In this course, students will be introduced to the basics of generative linguistics, the theoretical framework evolved from and based on Noam Chomsky’s work.

Language is a structured and accessible product of the human mind. Generative Grammar chooses to study language for this reason, as one possible way to gain understanding about the human mind. This choice takes linguistics as part of language as part of the Cognitive Sciences. (Everaert, Huybregts, Chomsky, Berwick & Bolhuis (2015). Structures, Not Strings: Linguistics as Part of the Cognitive Sciences. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 19(12) doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2015.09.008)

This 4-day course will look at syntax, the abstract properties of human language structure, and learn how to formalize the rules that govern it. Topics covered will include the major concepts used to analyze linguistic phenomena.

The course is offered by the Institute for Language Sciences (ILS), the home of linguistic and communications research at Utrecht University. It is part of a set of four 4-day ILS Summer School courses: there is a € 50 discount when taking two of these courses.