Here is the syllabus for my undergraduate syntax course. You can see how I tried to incorporate Merge into the course. Once again, I would be happy to discuss the syllabus with anybody.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/br7nlnwkgb9mq0z/Syllabus%20GA%20%28Spring%202017%29%20%28distribution%29.pdf?dl=0
Schedule:
Week 8: Mar. 13, 15 SPRING RECESS
Week 9: Mar. 20, 22
Week 13: Apr. 17, 19
Week 15: May 1,3
https://www.dropbox.com/s/br7nlnwkgb9mq0z/Syllabus%20GA%20%28Spring%202017%29%20%28distribution%29.pdf?dl=0
Grammatical Analysis
(LING-UA 13-001) Spring
2017
Instructor: Professor Chris Collins
Phone: 2-8763
Office: 10
Washington Place, Room 411
Office Hours: Wednesday 3:00pm (or by appointment)
Lecture: Monday/Wednesday 12:30-1:45pm
Place: 10
Washington Place, Room 104
Recitation: Thursday, 3:30 - 4:45
Place: 25W4 C-13
Prerequisite: LING-UA 1 (Language) or LING-UA 2 or LING-UA 28 (Language and Mind)
or
permission
of instructor
Description
Grammatical Analysis is
an introduction to generative syntax, which is the scientific study of the
syntax of human languages. We do not assume any prior knowledge of syntax in
the course, but do assume a general knowledge of linguistics (e.g., through the
course Language or Language and Mind).
The most recent version of generative grammar is called
Minimalist Syntax, which is a version of the Principles and Parameters theory.
We will informally use Minimalist Syntax as a pedagogical tool during the
course.
The first half of the course (up to the Mid-Term) will be
about the hierarchical structure of phrases and sentences, and the second half
will be about movement. More specifically, students will learn about syntactic
categories (and how to justify them), phrase structure (and how to justify it),
Merge (the operation forming phrase structure), the lexicon, Binding Theory,
head movement, the passive and wh-movement.
The emphasis throughout will be on drawing trees and linguistic
argumentation.
Readings
There
is no required textbook for the course. I will post the course notes before
each lecture. Occasionally, I will post supplementary readings. I have also
indicated suggested readings from the following textbook for people who need
extra help.
Sportiche, Dominique,
Hilda Koopman and Edward Stabler. 2014. An
Introduction to Syntactic Analysis and Theory. Wiley Blackwell.
This
book is available online through NYU. It is also available on Amazon.com.
Assignments
There will be an assignment every
two weeks for a total of 6 assignments.
Each assignment will be handed out on Wednesday and will be due the
following Wednesday at the beginning of class. Assignments should be submitted
in .pdf format (not Word) via NYU Classes.
You
may work together on the assignments, but all written work must be your own.
Assignments copied verbatim will be treated as plagiarism (see Academic
Integrity URL below). If you do collaborate with other members of the class, write
the names of your collaborators at the top of the assignment.
All
assignments must be typed on a word processor (please use a 12 point font). The
trees should be done with a word processor or a tree drawing program (see
below). Late assignments will not be accepted unless an extension was granted
48 hours ahead of time.
In
addition to the graded assignments, I will often give informal ungraded problem
solving assignments. We will discuss the answers to these in class and in
section.
Grading
Assignments 60%
Mid-Term 20%
Final
Exam 20%
Attending the lectures is
obligatory. You may miss class up to 2 times without an excuse. Valid excuses
include medical emergencies, religious observances, sporting events for
athletes, etc.
Attending the section is highly
encouraged, but not required. The purpose of the section is for students to go
over problems, and learn syntactic argumentation.
Academic Integrity
The
policies on this site will be strictly followed.
Drawing Trees
You will draw many trees this semester. The
easiest option is to use the line drawing tools on your word processor. On
Microsoft Word these can be found under Insert/Shapes. Other options are the
following. During first section meeting, the TA will go
through the various tree drawing options.
a.
Syntax Tree Drawing Fonts:
Arboreal (Mac) and ArborWin (PC).
