LING610
Syntactic Theory
Fall 2016

-Readings for Aug. 30:  Syntactic Structures Revisited to page 35; Syntactic Structures to page 33 [Please bring these 2 books to class for the first few meetings]
  [[Optional reading on the need in human languages for some 'flat' structures: pp.46-52 of Lasnik and Uriagereka "Structure".]]
-Readings for Sept. 6: Syntactic Structures Revisited to page 49; Syntactic Structures to page 48. HO on equivalent derivations. Here are a few notes about things we have been discussing.And here are some multiple center embedding examples of the type argued by Chomsky and Miller to be grammatical but unacceptable (for processing reasons).
-> HW 1, due Tuesday Sept. 13. [Homework revision policy.]  [[[pdf submission by e-mail is required. Name your file "Familyname_HWn"; thus, if I were submitting this one, it would be "Lasnik_HW1".]]]
-Readings for Sept. 13
Syntactic Structures Revisited  to page 105
Syntactic Structures  Chapter 7
[Suggested readings: Syntactic Structures Ch. 6; Aspects of the Theory of Syntax, Ch. 1]
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. 20
Continue Sept. 13 readings and add the following:
Syntactic Structures Revisited  to page 124
->HW1 revision (if you choose) due Tuesday Sept. 20. [Homework revision policy.]  [[[pdf submission by e-mail is required. Name your file "Familyname_HWnrevised"; thus, if I were submitting this one, it would be "Lasnik_HW1revised".]]]
-Readings for Sept. 27
Continue Sept. 22 readings and add the following:
Syntactic Structures Revisited  to page 165
1 more optional reading Lasnik 1981
-> HW 2, due Tuesday Oct. 4.
-Readings for Sept. Oct. 4
Finish the Syntactic Structures and Syntactic Structures Revisited readings previously assigned.
A Course in GB Syntax  pp.1-5
Heres a 'wish list' theory of trnsformations, i.e., the classic theory modified towards greater explanatory adequacy.
Case Theory and A-Movement
Start "Case, Passives, and Government " Handout
-Readings for Oct. 11:  Finish "Case, Passives, and Government " Handout
-Readings for Oct. 18:  Really finish "Case, Passives, and Government " Handout; look again at wish list; discussion of government and distribution of trace and PRO (more on this in Lasnik and Uriagereka 1988 A Course in GB Syntax 48-52, 92-93)
-Readings for Sept. Oct. 25: Finish Oct. 18 readings.
[Here's Vergnaud's letter to Chomsky and me (giving comments on the ms. of "Filters and Control") inventing Case theory, as published in Freidin and Lasnik, Syntax: Critical Concepts. And here's the Lasnik-Freidin 1981 article pointing out the problem raised by null operators for the morphological version of the Case Filter.]
Binding Theory
Overview of BT handout; Lasnik and Uriagereka  Chap. 2 
-> HW 3, due Tuesday Oct. 25.
->HW3 revision (if you choose) due Tuesday Nov. 1. [Homework revision policy] <Take special note of this: "-for each substantial change (i.e., more than correcting typos) a few sentences indicating what you now know or understand that you didn't before.>
-Readings for Nov. 1
Continue Oct. 27 readings; Lasnik 1981 "On Two Recent Treatments of Disjoint Reference"
[Optional (in case you want to take a look at earlier and later history than the Oct. 25 HO gives, and a few authors in addition to Chomsky): HO on the history of Binding Theory from 1955 to 1998] [Optional, if you want to see Chomsky's original presentation of TSC, SSC, RI, etc. "Conditions on Transformations".]
<<Here's the idiom list I mentioned>>
->Squib assignment 'Proposal' due Nov. 17; squib due Dec. 14
-Readings for Nov. 1
Finish Nov. 1 readings. (For more detail, see "Noam Chomsky on Anaphora")
-> HW 4, due Tuesday Nov. 15
WH-Movement (A-bar Movement) and Bounding Theory - Islands and Subjacency:
-Readings for Nov. 15
Subjacency Intro handout
'Brief Overview of Subjacency/Islands 1955- '
-Readings for Nov. 22 - Nov. 29
Lasnik and Uriagereka  Chap. 4
ECP handout
Lasnik and Saito 1992 Move Alpha  pp.70-75 (This summarizes and explicates the Barriers technology)
ECP handout Part 2: More on argument -adjunct island asymmetries
[Optional:
   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.]
  Lasnik (1999) on formal and functional approaches to locality. There is also a brief summary of some of the arguments for successive cyclicity.]
-> HW 5, due Tuesday Dec. 6

Typos in Syntactic Structures Revisited

-p. viii 8 lines from bottom. "Cédric" should read "Cedric".
-p.7 line 5. "the in (6)" should be "man in (6)
-p.43 (121)a. This ex. should read "John says he is tired"
-p.57 (14)b. should be deleted. [And then, of course, (14)c. becomes (14)b].
-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.121 line 7. TK>TM should be TM>TK.
-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 
Chomsky publications
pdf locker