SYNTAX & SEMANTICS @ STANFORD

The Linguistics Department offers a spectrum of courses in syntax and semantics, ranging from introductory courses to advanced seminars on cutting-edge research.

The primary focus of our syntax curriculum is the development of empirically well-supported, formally sound analyses of phenomena of theoretical interest, particularly those that can be related to more general models of language processing and use. Our courses bring a wide range of theoretical perspectives to bear to the phenomena under study and emphasize the benefits of using diverse methodologies, including collecting data in the field, analyzing corpus data, and carrying out laboratory experiments.

Our semantics curriculum covers the areas traditionally described as lexical semantics, formal semantics and pragmatics. There is a marked focus on language use and on broadening the scope of semantic inquiry.

The department offers introductory courses in various syntactic theories, in lexical semantics, and in formal semantics and pragmatics, at both the graduate and undergraduate level. Additionally there are several graduate seminars each year dedicated to exploring particular topics of theoretical and empirical importance. Topics of recent and upcoming seminars include (2012-2013 courses in bold):

• Binding Theory (Kiparsky)
• Lexical Categories (Levin)
• Natural Language Understanding (Potts/MacCartney)
• Representations of Meaning (Potts/Goodman)
• The Structure of Discourse: Theory and Applications (Polanyi)
• Aspect (Levin)
• Choosing a Variant (Zwicky)
• Construction Grammar (Sag)
• Constructionalization (Traugott)
• Context Dependence in Language and Communication (Frank/Potts)
• Corpus Methods in Syntax/Phonology (Anttila/Bresnan)
• Categories and Category Change (Zwicky)
• Control (Bresnan)
• Extracting Social Meaning and Sentiment (Jurafsky/Potts)
• Frequency and the Grammar of Alternations (Bresnan)
• Grammar and Usage (Sag and Wasow)
• Lexical and Constructional Pragmatics (Potts)
• Space and Motion in Language (E. Clark)
• Morphosyntax: A Cabinet of Curiosities (Zwicky)
• Phonology/Syntax Interface (Gribanova)
• Quantification (Peters)
• Semantics of Questions and Commands (Peters)
• Semantic Prominence and Argument Realization (Levin)
• Situation Semantics (Peters)
• Structure of Russian (Pereltsvaig)
• The Architecture of Grammar (Wasow)
• The Lexical Semantics of Nouns (Levin)
• The Phonology of Syntax (Zwicky)
• Unaccusativity (Levin)
• Wh-Movement (Sag)
• Word Order (Pereltsvaig, Sag)

A full listing of linguistics courses can be found here.