(available for purchase at: http://www.cascadilla.com/arboreal.html)
Schedule:
The schedule may be revised. The
dates may change. Topics may be dropped and/or added depending on our progress
during the semester.
Week 1: Jan.
23, 25
Monday: Syntactic
Data
Wednesday: Universal
Grammar and I-Language
Suggested: SKS Chapter 1 “Introduction”
To Do: Figure out how to draw a tree using
one of the methods outlined in the syllabus. The TA will help you with this in
section.
Week 2: Jan.
30, Feb. 1
Monday: Syntactic Categories
Wednesday: Merge
Suggested: SKS
Chapter 2 “Morphology: Starting with Words”
(sections
2.1 and 2.2)
Hmwk 1: Assigned
Feb. 1, due Feb. 8
Week 3: Feb.
6, 8
Monday: Constituent Structure Tests
Wednesday: Constituent Structure Tests (cont.)
Suggested: SKS
Chapter 3 “Syntactic Analysis Introduced”
(sections 3.4-3.7 on constituent
structure tests)
Week 4: Feb.
13, 15
Monday: Functional
Projections: TP
Wednesday: Functional Projections: CP
Suggested: SKS Chapter 4 “Clauses”
Hmwk 2: Assigned Feb. 15, due Feb. 22
Week 5: Feb.
20, 22
Monday: President’s Day, No Classes
Wednesday: Functional
Projections: DP
Suggested: SKS Section 5.2 “Determiner Phrases”
Week 6: Feb.
27, Mar. 1
Monday: Theta-Roles,
Format of Lexical Entries
Wednesday: Complements
versus Adjuncts
Suggested: SKS
Section 6.8 “Lexical Entries”
SKS
Section 5.1 “Verb Phrases”
Hmwk 3: Assigned
Mar. 1, due Mar. 8
Week 7: Mar.
6, 8
Monday: Binding Theory
Wednesday: Binding Theory
Suggested: SKS Chapter 7 “Binding Theory”
(sections 7.1-7.4, our treatment
will be a simplification of SKS)
Week 8: Mar. 13, 15 SPRING RECESS
Week 9: Mar. 20, 22
Monday: Review
Wednesday: MID-TERM
Week 10: Mar.
27, 29
Monday: Head Movement:
English Auxiliary Verbs
Wednesday: Head Movement: V to T
Suggested: Lasnik, Howard. 1995. The Forms of Sentences. An Invitation to
Cognitive
Science: Language, Vol. 1. Cambridge: MIT Press, pp. 283-310.
SKS Section 8.3 “Head Movement”
Hmwk 4: Assigned
Mar. 29, due Apr. 5
Week 11: Apr.
3,5
Monday: Head Movement: T to C
Wednesday: Structure Dependence
Suggested: Gondry,
Michael. 2013. “Is the Man Who is Tall Happy?”. IFC Films.
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cv66xFD7s7g)
Week 12: Apr.
10, 12
Monday: Wh-Movement
and Islands
Wednesday: Wh-Movement and Islands
Suggested: SKS
Chapter 8 “Apparent Violations of Locality of Section”
(section
8.5.1 “Wh-Questions”)
SKS
Chapter 10 “Wh-Questions: Wh-Movement and Locality”
(sections
10.1 – 10.4)
Hmwk 5: Assigned Apr. 12, due Apr. 19
Week 13: Apr. 17, 19
Monday: DP-Movement:
Passive and Agree/Case
Wednesday: DP-Movement:
VP-Internal Subject
Week 14: Apr.
24, 26
Monday: DP-Movement:
Raising and Control
Wednesday: DP-Movement:
Raising and Control
Suggested: SKS Section 8.5.2 “Raising to Subject”
SKS Chapter 9 “Infinitival
Complements: Raising and Control”
Hmwk 6: Assigned Apr. 26, due May 3
Week 15: May 1,3
Monday: Catch-Up
Wednesday: Catch-Up
Week 16: May 8 (Last
Day of Classes)
Monday: Review
Final: Wednesday,
May 10
12:00 to 1:50
10WP, Room 103
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