Studying at the University of Verona
Here you can find information on the organisational aspects of the Programme, lecture timetables, learning activities and useful contact details for your time at the University, from enrolment to graduation.
Type D and Type F activities
This information is intended exclusively for students already enrolled in this course.If you are a new student interested in enrolling, you can find information about the course of study on the course page:
Laurea magistrale in Linguistics - Enrollment from 2025/2026Sintassi formale e semantica (2019/2020)
Teaching code
4S009164
Teacher
Coordinator
Credits
6
Language
English
Scientific Disciplinary Sector (SSD)
NN - -
Period
Not yet assigned
Learning outcomes
The course aims at providing students with analytical tools from Formal Language Theory (FLT) to be applied to grammatical analysis. In particular, we will be interested in the formal foundations for theories of the syntax-semantics interface; as such, this course is complementary to the courses Morphosyntax and Semantics & Pragmatics (L-LIN/01) and builds on the contents taught in those courses.
At the end of the course students are expected to:
- acquire detailed knowledge on FLT, including the foundational assumptions, and possibilities and limitations of the formal framework;
- be able to identify and characterise different formal languages and grammars in the so-called Chomsky Hierarchy
- apply their knowledge of FLT to the description of specific linguistic phenomena from the viewpoint of the theoretical framework of their choice;
- justify their theoretical and methodological choices in linguistic analysis (including observation, description, and explanation) from a formal point of view, identifying strengths and weaknesses of different linguistic theories in the description of specific phenomena;
- understand the relation between formal theories of computation and grammatical frameworks, how they inform each other, what the assumptions that underlie this relation are, and what empirical consequences they have
Program
After an overview of Formal Language Theory (FLT) and a revision of the main categories of analysis in grammatical theory and linguistic semantics (with special focus on lexical semantics and issues of compositionality), we will examine concrete linguistic phenomena and inquire into the conditions that we require of an adequate theory of the grammar. Specifically, the formal part of the course will deal with the relation between syntax and semantics in phrase structure grammars and some alternative grammatical formalisms.
The presentation of arguments from FLT will be inextricably linked to the analysis of linguistic phenomena: FLT will be of our interest insofar as it underpins grammar. Our empirical focus will be mostly set on island phenomena and locality conditions in the grammar (coordinate structures, complex NPs, factive verbs, wh-islands, etc.). We will analyse syntactic and semantic accounts and evaluate their theoretical validity and empirical adequacy.
In examining these phenomena, we will apply the tools that FLT puts at our disposal to analyse the structures that modern syntactic theory assigns to them and the way in which the syntax relates to semantic interpretation.
Examination Methods
The final exam aims at assessing the theoretical knowledge acquired by the students during the course, as well as their ability to apply this knowledge to concrete linguistic phenomena.
This assessment will consist on a short squib (circa 3000 words, max. 5000 words) where the student will characterise a specific construction in a language and dialect of his/her choice (preferably his/her native) in terms of its syntactic and semantic properties, with attention to the computational complexity implied in his/her description.
