teoretycznego
ECTS credit allocation (and other scores):	(not available) Basic information on ECTS credits allocation principles: the annual hourly workload of the student’s work required to achieve the expected learning outcomes for a given stage is 1500-1800h, corresponding to 60 ECTS; the student’s weekly hourly workload is 45 h; 1 ECTS point corresponds to 25-30 hours of student work needed to achieve the assumed learning outcomes; weekly student workload necessary to achieve the assumed learning outcomes allows to obtain 1.5 ECTS; work required to pass the course, which has been assigned 3 ECTS, constitutes 10% of the semester student load. view allocation of credits
Language:	English
Type of course:	elective courses
Short description:	The course presents arguments for and against a lexicalist approach to syntactic development in native and second/foreign language acquisition, drawing on the findings of Chomsky's Minimalist Program and Anat Ninio's research into language learning. Abstract syntactic rules are replaced with lexical-specific structural paradigms. This puts a new perspective on acquisition studies, encouraging both mentalist/nativist and sociocultural/pragmatic insights.
Full description:	The course presents arguments for and against a lexicalist approach to syntactic development in native and second/foreign language acquisition, drawing on the findings of Chomsky's Minimalist Program and Anat Ninio's research into language learning. Abstract syntactic rules are replaced with lexical-specific structural paradigms. This puts a new perspective on acquisition studies, encouraging both mentalist/nativist and sociocultural/pragmatic insights. The reasons for introducing Bare Phrase Structure (as opposed to the tradition-sanctioned Phrase Structure Rules) , the importance of merge and the basic assumptions of Chaos Theory are all related to empirical data on child language acquisition and the question is asked whether syntax can be learned like any other cognitive or motor skill. The assumption that the earliest word combinations are error-free syntactic mergers puts a new perspective on the relation between syntax and semantics, on the role of formulaic competence and language acquisition in general.
Bibliography:	Anderson, Stephen R. and David W. Lightfoot 2002. The language organ. Linguistics as cognitive physiology. Cambridge: CUP. Boeckx, Cedric 2006. Linguistic minimalism. Origins, concepts, methods and aims. Oxford: OUP. Matthews, P.H. 2007. Syntactic relations. A critical survey. Cambridge: CUP. Ninio, Anat 2006. Language and the learning curve. A new theory of syntactic development. Oxford: OUP. Wray, Alison 2002. Formulaic language and the lexicon. Cambridge: CUP.
Learning outcomes:	A student will acquire advanced information about Lexicalism and the growth of syntax and will develop his/her analytical skills.

This course is not currently offered.

Course descriptions are protected by copyright.
Copyright by University of Warsaw.