LING 121
The Syntactic Structure of English

Syllabus

Spring 2006
TF 1:10-2:25, Biology 202

instructor:Prof. Nathan Sanders       office: Stetson D14
email: nsanders@williams.edu phone: x4714
AIM: NathanSanders hours: MWR 1-2pm
and by appointment

Course Description

From the course catalog: This course is an introduction to a rigorous, scientific approach to language study. No previous training in linguistics is assumed, and no reading is required for the course. A better understanding of the underlying structure of English and of language in general will proceed by way of class discussion and homework problems. These discussions and problems will involve students in observation and analysis of linguistic data through construction, testing, and revision of syntactic theories. The homework will require time and careful attention and will usually be rather challenging. Format: lecture/discussion. Requirements: participation in discussions and 30-40 pages of writing in the form of weekly homework, alternating between essays and short answer problem sets. No prerequisites. Enrollment limit: 19 (expected: 19).

This course is writing intensive (it satisfies the writing requirement) and is cross-listed as English 122.

If the course is over-enrolled, preference on the waiting list will be given to students who are planning on graduating with a concentration or major centered on linguistics or a related area and students who have taken linguistics courses in the past. The remaining students will be assigned a lottery order, with those in attendance at the first lecture getting priority.

Readings

There are no readings for this course. All information needed to learn the material will be made available in lectures.

Grading

Your grade for the course is calculated as a weighted combination of your attendance (5%), class participation (10%), problem set average (25%), and essay average (60%).

Homework

Homework is generally assigned on a Tuesday and due the following Tuesday, so you should usually have a full week to work on it. Homework is available from this website, so missing lecture is not an excuse for skipping homework. Homework is due at the beginning of class since solutions are often discussed in lecture. For this reason, late homework cannot be accepted. To compensate for this strict policy, your lowest homework grade is dropped when computing your grade for the course.

You are encouraged to work together in groups, but in accordance with the Williams College Honor Code, you must write up your own solutions, in your own words, listing the names of all students you consulted with.

Your homework should be either neatly written or typed in a reasonable font with reasonable spacing and margins for writing comments (e.g. 10-12pt, double-spaced, approximately 1-inch margins, only using one side of the page). Please, do not submit spiral-bound paper with ragged edges! Staple (rather than paper clip or fold) multiple pages together. Be sure to put your name on every page in case they get separated.

About half of the homework assignments are essays and the other half are short-answer problem sets. The problem sets are designed to familiarize you with the course material without requiring a full essay. Because the focus of the course is on writing, problem sets only count about half as much as essays.

One of the major objectives of the course is to improve your writing skills. Thus, the form of your solutions for essays will weigh more heavily in later assignments than just getting "the right answer". A writing style that qualifies as minimally passing for the first essay will most certainly not qualify as minimally passing for the final essay!

Class participation also plays an important role, since much of the material is derived from class discussions. Just simply showing up to class is not sufficient. You should make an effort to contribute productively to the discussion.

Exams

There are no exams for this course.