LING 611 Spring 2009
Issues in Syntax
-Readings for 1/27: Lasnik TiCS "The
Minimalist Program in Syntax"; MA 1.1; UM 1, 2.1, 2.2; L&U 1;
Hornstein The
Minimalist Project
Ch. 1; Chomsky "Three
Factors in Language Design" pp.1-11.
-Readings for 2/3: Chomsky
1995, Ch. 1 (Suggested, for an overview of GB in its final stages); Chomsky
1995, Ch. 2; Chomsky
1995 Ch. 3, pp. 195-199; Lasnik 1995 "Verbal
Morphology: Syntactic Structures Meets the Minimalist Program"
(or the excepts in B&L pp. 263-277); L&U pp. 61-79.
Here's a handout summarizing much of the material.
-Reading for 2/10: Chomsky
1995 Ch. 3 (We will continue to talk about economy-based accounts of verbal
morphology, but will also start talking about how Chomsky also used AgrO to
deal with nominal morphology (Case). Here are a couple of additional relevant
writings: Lasnik and Saito "On
the Subject of Infinitives"; Lasnik "Lectures
on Minalimalist Syntax" pp. 26-29.)
HW #1 Due Thursday, Feb. 12
Readings for 2/17: The 2/10 stuff on AgrO and Case, including Ch. 2, 146-150; "Legitimate LF elements" Ch. 2, 153-154;The organization of the grammar - T-model vs. ?? (Ch. 3)
Readings for 2/24: Any of Chomsky Ch. 3 that you haven't already read. We
will be looking a lot at the organization of the grammar: T-model vs. ? You
might also look at the Boskovic piece in Section 1.2 of B&L.
Here are handouts on Chomsky's discussion of Condition
C reconstruction and Condition
A reconstruction.
[And here's the Lasnik paper on the
notion of 'level' in Chomsky's theories.]
HW#2 Due Tuesday, March 3
Readings for 3/3: More on the organization of the grammar - The attempt to eliminate DS and SS. Continue with Ch. 3. The attempt to eliminate government - HO on government. Also at least browse through B&L chs. 1 and 2.
Readings for 3/10: Continue the 3/3 stuff, plus B&L Ch.7 'Existential Constructions' pp.369-394. (Here's the Hornstein and Weinberg paper discussing LF movement.)
HW#3 Due Thursday, March 12
Readings for 3/24: More on movement; minimality; (un?)importance of government. Finish reading Ch. 3. HO on Equidistance; HO on Government.
Review paper assignment Due Tuesday, April 7
Readings for 3/31: More on locality, minimality, and equidistance. HO on equidistance from last time; Chomsky Ch.3 pp. 177-186; passage from Ch.4 in B&L pp.154-167. 'Bare phrase structure' Ch.4, section 4.3 (reprinted in B&L pp. 223-230).
Readings for 4/7: More on bare phrase structure, minimality, Move vs. Attract, feature strength. Read the parts of Ch. 4 listed above plus as much more as you can. Here's a handout on Last resort. In class, we will also go over Chomsky's three distinct theories of strong features. I summarize and compare them in "On Feature Strength"; (Here's a HO abbreviating the paper.)
Squib+ proposal Due Tuesday, April 14
Readings for 4/14: Continue reading Ch. 4. We will be discussing feature strength, Last resort, cyclicity, Move vs. Attract, successive cyclicity, +/- interpretable features, +/- inherent features, Uniformity of chains, Relativized Minimality and equidistance. Here's a new HO with quotes from Ch.4 and minor commentary.
Readings for 4/21: More of Ch.4, including discussions of cyclicity, Move vs. Attract, Minimality. Take a look at Richards and Boskovic chapters in Working Minimalism for discussion of this complex of issues. [Here's the Boskovic and Lasnik paper on cyclicity and the virus theory; and one comparing feature movement with long distance agreement.] HO with more Ch.4 quotes and notes.
Readings for 5/5: More on Phases. Look at Chomsky's 'Derivation by Phase' and 'Approaching UG From Below' esp. pp.11 to the end. Linearization, Multiple Spell-Out, etc. Look at Uriagereka's paper in Working Minimalism. Here's the original Linear Correspondence Axiom proposal. And here's a HO on the LCA, especially the Multiple Spell Out development of it. Finally, here's a HO on 'island repair', which in part discusses spell out and its effects.
Readings for 5/12: More on LCA, linearization, island repair, etc. Here's a fascinating HO by Fox and Pesetsky developing another kind of PF approach to island-hood, successive cyclicity, and island repair.