85076 - Morphosyntax (1) (LM)

Learning outcomes

At the end of this course, students are able to analyze the main morpho-syntactic structures of the Italian language and to compare them to the cross-linguistically more frequent structures. Students also know the main linguistic theories in the field of morphology and syntax.

Course contents

The course will focus mainly on the critical discussion of some of the key concepts of traditional grammar, which will be reviewed in light of the latest linguistic theories and of the analysis of real data, taken from Italian and its varieties and other languages.

We will focus mainly on the notions of sentence (active and passive, dependent and independent), utterance, subject, noun, simple and complex word.

The aim of the course is to transmit the ability to tackle the study of language structures in a conscious and critical way and above all to acquire tools for the analysis of real data.

During the first week of classes a detailed syllabus, with a list of topics for each lecture and the suggested reading (from the material indicated in the "Readings/Bibliography" section), will be published. The syllabus will be made available on the Virtuale e-learning platform.

Prerequisites:

The course discusses advanced grammatical models, comparing and evaluating them. As such, it has been designed for students with a solid basic background in linguistics (i.e. with competences like those that are developed in General Linguistics classes, or in classes on the History of various languages). The students who believe not to have this background knowledge are advised to refer to a basic handbook of linguistics, as. e.g. Berruto, G. / Cerruti, M. (2017), La linguistica. Un corso introduttivo , Torino, UTET.

Readings/Bibliography

M. Frascarelli, F. Ramaglia, B. Corpina (2014 or later editions), Elementi di sintassi, Cesena, Caissa

A. Colombo e G. Graffi (2017), Capire la grammatica. Il contributo della linguistica, Roma, Carocci

L. Mereu (2004), La sintassi delle lingue del mondo, Bari, Laterza

Class notes

In replacement of class notes students who do not attend the lectures will read

G.F. Arcodia / C. Mauri (2016), La diversità linguistica, Roma, Carocci

Teaching methods

Lectures, practical exercises

Assessment methods

The final exam is an oral colloquium dealing with the course contents; its aim is to evaluate the critical skills and methodological knowledge gained by the student.

Reaching a clear view of all the course topics as well as using a correct language terminology will be valued with maximum grades. The capacity of building autonomous paths to connect different topics of the course will be appreciated.
Mnemonic knowledge of the course topics or not completely appropriate terminology will be valued with intermediate grades.
Unknown topics or inappropriate terminology use will be valued, depending on the seriousness of the omissions, with minimal or insufficient grades.

All the students will be asked to start from a subject freely choosen by them.

All the students must register for the exam with Almaesami. The oral colloquia can be scheduled in different days depending on the number of students enrolled. The precise day will be communicated once the enrollment list will be closed.

Teaching tools

The material (syllabus, slides used in class) will be uploaded on the "Virtuale" e-learning platform (https://virtuale.unibo.it/). The e-learning platform will also be used as a general managing tool for the course (i.e. for short-term notices). Students can access the course page on the platform directly with no need for a course password (institutional login will suffice).

Office hours

See the website of Chiara Gianollo