Syllabus Syntax I LING-GA 1310-001 Instructor - NYU > Department ...

Syllabus Syntax I LING-GA 1310-001
Instructor: Professor Chris Collins
Office: 10 Washington Place, Room 411
E-Mail: cc116@nyu.edu
Phone: 28763
Time: TR, 2:00PM- 3:15PM
Place: 10Washington Place, Room 103
Office Hours: Wednesday 10-12 (or by appointment)
Course Description:
Syntax I and II together form a comprehensive introduction to the concepts and principles
of syntactic theory, in the framework of Principles and Parameters and Minimalism.
Syntax I is concerned with phrase structure, argument structure (unaccusatives, unergatives,
transitives, double object constructions, psych-verbs), Case and agreement (Agree), A-movement
(passives, raising constructions), head movement, binding and control.
Syntax II will cover A’-movement, the left periphery, differences between A- and A’-
movement, weak and strong crossover, remnant movement, successive cyclic movement, general
constraints on movement (minimalist conception of phases, relativized minimality), that-trace effects,
the adjunct/argument asymmetry, covert movement (QR, Wh-in situ) and multiple wh-questions.
Emphasis will be on reading the primary literature and writing a research paper.
Course Requirements
Problem Sets
You may work on problem sets together, but all written work must be your own (e.g., you cannot
copy the wording of your classmate and submit it as your own work). There will be around 5
problem sets throughout the semester.
Presentation
Students will form small groups, and each group will give a presentation of a selected paper from
the syllabus.
Final Paper
You may either (a) critically review a paper that has not been discussed in class, or (b) write a
squib. Final papers are due on the last day of class: December 13.
Grading
Attendance and participation 10%
Problem sets/Homework 50%
Presentation in Class 10%
Final Paper 30%
Course Materials
You are not required to purchase any materials for this class. All readings will be posted to our
course website on Blackboard.
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I have posted the following forthcoming textbook online for people to use as a background
reference.
Koopman, Hilda, Dominique Sportiche, and Ed Stabler (to appear). An Introduction to Syntactic
Analysis and Theory.
Other Useful Resources
Baltin, Mark and Chris Collins. 2001. The Handbook of Contemporary Syntactic Theory. Malden,
MA: Blackwell.
Everaert, Martin and Henk van Riemsdijk. 2006. The Blackwell Companion to Syntax. Malden,
MA: Blackwell.
Boeckx, Cedric. 2011. The Oxford Handbook of Linguistic Minimalism. Oxford University Press,
Oxford.
Adger, David. 2003. Core Syntax: A Minimalist Approach. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
[Chapters 1-5 posted on Blackboard]
Helpful Links for Syntacticians
Blackwell Linguistic Compass
http://linguistics-compass.com/syntax-morphology/
Lingbuzz (hot new papers on syntax)
http://ling.auf.net/lingBuzz
Standford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (articles relevant to semantics)
http://plato.stanford.edu/
50 Years of Linguistics at MIT (see the videos on syntax and semantics)
http://ling50.mit.edu/
MIT Working Papers in Linguistics
http://mitwpl.mit.edu/
EALING archives (videos and handouts, EALING stands for Ecole d'Automne de Linguistique)
http://ealing.cognition.ens.fr/ealing2012/site/PreviousEalings
The syntax of natural language: An online introduction using the Trees program
Beatrice Santorini , Anthony Kroch
http://www.ling.upenn.edu/~beatrice/syntax-textbook/index.html
World Atlas of Language Structures (online database)
(it can be addictive to start playing with this)
http://wals.info/
Syntactic Structures of the World’s Languages (online database)
http://sswl.railsplayground.net/
The AFRANAPH Project (online database)
http://www.africananaphora.rutgers.edu/
Approaching Islands (syllabus)
http://idiom.ucsd.edu/~goodall/225s11/syllabus
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Syllabus:
Week 1: Sept. 4, 6 Introduction to Course, A Brief History of Generative Grammar,
Properties of Merge
Collins, Chris and Ed Stabler. 2012. A Formalization of Minimalist Syntax. Ms., NYU and UCLA.
Chomsky, Noam. 1995. Chapter 4 in The Minimalist Program. Cambridge: MIT Press. [excerpt:
pp. 241-249]
Week 2: Sept. 11, 13 IP, CP and Head Movement
Lasnik, Howard. 1995. The Forms of Sentences. An Invitation to Cognitive Science: Language,
Vol. 1. Cambridge: MIT Press, pp. 283-310.
