Course title: Syntactic Theories
Course coordinator: Prof. Irena Zovko Dinković
Instructor: Prof. Irena Zovko Dinković, Ivana Sklepić, assis.
Status: elective
ECTS credits: 5
Semester: 1st or 3rd (winter)
Enrollment requirements: –
Objectives:
To introduce the students to major syntactic theories and approaches from the beginning of the 20th century to the present, and teach them about various ways of syntactic analysis and representation, as well as claims and hypotheses on the structure of language in general. This will provide them with the opportunity to apply the acquired theoretical background to their own research and connect it on a broader level with other sciences.
Week by week schedule:
1. Introduction to the history of 20th-century syntactic theories. Linguistics at the end of the 19th century.
2. Structuralism. Modern theories of syntax.
3. Early generative theories: Transformational Grammar, Standard Theory and Extended Standard Theory.
4. Generative Semantics. Government and Binding Theory and X’- theory.
5. Non-transformational theories of the 1980’s: Relational Grammar, Generalized Phrase Structure Grammar.
6. Head-driven Phrase Structure Grammar. Lexical Functional Grammar.
7. Minimalist Program.
8. Functional approaches to language analysis.
9. Systemic Functional Grammar.
10. S. Dik’s Functional Grammar and Functional Discourse Grammar.
11. Role and Reference Grammar.
12. Cognitive Grammar.
13. Construction Grammar.
14. Current trends in syntactic theory.
15. Final review and preparation for the exam.
Course description:
After each unit, the students solve a specific task in the seminar, which they check with the instructor. They are also expected to read at home the relevant parts of obligatory reading and other materials.
Course requirements:
Students should attend the classes regularly and actively participate in class and in solving the assignments. The last week of the course is dedicated to preparing students for the exam. The exam is written.
Obligatory reading (selected chapters and pages):
Zovko Dinković, Irena (2026). An Introduction to Syntactic Theories. Zagreb: Ibis grafika.
Heine, Bernd & Heiko Narrog (eds.) (2015). The Oxford Handbook of Linguistic Analysis. (2. izd.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Butler, Christopher S. (2003). Structure and Function: A Guide to Three Major StructuralFunctional Theories. Part I – Approaches to the simplex clause. John Benjamins
Publishing Company
Müller, Stefan (2016). Grammatical theory: From transformational grammar to constraint-based approaches. Berlin: Language Science Press
Newmeyer, Frederick (1986). Linguistic Theory in America (2nd edition). Orlando: Academic Press, Inc.
Suggested reading:
Brown, Keith & Miller, J. (eds.) (1996). Concise Encyclopedia of Syntactic Theories. Oxford New York: Pergamon
Chomsky, Noam (1957). Syntactic Structures. Gravenhage: Mouton
Dik, Simon C. (1991). Functional Grammar. In: F. Droste and J. Joseph (eds.), Linguistic theory and grammatical description. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins
Goldberg, Adele. (1995) Constructions: A Construction Grammar Approach to Argument Structure. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Graffi, Giorgio (2001). 200 Years of Syntax: A Critical Survey. Amsterdam; Philadelphia: John Benjamins
Hengeveld, Kees & Mackenzie, J. Lachlan (2010), Functional Discourse Grammar. In: Bernd Heine and Heiko Narrog (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Linguistic Analysis. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 367-400.
Halliday, M. A. K. (1984). A Short Introduction to Functional Grammar. London: Arnold.
Langacker, Ronald W. (2008). Cognitive Grammar: A Basic Introduction. New York: Oxford University Press.
Nichols, Johanna (1984). Functional Theories of Grammar. Annual Review of Anthropology 13: 97–117.
Newmeyer, Frederick. (2001). The Prague School and North American functionalist approaches to syntax. Journal of Linguistics 37: 101–126.
Poole, Geoffrey (2011). Syntactic Theory (2nd edition). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan
Pollock, Jean-Yves (1989). Verb Movement, Universal Grammar, and the Structure of IP. Linguistic Inquiry 20: 365-424
Van Valin, Robert D., Jr. & Randy LaPolla (1997). Syntax: Structure, meaning and function. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.