Is this sentence grammatical? - Colourless green ideas sleep furiously!
How many meanings does this sentence have? - Flying planes can be dangerous!
Do easy and eager behave in the same way? - cf. John is both easy and eager to please.
What does who refer to in the following sentence? - Who did Jill say the man told her mother Dad bought the stereo from?
These are some of the classic cases of intricacies in English grammar which are hard to unravel intuitively, but easy to explain on a linguistic basis. This class differs from practical grammar classes in introducing techniques for using linguistic theories and models in order to derive explanations for problems in grammar. The class will be partly theoretical, partly practical; in the practical sections we will design new types of internet-based grammar learning materials for use in situations based on authentic texts.
Topics to be covered include morphological and grammatical categories and features, grammatical functions, constituent structures, grammatical rules, and a selection of the most common grammatical ``problems''.
Further information, including bibliographical materials and a textbook recommendation, will be available from the beginning of April 2002 on my teaching website.