This two week course is an introduction to syntax set within the generative framework. This course will be an introduction to the scientific study of natural language syntax starting from first principles. What is syntax, and how should we approach it empirically and analytically? We will then look at the fundamental properties of natural language syntax that any theory must be built around — linear order, hierarchical structure, discrete infinity  — and see how they are related to each other (think constituency and recursion).

No background knowledge in syntactic theory will be assumed. What we build towards in the course will not look exactly like any specific contemporary theory or framework (though it will mostly closely resemble some form of Minimalism), but it should prepare us to understand and critically evaluate most of what is out there.