(in Polish) Składnia języka naturalnego z perspektywy ogólnojęzykoznawczej, czyli o strukturze zdań w językach fonicznych i migowych 1500-SDN-SP-JEZ-SJNZ

The course provides an introduction to the syntax of natural languages, combining a typological perspective with the analysis of data from sign languages. The section devoted to general linguistics is based primarily on Maggie Tallerman’s “Understanding Syntax”, while issues concerning sign languages are explored with reference to “The Linguistics of Sign Languages: An Introduction”, edited by Anne Baker, Beppie van den Bogaerde, Roland Pfau, and Trude Schermer.
The course covers fundamental syntactic concepts, including categories and word classes, phrases, hierarchical constituent structure, arguments and predicates, grammatical relations, predicate-argument structure, and basic constituent orders. Students learn methods for identifying constituents and ways of substantiating syntactic analyses on the basis of empirical data. Selected syntactic phenomena and their typological variation are also discussed, including agreement, valency, transitivity, the formation of different types of sentences, and basic dependencies in complex sentences.
A substantial part of the course is devoted to the analysis of signed languages as natural linguistic systems operating in the visual-spatial modality. Students are introduced to the basic structural properties of signed languages and their typological variation. Preliminary analysis focuses on word classes, the structure of simple and complex sentences, constituent order, spatial relations, mechanisms of reference and agreement, and non-manual components.
An important aspect of the course is the role of space as a component of linguistic structure. Students examine how location, direction of movement, orientation, and other properties of signs may contribute to the encoding of grammatical relations. The course also addresses the distinction between gesture and language and the role of iconicity in the structure of signed languages.
The teaching materials include examples from a range of languages, both spoken and signed. Where possible, video materials are used to provide authentic linguistic data. Students learn to analyze linguistic data, formulate hypotheses about their structure, and evaluate competing analyses.
The course has a problem-based and empirical orientation. Rather than focusing solely on the acquisition of syntactic terminology, it develops students’ ability to move from linguistic data to evidence-based analysis. Particular emphasis is placed on comparing languages across modalities and critically examining which syntactic properties may be considered universal and which may be associated with the specific characteristics of the auditory-vocal and visual-spatial modalities.