Students are strongly encouraged to regularly follow the course in order to allow for an active and systematic learning of the newly introduced formal analytical tools. Exercises will be proposed, which will be corrected together in class. This course lays the foundations of crucial formal linguistic analyses, common to various other courses in the MA program. For this reason students are invited to always ask for clarification in order not to leave gaps in the proper understanding of all the base topics addressed.

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FURTHER INFO. Remember that:
- The two modules build one integrated course.
- Attendance AND active participation are strongly recommended and are important for the final grade. There are no such things as stupid questions or remarks. Speak!
- A student or group who so chooses may ask to give a presentation in class or write a short paper (10 pages max.) on a relevant topic. Unfortunately, it is not possible due to numbers for everyone to give a presentation in class. On the other hand, everyone can write a paper. This is also important for the final grade (see FINAL ASSESSMENT).
- You can always contact me at office hours (Wed. 12-2pm, San Niccolò room 317), or by email (giuseppe.varnier@unisi.it), or by whatsapp (3349702759).
- - For the texts and for info from the teacher be ready to use the platform USienaIntegra, https://elearning.unisi.it).

FURTHER INFO. Remember that:
- The two modules build one integrated course.
- Attendance AND active participation are strongly recommended and are important for the final grade. There are no such things as stupid questions or remarks. Speak!
- A student or group who so chooses may ask to give a presentation in class or write a short paper (10 pages max.) on a relevant topic. Unfortunately, it is not possible due to numbers for everyone to give a presentation in class. On the other hand, everyone can write a paper. This is also important for the final grade (see FINAL ASSESSMENT).
- You can always contact me at office hours (Wed. 12-2pm, San Niccolò room 317), or by email (giuseppe.varnier@unisi.it), or by whatsapp (3349702759).
- - For the texts and for info from the teacher be ready to use the platform USienaIntegra, https://elearning.unisi.it).

The discipline adopts a formal meta-language, which can only be learned step by step. It is therefore CRUCIAL to attend regularly the classes (and/or study the relevant part of the textbook) and to regularly do the consolidation exercises at home.

Students who miss classes are urged to contact the instructor as soon as possible for support during the weekly office hours.

Erasmus students/ students from other programs should contact the instructor to check the prerquisites.

A Moodle page with the teaching materials will be set up for this course.

Please refer to the syllabi of each of the modules for detailed information.

Orari di ricevimento e contatti sono consultabili nelle pagine personali del docente.

During the teaching period, the professor holds office hours by appointment in room 325 (III, Complesso di San Niccolò) in Siena. For availability updates and to request an appointment, please refer to the Office section of https://sites.google.com/view/pistoiareda/home. In-person meetings are encouraged.

In order to favour active and direct interaction with the professor and classmates, regular participation is strongly recommended. This allows for a seminar-style format of this course, a specific feature of this second year course: it goes deeper into topics in the domain of morphosyntax, some of them only touched upon in the first year, some completely new. If needed, communications from the professor will be done through Moodle via email.

During the teaching period, the professor holds office hours by appointment in room 325 (III, Complesso San Niccolò) in Siena. For availability updates and to request an appointment, please refer to the Office section of https://sites.google.com/view/pistoiareda/home. In-person meetings are enouraged.

The course changes each year depending on the background of the attending students and is based on practical activities and attendance.
Non attending students should get in touch with me and do as soon as possible

The assessment of students' learning will be based on the understanding and knowledge of the course program and of textbook, and, for attending students, on the project activities done during the course.

During the course the attending students will have to do either one of these activities:
A. Write a detailed research report about an existing published paper, following a predetermined template. A list of possible papers will be provided to the students. Each student will then select one of the papers and write individually a structured research report.
B. Work in small groups to design and conduct a simple experiment and write a research report about it.
Non-attending students could only do activity A.

For attending students, the grades will be assigned slightly differently depending on the activity chosen.
For those choosing to write the research report (A), ¼ of the grades will be assigned based on the report (from 4 = insufficient to 8 = excellent), and ¾ based on the oral exam. In the exam attending students will have to answer 3 questions. Each question will be graded from 4 (insufficient) to 8 (excellent). The total sum of the grades for the project work and the questions will result in the final exam grade.
For those choosing to conduct the experiment (BA), ½ of the grades will be assigned based on the project work (from 10 to 16), and ½ based on the oral exam. In the exam attending students will have to answer 2 questions. Each question will be graded from 4 (insufficient) to 8 (excellent). The total sum of the grades for the project work and the questions will result in the final exam grade.

For non-attending students, the grades will be assigned like attending students choosing the research report.

Students with special educational needs are invited to contact the instructor at the beginning of the course, so as to decide on the most appropriate didactic methodologies.
For attending students: regular attendance is strongly recommended; regular and active participation to the discussion sessions is required.