Pollock, Jean-Yves. 1989. Verb Movement, Universal Grammar, and the Structure of IP. Linguistic
Inquiry 20, 3: 365-424. [Selected Pages]
Extra:
Lasnik, Howard and Juan Uriagereka. 2002. On the Poverty of Stimulus Challenge. The Linguistic
Review 19: 147-150.
Roberts, Ian. 2011. Head Movement and the Minimalist Program. In Cedric Boeckx (ed.), The
Oxford Handbook of Linguistic Minimalism. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Week 3: Sept. 18, 20 Word Order and Typology
Kayne, Richard. 1994. The Antisymmetry of Syntax. MIT Press, Cambridge.
Cinque, Guglielmo. 2005. Deriving Greenberg’s Universal 20 and its Exceptions. Linguistic
Inquiry 36.3, pgs. 315-332.
Extra:
Longobardi, Giuseppe. 1994. Reference and Proper Names: A Theory of N-Movement in Syntax
and Logical Form. Linguistic Inquiry 25.4, pgs. 609-665.
Bernstein, Judy. 2001. The DP Hypothesis: Identifying Clausal Properties in the Nominal Domain.
In The Handbook of Contemporary Syntactic Theory, Mark Baltin and Chris Collins (eds.), pp.
536-561.
Bernstein, Judy. 2008. Reformulating the Determiner Phrase Analysis. Language and Linguistics
Compass 2, pgs. 1-25.
Abney, Steven Paul. 1987. The English Noun Phrase in its Sentential Apsect. Doctoral
Dissertation, MIT.
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Week 4: Sept. 25, 27 Case Theory, Agree and Uninterpretable Features
Pesetsky, David and Esther Torrego. 2011. Case. In Cedric Boeckx (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of
Linguistic Minimalism. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Lasnik, Howard and Juan Uriagereka. 1988. A Course in GB Syntax. MIT Press, Cambridge.
[Section 1.4] [NOT YET POSTED ON BLACKBOARD]
Extra:
Vergnaud, Jean-Roger. 1977. Letter to Noam Chomsky and Howard Lasnik.
Legate, Julie. 2008. Morphological and Abstract Case. Linguistic Inquiry 39.1, pgs. 55-101.
Marantz, Alec. 2000. Case and Licensing. In Proceedings of ESCOL, 234–253.
Cornell Linguistics Club. Republished in Reuland (2000), pp. 11–30.
Adger, David. 2010. A Minimalist Theory of Feature Structure. In Kibort and Corbett (eds.),
Features. Oxford University Press, Oxford
Week 5: Oct. 2, 4 Binding Theory: The Basics
Koopman, Hilda, Dominique Sportiche, and Ed Stabler (to appear). An Introduction to Syntactic
Analysis and Theory. [Chapters 7 and 13]
Week 6: Oct. 9, 11 Binding Theory: Reconstruction
Barss, Andrew. 2002. Syntactic Reconstruction Effects. In Baltin and Collins (eds.), The
Handbook of Contemporary Syntactic Theory. Blackwell.
Huang, C.-T. James. 1993. Reconstruction and the Structure of VP: Some Theoretical
Consequences. Linguistic Inquiry 24.1, pgs. 103-138.
Extra:
Pesetsky, David. 2012. Phrasal Movement and its Discontents: Diseases and Diagnoses. To appear
in Lisa Cheng & Norbert Corver (eds.), Diagnostics in Syntax, Oxford University Press.
Sportiche, Dominique. 1988. A Theory of Floating Quantifiers and its Corollaries for Constituent
Structure. Linguistic Inquiry 19.3, pgs. 425-449.
McCloskey, Jim. 1997. Subjecthood and Subject Positions. In Liliane Haegeman (ed.), Elements of
Grammar. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecth.
Week 7: Oct. 16 (Fall Break), 18 Binding Theory: Minimalist Issues
Extra:
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Reuland, E., 2011. Anaphora and Language Design. Cambridge, MA: MIT. [Chapters: TBA]
[NOT YET POSTED ON BLACKBOARD]
Hornstein, Norbert. 2001. Move: A Minimalist Theory of Construal. Blackwell, Oxford. [Chapter
5: Is the Binding Theory Necessary?]
