Appointments take precedence over drop-ins.
We take a scientific approach that focuses on the linguistic knowledge of native speakers. We specifically concentrate on how to construct formal models of knowledge of linguistic structure and constituency, and on what aspects of linguistic knowledge are universal across languages. This work develops the students' skills in argumentation, problem solving, and clear presentation of reasoning, and thus serves as a general introduction to the analytical thinking that lies at the core of all of modern science. We interest ourselves in the generalities of languages, and therefore find it necessary sometimes to ignore the particulars of a specific lexical item or idiom, except insofar as it constitutes an exception that proves the rule. Again, it is the rules, i.e. the empirically discovered characterizations of tendencies, that form the basis of our discussions.