Honours foundation: Syntax and Semantics – Syntax part
Lecturer: Peter Ackema
packema@ling.ed.ac.uk.ignorethisbit
http://www.ling.ed.ac.uk/~packema/
This course
will focus on a fundamental property of the syntax of natural languages, namely
that they show ‘displacement’ or ‘movement’ of constituents. We will discuss
the various types of movement that are distinguished, and the restrictions that
seem to hold of them.
Reading
The main
reading is: Liliane Haegeman (1994), Introduction
to Government and Binding Theory, **second edition**. Oxford: Blackwell.
The relevant sections from this book are indicated per lecture below. If you
feel your that your background in syntax is a bit shaky, it will be useful to
read at least chapters 1 and 2 of this book as preparatory reading before the
course. Background reading is suggested in the lecture notes for each class,
and is optional.
Syllabus
As you will
see below, there are eight lectures planned. We will probably need about ten
classes to cover these. In addition to these lectures, there will be tutorials
(in alternation with tutorials for the Semantics part of the course).
Lecture 1: A-movement I
- raising
- passive
- locality
of A-movement descriptively
reading:
Haegeman p.293-320
Lecture 2: A-movement II
-
unaccusativity
- the
VP-internal subject hypothesis
- Burzio’s
generalization
reading:
Haegeman p.320-360
Lecture 3: A’-movement I
-
wh-movement
- locality of
A’-movement descriptively
-
reconstruction
reading:
Haegeman p. 369-417
Lecture 4: A’-movement II
- covert
wh-movement
- Quantifier
Raising
- Heavy NP
shift
reading:
Haegeman p.418-423 and p.485-507
Lecture 5: Theories of locality I
-
successive cyclic movement and the cycle
-
subjacency
- the Empty
Category Principle
- islands
- the that-trace effect
- arguments
versus adjuncts
reading:
Haegeman p.507-539
Lecture 6: Theories of locality II
- barriers
- movement
via adjunction
- islands
and the that-trace effect revisited
reading:
Haegeman p.547-580
Lecture 7: Theories of locality III
-
Relativized Minimality / the Minimal Link Condition
-
superiority
- the ECP
revisited
- d-linking
reading: Haegeman
p.625-661
Lecture 8: Head movement
- Verb Second
- V-to-I
- the Head
Movement Constraint
- long head
movement
reading:
Haegeman p.583-620
Exercises
At the end of each lecture, a number of exercises is given. You can find short answers to these by following the links below. It is important, however, that you first try to work through the exercises by yourself, before looking up the answers, so that you get a good idea of whether you grasp a topic or not yet. These exercises will also be discussed during the tutorials.
Assessment for the entire Honours Foundation: Syntax and
Semantics course consists of
coursework
(30%) (deadline to be determined, but some time before the end of November) and
a 2-hour exam in the exam period in December (70%).