Kayne, Richard. 2002. Pronouns and Their Antecedents. In Samuel David Epstein and T. Daniel
Seely (eds.), Derivation and Explanation in the Minimalist Program. Blackwell, Oxford.
Week 8: Oct. 23, 25 Binding Theory: Pronominal Agreement
Collins, Chris and Paul Postal. 2012. Imposters. MIT Press, Cambridge. [Chapters 1-4, 7]
Extra:
Baker, Mark. 2008. The Syntax of Agreement and Concord. Cambridge, England, Cambridge
University Press.
Week 9: Oct. 30, Nov. 1 Raising and Control: The Basics
Koopman, Hilda, Dominique Sportiche, and Ed Stabler (to appear). An Introduction to Syntactic
Analysis and Theory. [Chapter 9: Infinitival Complements: Raising and Control]
Week 10: Nov. 6, 8 Raising and Control: The Debate
Tuesday:
Thursday:
Student Presentation
Student Presentation
Bobaljik, Jonathan David and Idan Landau. 2009. Icelandic Control is not A-Movement: The Case
from Case. Linguistic Inquiry 40, 1: 113-154.
Boeckx, Cedric and Norbert Hornstein. 2004. Movement Under Control. Linguistic Inquiry 35.3,
pgs. 431-452.
Extra:
Hornstein, Norbert. 1999. Movement and Control. Linguistic Inquiry 30, 1: 69-96.
Landau, Idan. 2003. Movement out of Control. Linguistic Inquiry 34: 471-498.
Week 11: Nov. 13, 15 Argument Structure: VP-Shells
Thursday:
Student Presentation
Barss, Andrew and Howard Lasnik. 1986. A Note on Anaphors and Double Objects. Linguistic
Inquiry 17: 347-354.
Pylkkänen, Liina. 2008. Introducing Arguments. Cambridge: MIT Press, pp. 1-64.
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Extra:
Breuning, Benjamin. 2010. Double Object Constructions Disguised as Prepositional Datives.
Linguistic Inquiry 41.2, pgs. 287-305.
Larson, Richard. 1988. On the Double Object Construction. Linguistic Inquiry 19: 335-391.
Baker, Mark and Collins Chris. 2006. Linkers and the Internal Structure of the vP. Natural
Language and Linguistic Theory 24, pgs. 307-354.
Week 12: Nov. 20, 22 (Thanksgiving) Catch-Up/Review
Week 13: Nov. 27, 29 Argument Structure: Unergatives, Unaccusatives, Need/Have
Thursday:
Student Presentation
Harley, Heidi. 2011. A Minimalist Approach to Argument Structure. In Cedric Boeckx (ed.), The
Oxford Handbook of Linguistic Minimalism, pgs. 427 – 448. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Harves, Stephanie and Richard Kayne. 2012. Having Need and Needing Have. Linguistic Inquiry
43.1, pgs. 120-132.
Extra:
Levin, Beth and Malka Rappaport Hovav. 1995. Chapters 1-2 in Unaccusativity. Cambridge, MA:
MIT Press.
Week 14: Dec. 4, 6 Argument Structure: Types of Objects
Postal, Paul. 2010. Edge-Based Clause Syntax. MIT Press, Cambridge [Forward and Chapter 2:
Objects and Arrays, pgs. 47 -74] [NOT YET POSTED ON BLACKBOARD]
Extra:
Landau, Idan. 2010. The Locative Syntax of Experiencers. MIT Press, Cambridge.
[NOT YET POSTED ON BLACKBOARD]
Week 15: Dec. 11, 13 Passive
Thursday: Student Presentation
Collins, Chris. 2005. A Smuggling Approach to the Passive in English. Syntax 8, 2: 81-120.
Chomsky, Noam. 1957. Syntactic Structures. Mouton de Gruyter, Berlin. [Selected Sections]
[NOT YET POSTED ON BLACBOARD]
Extra:
Baker, Mark, Kyle Johnson and Ian Roberts. 1989. Passive Arguments Raised. Linguistic Inquiry.
20: 219-251.
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Kratzer, Angelika. 1996. Severing the external argument from its verb. In J. Rooryck and L. Zaring
(eds.), Phrase Structure and the Lexicon. Dordrecht: Kluwer, 109-137.
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