Syllabus

Linguistics 55 -- Syntactic Structures			Spring 2009

MWF 8:00 - 9:10 AM
Social Sciences II 071

Jorge Hankamer	
	Office: 264 Stevenson College			Office hours
	email:  hank@ucsc.edu				M 10-11 W 11-12

TAs:

Abby Kaplan	kaplanas@ucsc.edu			Th 11	Stevenson 238
Allison Day	ahday@ucsc.edu				T 5 PM	Stevenson Coffee Shop

Readers

Taylor Bell		tsbell@ucsc.edu			Tu 12-1		SCS
Heather Mahan		hmahan@ucsc.edu			W 9:30-10:30	SCS

Sections:
		M  5-6:10  PM		Merrill 132	Jorge Hankamer
		T  6-7:10 PM		Merrill 132	Allison Day
		T  7:30-8:40 PM		Merrill 132	Abby Kaplan

Course web page:	ling.ucsc.edu/~hank/55/55.html

This course is an introduction to the study of syntactic structures
(i.e. the structure of sentences) in natural languages.  We will examine
syntactic structures in a number of languages, including English.  Our
goal will be to develop an understanding of syntactic structure in general,
and to become familiar with some of the ways of investigating it.

There is no textbook.  The course is based on a sequence of homework
problems, which will be assigned at the rate of about two per week.  They
will usually be due on Monday or Friday, though there may be some variation.
These problems constitute the main work of the course, and performance on
the problems is the main basis for the grade.  There will also be two
take-home exams, a midterm and a final.  Each will take about a week.
The mid-term and the final together will make up about one third of the
course grade.

There are no in-class exams, though there may be some (unannounced)
quizzes.  You will have to pass all of these quizzes to pass the course.

You are encouraged to work together on homework problems and the take-home
exams.  Some of the assignments will be quite strenuous, and designed
to be too hard for a person to do alone.  For this reason it is a good idea
to form study groups and get into the habit of collaboration.  We only
require that you write up your work independently, so that what you
hand in really is your own work.  Write the names of the people you worked with
at the top of your paper.

Homeworks will generally be somewhat open-ended.  There will not always be
a particular right answer, and the important thing will be how well you
present and support the proposal you come up with.  So two equally good papers
might have different and indeed incompatible solutions.

Form: use 8 1/2 x 11 paper (lined or unlined) and write on only one side.
Leave at least one inch margins so that we will have some space to write
comments.  Most assignments will require more than one page to answer; when
there is more than one page, staple the pages together.  It is not required
that you type or word-process your papers, but they should be neat and
legible.

To do well in this course, here are the things you need to do:

	ATTEND CLASS
	ATTEND SECTION
	TURN IN ALL ASSIGNMENTS
	DO THE ASSIGNMENTS CAREFULLY AND WELL

Here are the things we look for in written work:  a written assignment
should be

	NEAT
	CLEAR
	CAREFUL
	THOROUGH

Neatness should be self-explanatory; clarity is mainly about the quality of
your writing, but in this course will also concern the relation between
what you write and certain formal representations which we will adopt,
as well as argument and reasoning; in the next few weeks we will point out
things that you need to be careful and thorough about.

Homeworks will be scored on a scale of 1-5 on the basis of these criteria.
The final grade will be based on an average of the homework and exam scores,
with the midterm and final exams counting about three homeworks each.
We will usually not write your score on homework papers, but from the
written comments you should get some idea of how you are doing grade-wise.
If you are concerned about your probable grade, you can come in for an
estimate.

Some course policies:

	Attendance is expected.  We will not formally take attendance,
	but we will surely notice any absences.  Absences will have a
	negative effect on the grade.  Particularly if you miss a quiz.

	Sections are mandatory.  You must sign up for and regularly attend
	a section.  New material will be introduced in sections, and you
	will be responsible for it.

	All homework assignments must be turned in.  Failure to turn in a
	homework results in a zero in the record, and (since the homework
	is the most important component of the course) just a few zeroes
	will result in failing the course.  There will be no way to
	make this up.

	Homework turned in late will be accepted; but it will not receive
	the scrutiny and feedback that on-time homework receives.  And it
	will get a score of 1 in the record.  An average score of 2 will be
	required to pass.

We realize that in most courses the syllabus gives you an outline of the
course, with topics and reading assignments and all that.  But in this
course there are no reading assignments, and the topics are mostly a surprise,
so you won't get that here.