LING610
Syntactic Theory
Fall 2012

 -Readings for Aug. 30 - Sept. 4:  We WILL be meeting Aug. 30.
Syntactic Structures Revisited to page 35; Syntactic Structures to page 33 [Please bring these 2 books to class]
Here's the Lasnik-Kupin article, which, among other things, introduces Reduced Phrase Markers. [Not required reading, just in case you're interested.]
-Readings for Sept. 11
Syntactic Structures Revisited to page 49
Syntactic Structures to page 48
-> HW 1, due Tuesday Sept. 11. [Homework revision policy.]
-Readings for Sept. 18
Syntactic Structures Revisited  to page 105
Syntactic Structures  Chapter 7
[Suggested readings: Syntactic Structures Ch. 6; Aspects of the Theory of Syntax, Ch. 1]
(-> HW1 revision due Sept. 18 , if you elect the option to re-do)
-> HW 2, due TuesdaySept. 25
-Readings for Sept. 25
Continue Sept. 18 readings and start the following:
Syntactic Structures Revisited  to page 165
A Course in GB Syntax  pp.1-5
-Readings for Oct. 2
Finish Sept. 25 readings (and here's my 1981 paper exploring the formal properties of Chomsky's early analysis of English verbal morphology, and suggesting revisions)
Start "Case and Passives" Handout
-Readings for Oct. 9
Finish "Case and Passives" Handout
[Suggested readings: Aspects of the Theory of Syntax, Ch.2, Section 4 and Ch.3; Grimshaw "Complement Selection and the Lexicon", which argues that we need both semantic selection and (syntactic) subcategorization.]
-Readings for Oct. 16
REALLY Finish "Case and Passives" Handout
[Here's the Vergnaud letter inventing Case theory, as recently published in Freidin and Lasnik, Syntax: Critical Concepts.]
-> HW 3 , due Tuesday Oct. 23
-Readings for Oct. 23
Binding Theory:
-Lasnik and Uriagereka  Chap. 2
-Chomsky (1995) Chap. 1, 1.4.2  (pp. 92-110)  [You might find it useful in the next couple of weeks to read this whole chapter.] 
-Lasnik, H. 1994. "Noam Chomsky on Anaphora"
-Handout summarizing the development of binding theory 1973-1986
[And here's the Stowell article about 2 kinds of infinitives; info on Boskovic's book: Boskovic, Zeljko. 1997. The syntax of nonfinite complementation: An economy approach. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.]
-Readings for Oct. 30
-Continue the Oct. 23 readings
-Supplementary readings: HO on the development of Binding Theory from 1955 to the mid 1990's; "On two recent treatments of disjoint reference" (my article discussing the problems with the semantic intepretation of indexing relations)
(-> HW3 revision due Oct. 30, if you elect the option to re-do)
-> HW 4 , due Tuesday Nov. 13
-Readings for Nov. 13-26
WH-Movement and Bounding Theory:
Subjacency handout
'Brief Overview of Subjacency/Islands'
Lasnik and Uriagereka  Chap. 4
ECP handout
Lasnik and Saito 1992 Move Alpha  pp.70-75
[Rizzi's famous paper on Italian Wh-island violations. See especially the 2nd paragraph of fn. 25, the only part of the paper anyone still remembers.]
((CourseEvalUM Submissions Open Now Through December 12: Evaluation site. Now you get to turn the tables and grade me.))
->Squib assignment 'Proposal' due Nov. 27; squib due Dec. 12
-> HW 5 , due TuesdayDec. 4
-Readings for Dec. 4
Handout on Superiority and Relativized Minimality
Lasnik (2006) "Minimalism"
[And, not required at all, but if you are interested: My paper on formal and functional approaches to locality.] [For those interested, "Guess who?", Ross's classic paper on Sluicing}
->Readings for Dec. 11 TBA
(-> HW5 revision due Dec 11, if you elect the option to re-do)
-Dec. 12 10:00-11:30: Make-up class (for session cancelled by Hurrican Sandy) [[In MMH 1401G - the small seminar room inside the main office complex]]
->Dec. 12  Squib due [Submit electronically. That way I can send you back comments after the semester ends, when I won't be here.]

Typos in Syntactic Structures Revisited

-p. viii 8 lines from bottom. "Cédric" should read "Cedric".
-p.43 (121)a. This ex. should read "John says he is tired"
-p.58 (22). The last symbol on the 1st line of this ex. Should be 'Verb', not 'V'.
-p.76 mid. Lasnik's reply to Vukic should begin "Yes, clearly SAI is ..."
-p.82 3rd line below (87). The end of this line should read "...a do will be ..."  [instead of "a # will be"]
-p.113 (158). The leftmost daughter of S should be C (instead of NP).
-p.116 (163). The SC of Transformation 2 should read  "X1 - X2 - X3 -> r + X1 - X2 - X3"
-p.130 4th and 5th lines of 1st full para. Replace "transformational" by "PS".
-p.206. The Warner entry in the References should be  12, 153-172
-p.213 (i.e. the beginning of the list of rules from Syntactic Structures). The last symbol in the SC of T12 Passive should be X1 (instead of X2).
-p.213 Phrase structure rule 3. In the second expansion of NP, the final 'l' should be on the same level as the subscript 'p'.

If you find any more typos, please let me know.

useful links

Lasnik publications
pdf locker