Theory of Descriptive Linguistics – Syntax

- The generative approach to the study of language: the creative aspect of language use, knowledge of language, generative grammar, mentalism, biological determinism, modularity of grammar, autonomy of syntax, formalism and functionalism in linguistics.
- Generative grammar as a modular grammar of universal and parametric principles; language universals and language typology in principles and parameters of different grammar modules.
- Lexicon and defining lexical entries: a lexical-conceptual analysis of word meaning, semantic roles in the analysis of the predicates, valency, semantic selection.
- Phrase structure theory in the principles and parameters framework: endocentricity, hierarchical structure of phrases, lexicalist hypothesis. A hierarchical definition of subject in a syntactic phrase. Lexical phrases (verb, noun, adjectival and prepositional phrase) and functional phrases (inflectional, complementizer and negation phrase).
- Theta theory, thematic role assignment to arguments in the sentence; theta criterion: a hypothesis on a specific match between arguments and theta roles.
- Case theory. Structural case (nominative, accusative, genitive) as a morphosyntactic feature of argument (referential) noun phrases; case filter, the syntactic relationship between case assigner and the case-marked phrase, linguistic variation with respect to case assigners, lexical case and the phonological expression of case.
- Binding theory. The universal and the specific in the binding principles of nominal expressions. Reflexive binding in English and Slovenian.
- Non-overt categories in syntactic structures: PRO, pro, trace.
- Theory of control and the interpretation of the non-overt subject in English and Slovenian infinitival phrases.
- Movement. Move alpha. The movement of noun phrase to the position of some other noun phrase: raising of the subject into the subject position and passive movement as following from the same rule; the importance of anaphor traces governed by principle A of the binding theory.
- Wh-movement in syntax and logical form; question formation in English and Slovenian syntax; multiple questions and multiple wh-movement in syntax; order of wh-phrases; syntactic, morphological and phonological arguments for wh-traces.
- Constraining Move alpha by the subjacency, the empty category principle and the principle of relativized minimality.
- Logical form.