SLST-S670 and LING-L670 Language Typology provides an introduction to linguistic typology, the study of how languages differ and how they are alike in terms of their formal features, as opposed to their genetic affiliation or areal distribution. It provides an introduction to the empirical basis for work in universal grammar. The course focuses on syntactic and morphological features of languages. Topics typically covered include principles of word order, configurational vs. non-configurational structure, agreement systems, morpheme order and the Mirror Principle, head-marking and dependent marking, valence-changing operations, relative clause structure, and serial verbs. Each student will “adopt” a particular non-Indo-European language and examine its typological properties in two short reports and one longer paper. Download a sample syllabus above.