Generative Syntax
Module Description
Module Description:
This course focuses on matters that are truly linguistic. After separating linguistic problems from ones that should be studied in other fields, the course introduces students to genuinely scientific study of human language. More specifically, by (critically) reading Radford 2009, the course provides a concise and clear introduction to current work in syntactic theory, drawing on the key concepts of Chomsky’s Minimalist Program. By looking at data mainly from English, it will also introduce students to quite a few linguistic mysteries.
Learning outcomes:
Analytical skills gained in this course will be a solid foundation for conducting scientific research in the following linguistics-related fields: child language, language acquisition, computational linguistics, machine translation, sign language, pidgin and creole, comparative linguistics, historical linguistics, language and thought, speech therapy, textbook writing, etc.
Syllabus
Syllabus
The topics covered in this course and in-class exams are scheduled as follows.
The first two weeks
- Overview: Grammar
- Traditional Grammar, Universal Grammar, The Language Faculty
- Principles of Universal Grammar, Parameters, Parameter Setting
- Overview: Structure
- Phrases, Clauses, Specifiers
- Intermediate and Maximal Projections, Testing Structure, Syntactic Relations, Bare Phrase Structure
- Examination/Test 1
The second two weeks
- Overview: Null Constituents
- Null Subjects, Null Auxiliaries, Null T in Indicative Clauses, Null T in Subjunctive Clauses, Null T in Infinitive Clauses
- Null C in Finite Clauses, Null C in Infinitive Clauses, Null Complementizers and Case Marking, Defective Clauses, Null Determiners and Quantifiers
- Overview: Head Movement
- T-to-C Movement, Movement as Copying and Deletion, V-to-T Movement, Head Movement
- Auxiliary Raising, Another Look at Negation, Do-Support, Head Movement in Nominals
- Examination/Test 2
The third two weeks
- Overview: Wh-Movement
- Wh-Questions, Wh-Movement as Copying and Deletion, Driving Wh-Movement and Auxiliary Inversion, Pied-Piping of Material in the Domain of a Wh-Word
- Pied-Piping of a superordinate preposition, Long-Distance Wh-Movement, Multiple Wh-Questions, Wh-Subject Questions, Exclamative and Relative Clauses
- Overview: A-Movement
- Subjects in Belfast English, Idioms, Argument Structure and Theta-Roles, Unaccusative Predicates
- Passive Predicates, Long-Distance Passivization, Raising, Comparing Raising and Control Predicates
- Examination/Test 3
Readings
Textbook (Available via NUS Library):
An introduction to English sentence structure. Cambridge University Press.
Papers:
- On the DP Hypothesis and Wh-Movement
- Yet Another Look at Negation
Assessment
Assessment
- 3 Tests — 75%
- Homework — 25%