ENG 575: COMPARATIVE SYNTAX

Last Update: November 22, 2005

CLICK HERE FOR MORE NEWS [13/11]

ENG 575: COMPARATIVE SYNTAX

Linguistics Section , Department of English Studies , University of Cyprus

Fall Semester 2005: Tuesdays & Fridays, 13.30-15.00 *** Room A 108

http://www.punksinscience.org/kleanthes/courses/UCY04F/MASOE

Kleanthes Grohmann *** Email: kleanthi AT ucy DOT ac DOT cy

Room M 004, Phone: x2106 *** Office Hours: TUE/FRI 15.00-16.00 & by appointment

YOU CAN DOWNLOAD THE OUTLINE AS A PDF-DOCUMENT HERE.

downloadable class handouts

Clausal Word Order	DP: The Nominal Layer
Head Parameter Revisited	abstracts: Intro to Cartography (C. Laenzlinger, G. Soare)
Antisymmetry	abstracts: EPP Satisfaction (E. Sifaki)
Cliticization	final classes
Adverbs in Modern Syntactic Theories	presentations

DESCRIPTION

Assuming that all students are familiar with syntactic analysis of English in the generative paradigm and some basic theoretical concepts, we will extend the tools provided and apply them to languages other than English. We will pick a number of empirical phenomena (≥data≤) and explore how these are realized across the worldπs languages (or not). The analytical part of the course (≥theory≤) will consist of trying to find adequate explanations for the variation observed. The general theoretical direction is within the Principle-and-Parameters Theory (namely, GB or some form of minimalism). If nothing else, you should get out of this course an appreciation for cross-linguistic phenomena.

ASSESSMENT

Regular attendance is strongly advised! Besides the class lectures, there will be:

The first two items should be self-explanatory; I will specify them further as we go along. We will also discuss the particulars of your presentation, which will involve up to three students and present one or more articles to the class. The participation component may modify the final grade.

Important: Any attempt of plagiarism will be graded as Fail for the entire course and pursued further -- I do not accept even a hint of plagiarism! You better familiarize yourselves with this.

Despite bad experiences in the past, I will not take attendance this semester. This means, however, that I will not waste my time with students who choose to not show up for classes. I thus repeat:

Regular attendance is strongly advised!

READING

There is no textbook; instead, the copy shop Antoniou will provide a course reader which every student should obtain a copy of. This is a collection of relevant texts we will read and discuss.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

The books listed below can be obtained for short-term loan at the library:

Adger, David. 2003. Core Syntax: A Minimalist Approach. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Baltin, Mark and Chris Collins (eds). 2001. The Handbook of Contemporary Syntactic Theory. Oxford: Blackwell.
Belletti, Adriana (ed). 2004. Structures and Beyond. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Cinque, Guglielmo. 1999. Adverbs and Functional Heads. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Cinque, Guglielmo (ed). 2002. Functional Structure in DP and IP. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Cinque, Guglielmo and Richard S. Kayne (eds). 2005. The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Syntax. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Culicover, Peter W. 1997. Principles and Parameters. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Culicover, Peter W. 1999. Syntactic Nuts. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Haegeman, Liliane (ed). 1997. The New Comparative Syntax. London: Longman.
Hornstein, Norbert. 1995. Logical Form. Oxford: Blackwell.
Hornstein, Norbert, Jairo Nunes, and Kleanthes K. Grohmann. 2005. Understanding Minimalism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [expected publication: October 20]
Nunes, Jairo. 2004. Linearization of Chains and Sideward Movement. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.
Rizzi, Luigi (ed). 2004. The Structure of CP and IP. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Roberts, Ian. 1997. Comparative Syntax. London: Edward Arnold.
Uriagereka, Juan. 1998. Rhyme and Reason. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Webelhuth, Gert (ed). 1998. Government and Binding Theory and the Minimalist Program. Oxford: Blackwell.

Of course, thereπs lots more interesting books. You will find many of those mentioned in any of the above works and listed in the respective reference sections. Feel free to browse through them!

In addition, there is a large number of relevant articles published in refereed journals of the field. These are usually not as accessible as textbooks, but there are some really good ones: these I will make available as our course reader as soon as we have agreed on some parameters of the course.

Due to the title of the volume and its up-to-dateness, I suggest taking a good look at Cinque and Kayne (2005) as a starting point for presentation/discussion (see also point below and Class 1).

COURSEWORK

Depending on how my suggestions for an alternative course format from Class 1 go (which depend in turn on the actual number of registered students), the syllabus could be drastically modified to incorporate my idea of a Syntax Reading Group. As for coursework to be graded, I would suggest:

Option 1:

(A3) present one or more articles on a given topic in class with a handout, and
(A1) write up a paper of your own ideas and research (up to two students).

Option 2:

(A3) present your own ideas and research in class with a handout, and
(A1) write up a revised handout only (any number of students).

Regarding:

(A2) the abstract will depend on your options, but be related.

SYLLABUS [for now, see downloadable PDF] [update: downloadable PDF - NOV 22]

In the absence of a decision whether we should move some classes to the evening (see the NEWS page on the website), and assuming the three days Iπll be missing, these are our class slots:

September:	06	20
	09	23
	13	30
	16
October:	04	14G
	07	25
	12C (W: 18.30h)
November:	01	18
	04	22
	08E	23W
	11	25
	15	29
	16W	30W
December:	02	15* 10am (see NEWS)
	*(C = guest lecture by Christopher Laenzlinger (Geneva): cartography of CP/DP, G = guest lecture by Gabriela Soare (Geneva): multiple* *wh, E = guest lecture by Evi Sifaki (Roehampton): null subjects, W = Wednesday class, = final paper due)**

Here are some theme complexes I would like to present, discuss, and analyze:

Word Order Variation	Pronominal Syntax
clausal word order	null subjects
nominal word order	pro and pro-drop
free word order/scrambling	cliticization
head parameter	split IP

Issues in the Left Periphery	Agreement Phenomena
(multiple) wh-questions	A-agreement (within IP)
split CP	A'-agreement (within CP)

In the next few days I will prepare acourse reader with some core (and / or other interesting) articles published on these issues. When itπs done, you canpick it up from Antoniou copy shop.