EL5101 Grammatical Analysis 2025–2026 Sem 1

Michael Yoshitaka ERLEWINE (mitcho)

mitcho@nus.edu.sg

Office: AS5 06-09

Office hours: Tuesdays 10am–noon

Classes are Fridays at 6pm, AS6 02-14

Syllabus PDF; all other materials on Canvas

“A logical theory may be tested by its capacity for dealing with puzzles, and it is a wholesome plan, in thinking about logic, to stock the mind with as many puzzles as possible, since these serve much the same purpose as is served by experiments in physical science.” — Russell 1905

This course is a graduate-level introduction to modern syntactic theory. Emphasis will be placed on the the process of analysis and argumentation. Empirically, the course will cover a range of grammatical phenomena in English and other languages, to “stock the mind with as many puzzles as possible,” and to motivate and evaluate hypotheses under discussion. Students will complete the class with both the technical expertise and theoretical foundation to comfortably approach a range of work in contemporary syntactic literature.