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Linguistics 514 - Course Outline - Spring 2007 #03854
Instructor: Elly van Gelderen
E-mail: ellyvangelderen@asu.edu
Home page: http://www.public.asu.edu/~gelderen/elly.htm
Office Hours: TTH 8:30-9 am; T 1-4pm, and by appointment/e-mail.
Office: 226C - Tel. #: 480 965 2563
Required Text:
Radford, Andrew 2004. English Syntax: A Minimalist Introduction, Cambridge. There will be
additional material handed out by the instructor.
Objectives: The main objective of this course is to come to understand the nature of syntactic
structures. For instance, what are the elements which constitute a sentence and what variation is
possible in a sentence. An important aspect will be the relationship between universal and language
specific principles. The textbook that will be used is based on Chomsky's (1995) Minimalist
Program, and students will become familiar with some of the main aspects of this theory. The aim is
that students will read be able to read articles (rather than textbooks) in current syntactic theory.
Throughout the term, we will also discuss issues in syntax other than those that are central in
Minimalism, namely Binding Theory, Tense/Aspect, Modality, Topic/Focus, etc.
Evaluation:
4 Homework Assignments @ 20 points each: 80 points
2 In-class exams @ 30 points each 60
Final paper: 60_________
200 points
NB: See schedule below for dates! Students are responsible for the material covered in the book,
assigned articles and, the class lectures. Points will be converted into a Grade as follows: 200 - 195:
A+, 194 - 187: A, 186 - 180: A-, 179 - 175: B+, 174 - 167: B, 166 - 160: B-, 159 - 155: C+, 154 -
140: C, 139 - 120: D, 119 - 0: E. Students are welcome (and encouraged) to discuss homework
assignments with each other, but answers should be their own.
Organization
The classes will be a mixture of lectures, discussions, and syntactic exercises. We may add an
optional time period for tree drawing. There are several kinds of preparations and assignments.
Students are expected to (a) read the assigned chapters before class as well as attempt the relevant
exercises, and to (b) hand in 4 Homework Assignments, sit 2 exams, and write a paper. Students
will only be evaluated on the basis of (b). Electronic assignments/papers cannot be accepted.
The final essay should be around 10 pages. The essay should be written in accordance with
some Style Sheet. An outline of the paper (of about 2 paragraphs) must be handed in week 7 (even
though this must not be thought of as `written in stone'). Paper topics will be provided but the
student is free to pick a topic of her/his own choice. Writing one paper for two classes must be
discussed with the instructor/s. You are encouraged to hand in a draft before the due date.
Tentative Schedule - LIN 514
Week: Date: Readings and assignments:
1 16-18 Jan Chap 1
2 23-25Jan Chap 2 (optional reading: Baker 2003)
3 30 Jan-1 Feb Chap 3; Homework #1 due (1 Feb); Tree drawing session and
embeddings
4 6-8 Feb Chap 4 and review (optional reading: Bernstein 2001)
5 13-15 Feb Exam #1 (13 Feb); e-tools for syntax (15 Feb)
6 20-22 Feb Chap 5, and Special Topic #1 (Auxiliaries: TMA)
7 27 Feb-1 Mar Homework #2 due (2 Mar); chap 6
8 6-8 Mar Chap 6-7; hand in paper topic (8 March)
9 11-18 Mar BREAK
10 20-22 March Homework #3 (22 March); chap 7; Special Topic #2 (Reflexives).
11 27-29 Mar Chap 8
12 3-5 April Chap 9; Homework #4 (5 April)
13 10-12 April Review; Exam # 2 (12 April)
14 17-19 April Discussion of HW 4 and Exam 2; Skim Chap 10; Papers due (19
April)
15 24-26 April Special Topic #3 (DPs and Coordination); brief discussion of papers;
16 1 May Discussion of papers ctd; Review of the entire class.
Possible paper topics:
NB: These are ONLY possibilities; you are free to select your own as long as you check with EvG.
For references, search the regular catalogue (http://www.asu.edu/lib), LLBA
(http://www.asu.edu/lib/resources/db/llba.htm), Google scholar (http://scholar.google.com), and
Lingbuzz (http://ling.auf.net/lingBuzz). Notice that the difference in difficulty between textbook
and articles may behuge. Come see me with articles you have trouble with.
1. Negation. For instance: Where is it in the tree in English? Compare negation in languages of
four different language families. Work on this has been done by Ouhalla, Haegeman,
Zanuttini.
2. Auxiliaries. What is their structure? Are tense and aspect universal categories?
3. Verbal complementation. What kinds of clausal complements does a language have
(infinitives, subjunctives, etc)? Link the type of verb to its complement. Van Gelderen
2004, Rochette 1988.
4. The NP and DP. Look at a complicated DP, e.g. in Chinese.
5. Clitics. Take a (Romance or Slavic) language and examine the clitics. Work has been done
by Sportiche, Jaeggli, Rizzi (on acquisition), Tomic, etc.
6. Topic and Focus and the split CP. There are languages with a heavy left edge. See if that
can be incorporated in a tree. Rochemont & Culicover 1990; Rizzi 1997.
7. Agreement. Asymmetries in agreement depending on word order (Arabic). Object
agreement. The status of agreement morphemes in e.g. Navajo. Van Gelderen 1997.
8. Reflexives. Differences between Chinese/Korean etc and English. Different kinds of
morphemes (long and short in Romance and Chinese). Reuland, Reinhart.
9. The place of Adverbs. Do they have a fixed position? Cinque 1999.
10. The verb `to be’: existential, location verb, and possessive. Freeze 1992.
11. Imperatives. Van der Wurff 2007.
12. Pronouns. Difference between emphatic and `regular’. Are they in D or are they DP? Ritter,
Cardinaletti & Starke.
13. Intransitive verbs. Hale & Keyser 2003; Burzio 1986.
14. The structure of relative clauses in an asymmetric approach. Kayne 1994.
15. Copy and delete. Advantages over traces. Nunes 2004.
