Master
2025/2026
Formal and Functional Models in the Representation of Natural Language
Type:
Compulsory course (Linguistic Theory and Language Description)
Delivered by:
School of Linguistics
When:
1 year, 2, 3 module
Open to:
students of one campus
Language:
English
Contact hours:
64
Course Syllabus
Abstract
The course covers different topics in the formal studies of syntax, morphology and semantics, focusing on the generative framework as the most influential one in this domain. The course goes over a wide range of linguistic phenomena highlighting major debates in the field, advantages and disadvantages of formal approaches (in general and in their different varieties) and giving a wider perspective on their role in the study of various phenomena. A brief introduction is followed by several in-depth case studies selected to represent the foundational principles and questions of the formal approaches to natural language.The course also presupposes an introduction to functional and cognitive linguistics as opposed to formal approaches to natural language such as generative grammar. The course comprises several lectures on main tenets, methodological peculiarities and the most important domains of research in functional linguistics, as well as discussions of various case studies and seminal papers. Students enrolled in the course have to cope with several tasks before and in class: they write analytical and argumentative essays, go over the reading materials that their instructor sends to them, prepare presentations of the given papers in small groups, and discuss problematic issues in class.