This learning sequence presents the stable topic progression for ELS 603 Syntactic Theories. It is organized by topic rather than semester week so the course structure can be reused across offerings. The live Course Guide maps these topics to dates, activities, and assessment milestones for a particular class.
- Syntactic Evidence and Explanation — description, analysis, explanation, and the boundaries between syntax and meaning.
- Constituency and Diagnostics — constituency tests, alternations, distribution, and the limits of diagnostics.
- Clause and Phrase Structure — structural domains, complements, adjuncts, and evidence for syntactic relations.
- Descriptive Generative Syntax and Structural Reasoning — clause architecture, argument positions, and theory-informed structural analysis.
- Valency, Argument Structure, and Alternations — argument realization and patterns of syntactic variation.
- Constraints and Edge Cases — non-canonical patterns, counterexamples, and limits on structural generalizations.
- Functional Approaches to Clause Structure — clause functions, transitivity, and a Systemic Functional Linguistics lens.
- Information Structure — theme-rheme, topic-focus, and discourse-driven variation.
- Construction Grammar — constructions, argument structure constructions, and usage-based explanation.
- Evidence Chains — claims, warrants, counterexamples, and disciplined interpretation of syntactic evidence.
- Theory Comparison and Limits — comparing explanatory lenses and identifying where theoretical accounts succeed or remain incomplete.
Research breaks, drafting days, symposium schedules, submission dates, and other semester-specific activities are intentionally excluded from this permanent sequence.