LSA.139 | Syntactic Change

Anthony Kroch
TR 2:55-4:35
location: 32-D461

This course discusses how language learning and language use interact with the properties of Universal Grammar to produce observed patterns of syntactic change. We will look at certain changes in the Germanic and the Romance languages that have been examined with structural/grammatical and with quantitative methods in recent years. The goal of the course will be to understand what has been learned in two important domains:

1. the relationship between grammatical change and variability in language acquisition by native speakers and second language learners.

2. the relationship between change in grammar and change in usage frequencies as found in historical texts, paying particular attention to the degree to which patterns in usage are determined by the underlying grammar.