LING610
Syntactic Theory
Fall 2019

<<CHECK this site daily. We will be regularly posting reading and HW assignments, and occasional class notes.>>
-Readings for Aug. 27-Sept. 3:  Syntactic Structures Revisited to page 35; Syntactic Structures to page 33 [Please bring these 2 books to class for the first few meetings]
8/27 Class notes.   8/29 Class notes
Multiple center embedding examples of the type argued by Chomsky and Miller to be grammatical but unacceptable (for processing reasons)
HO on equivalent derivations     Here are a few more notes about things we have been discussing.
-> HW 1, due Tuesday Sept. 10  10:00 AM. [Homework revision policy.] [[[pdf submission by e-mail  to both Howard and Omer is required. Name your file "Familyname_HWn"; thus, if Howard were submitting this one, it would be "Lasnik_HW1".]]]
9/3 Class notes
9/5 Class notes
-Readings for Sept. 10: Syntactic Structures Revisited to page 49; Syntactic Structures to page 48.
-Readings for Sept. 17
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.
->->HW1 revision (if you choose) due Tuesday Sept. 17. [Homework revision policy.]  [[[pdf submission by e-mail is required. Name your file "Familyname_HWnrev"; thus, if Howard were submitting this one, it would be "Lasnik_HW1rev".]]]
-> HW 2 , due Tuesday Sept. 24  10:30 AM. [Homework revision policy.] [[[pdf submission by e-mail  to both Howard and Omer is required. Name your file "Familyname_HWn"; thus, if Howard were submitting this one, it would be "Lasnik_HW2".]]]
-> HW 3, due Thursday Oct. 3. [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_HW3".]]]
-Readings for Oct. 3:
Finish the Syntactic Structures and Syntactic Structures Revisited readings previously assigned.
Syntactic Structures Revisited  to page 165
Here's a 'wish list' theory of trnsformations, i.e., the classic theory modified towards greater explanatory adequacy. 1 more optional reading Lasnik 1981
For anyone interested, the paper about levels of representation and -markers: Lasnik (2005).
Case Theory and A-Movement
-Readings for Oct. 8-15: "Case, Passives, and Government " Handout
->->HW3 revision (if you choose) due Tuesday Oct. 15
-> HW 4 , due Tuesday Oct. 29  10:30 AM. [[[pdf submission by e-mail  to both Howard and Omer is required. Name your file "Familyname_HWn"; thus, if Howard were submitting this one, it would be "Lasnik_HW4".]]]
->Squib assignment 'Proposal' due Thurs. Nov. 14; squib due Thurs. Dec. 12
-Readings for Oct. 29: Overview of Binding Theory, Sections A and B
-Readings for Nov. 5: Overview of Binding Theory, Sections C, D and E
   Optional readings for more details: Chomsky 1973 "Conditions on Transformations"; Lasnik 1976 "Remarks on Coreference" (Origin of Condition C.) Lasnik 1994 "Noam Chomsky on Anaphora"; Lasnik 1981 "On Two Recent Treatments of Disjoint Reference (About need to provide interpretation for inexing relations, and difficulties in doing so.)
-> HW 5, due Thursday Nov. 14 [[[pdf submission by e-mail  to both Howard and Omer is required. Name your file "Familyname_HWn"; thus, if Howard were submitting this one, it would be "Lasnik_HW5".]]]
-Readings for Nov. 12   Finish the Binding Theory handout. Take a look at the Lasnik 1976 and Lasnik 1981 articles linked last week.
->->HW5 revision (if you choose) due Tuesday Nov. 26. [Homework revision policy.]  [[[pdf submission by e-mail is required. Name your file "Familyname_HWnrev"; thus, if Howard were submitting this one, it would be "Lasnik_HW5rev".]]]

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.82 1st line below (88). "...a PM that consists of ..." should read "... a PM that contains of a string that consaists of ..."
-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 Howard know.

useful links

Omer's 610 site

Lasnik publications 
Chomsky publications
pdf locker