Course description⌗

BA-level elective which is a continuation of 287. This course introduces more advanced topics that form the foundations of modern syntactic theory: functional projections and recent versions of X-bar theory, clause structure and the syntactic representation of argument structure, movement operations and cross-linguistic variations in word order, case, agreement, and binding. Abstract notions such as empty categories (PRO, trace) and non-overt structural representations are developed, with the goal of arriving at a systematic theory of syntax that can not only describe the language but also explain why it has the observed properties.