Unification-based grammars and linguistic description I This course provides an introduction to those linguistic theories based on (typed) feature structures as the primary representational device and unification as the main operation for combining them. Such theories (also called `constraint-based') include Generalized Phrase Structure Grammar (GPSG), Lexical Functional Grammar (LFG), Categorial Unification Grammar (CUG), and Head-driven Phrase Structure Grammar (HPSG). The elementary concepts of feature structure, unification, subsumption and structure sharing will be explained in the course of implementing toy grammars concerned with specific linguistic notions: grammar rules and lexicon entries, agreement, subcategorization, and semantic interpretation. This will enable better insight into the basic mechanisms and consequences of the theories, of which LFG will be selected for a more detailed treatment. The course continues in the summer semester as Unification-based grammars and linguistic description II.