LING4/503

LING403/503

Foundations of Syntax I

Where: Econ 308

When: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 11-12:15

Professor: Heidi Harley

Phone: (520) 626 3554

email: hharley@u.arizona.edu

Web: http://w3.arizona.edu/~ling/hh/

Office: Douglass 305

Office Hours: 12-2 Thursdays or by appointment

Course Description:

This is an introduction to formal syntactic theory. We will be adopting the Chomskyan Minimalist approach, although considering earlier GB theory as well, and exploring syntactic phenomena through it. Material includes the lexicon, phrase structure, binding theory, economy conditions, LF and LF movements, overt movements, phasing, etc.

Prerequisites:

Undergraduate (403): LING300

Graduate (503): None, but a general familiarity with linguistics (preferably the basic notions of syntax too) is expected.

Web Page:

http://w3.arizona.edu/~ling/hh/503/index.html

Go here to find handouts, assignments and readings!

Additional readings will be available on paper (for photocopying)

in the department, as well as on Electronic Reserves

The password for E-Reserves will be merge.

Required books:

Roberts, Ian. (1997) Comparative Syntax. Arnold: London

Baker, Mark. (2002) The Atoms of Language. Basic Books: New York.

Other Books YOU MIGHT FIND USEFUL (not required):

Andrew Radford (1997), Syntactic theory and the structure of English. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Lasnik, Howard (1999) Minimalist Analysis. Oxford: Blackwell.

Noam Chomsky (1995) The Minimalist Program. MIT press, Cambridge MA.

Chris Collins (199X) Local Economy. MIT Press, Cambridge MA

Richard Kayne (1995) The Antisymmetry of Syntax. MIT press, Cambridge MA.

Luigi Rizzi (1989) Relativized Minimality. MIT press, Cambridge MA

This is a reading and homework intensive class. You should set aside at least 5 hours a week for reading and homework assignments.

Readings will be announced as we go in the class

For Thursday read Chapters 2 and 3 (and 4 if you can -- heck, read the whole thing if you can) of Baker

Course Requirements:

There will be (semi)-regular weekly assignments, weekly Official Questions, a 2/3rds-term take-home exam, and a short final paper.

403 503 Due Date

Homework assignments 40% 40% Each Thursday

Participation, including weekly

Official Question 10% 10% By e-mail, Sunday night

Take-home Midterm 20% 20% Tues October 16

Draft of final paper 5% 0% Nov 7, 2001

Final Paper 25% 30% Dec 5, 2001

The assignments will be based on readings and lecture material. You will have one week to complete each of them. The assignments, midterm, and final may all involve data from languages which we have not discussed in class.

Exams: Note: The content of the midterm for 403 and 503 may be different. The midterm will be based on both lecture material and the assigned readings. You are responsible for the content of both.

Paper: Due Dec 5, 2001. See the attached sheet on the content of the paper.

Length:

LING403 3-5 pages double spaced, 12 point font, 1 inch margins.

LING503 5-10 pages double spaced, 12 point font, 1in margins.

Students enrolled in 403 must hand in a draft of the paper on Nov 7th, which will be evaluated for form. Comments on content will also be given. The paper will then be revised for submission on the 5th of December.
Students enrolled in 503 do not have to hand in a draft, but are strongly encouraged to do so.
You should all come and meet with me at least once to discuss your paper topic.

Policy on Late Work: As a general rule, late work will not be accepted without a doctor’s note or prior permission from the instructor. Unexcused late work will be deducted one full letter grade per day.

Rough order of topics (subject to revision)

1. What is Syntax? Some fundamental assumptions. Phrase structure rules

2. Parameters (The atoms of language?)

3. Movement: first pass

4. Phrase Structure/X-bar theory (Roberts Chapter 1)

5. Bare Phrase Structure/Linear Correspondence Axiom

6. Binding theory: first pass

7. Empty Categories & Control Theory.

8. Movement: second pass: A-movement and Case (Roberts chapter 2)

8. The notion of Checking

9. Binding theory: second pass (Roberts chapter 3)

10. Wh- and other operator movement (Roberts chapter 4)

11. VP structure: ditransitive verbs, light verbs

12 ACD, relative clauses, grab bag. pick your favorite!

For Thursday the 29th you should read Chapters 1-4 or as far as you can of Baker

The Paper

This paper is meant to start you on your careers towards fame and fortune (well, not fortune) as professional syntacticians. It doesn’t have to be publishable, but it does have to constitute a piece of original research.

Possible topics:

Take a previously unsolved issue in syntax (or even related disciplines like the acquisition of syntax, or syntactic processing) and reanalyze it in terms of MP.

Take your favorite language and analyze some phenomenon in it in MP terms.

Take an issue that was easily dealt with in another theoretical approach (e.g. GB theory or EST) and reanalyze it in MP terms.

Take a problem for MP and consider possible revisions that make good empirical predictions.

Other? No problem, come talk to me.

I will from time to time point out issues that might make good topics in class.

This project requires original research. This means:

-Reading the relevant literature (papers) on the topic

-Gathering data/performing experiments etc.

-Writing up the results in a scholarly form.

You should think of this as a collaboration. I am happy to help at all stages of writing this paper, including helping you choose a topic, discussing the issues with you (in meetings), reading drafts, setting you up with contacts, advising you on readings, etc. Come talk to me.

Some important points:

(1) All papers should include a clearly defined research question, that is the topic of the paper along with a hypothesis about the question.

Well defined: The MLC and long-distance anaphors in Korean factive clauses.

Poorly defined: Binding in the Minimalist Program.

(2) All papers should contain clearly set out arguments in favor of the argument, and appropriate discussion of factors that are problematic.

(3) Feel free to use section headers to structure your paper. They are standard in syntactic writing.

(4) Be sure to cite all your sources. Avoid plagiarism at all costs (consult with me if you are unclear on what plagiarism is.)