Linguistics 514 - Course Outline - Spring 2000

Linguistics 514 Elly van Gelderen Spring 2013 – MW 4:30-5:45 pm

E-mail: [email protected] Home page: http://www.public.asu.edu/~gelderen/elly.htm Office Hours: MW 1-3 pm; and by appointment/e-mail. Office: 226C

Required Text: Andrew Radford 2009 An Introduction to English Sentence Structure. CUP.

Objectives: The main objective of this course is to come to understand the nature of syntactic structures. For instance, what are the elements which constitute a sentence and what variation is possible in a sentence. We will discuss issues such as categories and features, phrase structure, reflexives and pronouns, wh-questions, Tense, Mood, Aspect, and Topic/Focus. We will try to understand the relationship between universal and language specific principles A second objective is to introduce Chomsky's (1995) Minimalist Program. Recently, a biolinguistic approach has been reemphasized (Chomsky 2005; 2007) and we will not only discuss what syntax (features, Phrase structure, c-command) is but why it may be that way (demands of other systems). Within Minimalism, cartographic approaches are useful and we will examine the CP-layer, the TP-layer, and the VP-layer.

Evaluation: 3 Homework Assignments @ 30 points each: 90 points 2 In-class exams @ 30 points each 60 Final paper/project: 50______200 points

NB: See schedule below for dates! Students are responsible for the material covered in the book, assigned articles and, the class lectures. Points will be converted into a Grade as follows: 200 - 195: A+, 194 - 187: A, 186 - 180: A-, 179 - 175: B+, 174 - 167: B, 166 - 160: B-, 159 - 155: C+, 154 - 140: C, 139 - 120: D, 119 - 0: E. Students are encouraged to discuss homework assignments with each other, but answers should be their own.

Organization The classes will be a mixture of lectures, discussions, and syntactic exercises. We may add an optional time period for tree drawing. There are several kinds of preparations and assignments. Students are expected to (a) read the assigned chapters before class as well as attempt the relevant exercises, and to (b) hand in 3 Homework Assignments, sit 2 exams, and write a paper. Students will only be evaluated on the basis of (b). Electronic assignments/papers cannot be accepted. The final paper should be 8-10 pages. It should be written in accordance with some Style Sheet. An outline of the paper (of about 2 paragraphs) must be handed in week 8 (even though this must not be thought of as `written in stone'). Paper topics will be provided but the student is free to pick a topic of her/his own choice. Writing one paper for two classes must be discussed with the instructor/s. You are encouraged to hand in a draft before the due date. Tentative Schedule

Week: Date: Readings and assignments:

1 7-9 Jan Review of previous knowledge; Chap 1

2 14-16 Jan Chap 2; and some traditional grammar

3 21 Jan Martin Luther King Day: NO CLASS 23 Jan Chap 3; embeddings and tree drawing

4 28-30 Jan Chap 3 and 4; Homework #1 due (30 Jan)

5 4-6 Feb Chap 4; and e-tools for syntax

WCCFL Conference 8-10 February

6 11-13 Feb Review (11 Feb) and Exam 1 (13 Feb)

7 18-20 Feb Chap 5

8 25-27 Feb Chap 6; Homework #2 (25 Feb)

9 4-6 March Chap 7; hand in paper topic (6 March)

10 10-17 March BREAK

11 18-20 March POSSIBLY NO CLASS

12 25-27 March Chap 8

13 1-3 April Chap 8; Review; Homework #3 (3 April)

14 8-10 April Exam # 2 (8 April); Discussion of Exam 2;

15 15-17 April Special Topics; Papers due (15 April)

16 22-24 April Brief presentation of papers

17 29 April Review of the entire class Some URLS that may be helpful

Corpora - http://sara.natcorp.ox.ac.uk/lookup.html (BNC); - http://www.ucl.ac.uk/english-usage/ice/avail.htm (ICE) - http://childes.psy.cmu.edu (Childes) - http://www.hti.umich.edu/m/micase (MICASE) - http://pioneer.chula.ac.th/~awirote/ling/corpuslst.htm (other languages) videos - http://elearning.emich.edu/media/Producer/LING/SeelyEpstein.html (video on biolinguistics) - http://blip.tv/file/471951 (Chomsky 2007) - http://blip.tv/file/509192 (Jackendoff 2007) Book series; theses; papers - http://ling.auf.net/lingBuzz - http://www.ai.mit.edu/projects/dm/theses Glosses and typological URLs - http://www.eva.mpg.de/lingua/resources/glossing-rules.php (morpheme-by-morpheme glosses) - www.sil.org/ethnologue: has data on 6703 languages (paper version is good too: 16th ed.) - http://www.linguistic-typology.org/: the homepage of the Association for Linguistic Typology - on endangered languages: www.mpi.nl/LAN - And on tense and aspect at: www.utsc.utoronto.ca/~binnick/TENSE