"Linguistic: Introduction to Syntax" Kleanthes K. Grohmann

Kleanthes K. Grohmann - University of Cyprus

It will then address basic issues in human language grammar, illustrated for convenience with English, along the following six 'big facts’:
(F1) Sentences are basic linguistic units.
(F2) Sentences are pairings of form (sound/signs) and meaning.
(F3) Sentences are composed of smaller expressions (words and morphemes).
(F4) These smaller units are composed into units with hierarchical structure, i.e. phrases, larger than words and smaller than sentences.
(F5) Sentences show displacement properties in the sense that expressions that appear in one position can be interpreted in another.
(F6) Language is recursive, that is, there’s no upper bound on the length of sentences in any given natural language.

The session will present grammatical categories and features, the simple computational operation Merge, and all essential ingredients to formulate a coherent theory of syntax.