Objectives: The purpose of this course is to introduce you to the philosophy and techniques of syntactic analysis as developed by Noam Chomsky and his followers. No knowledge of linguistics is presupposed, nor does one have to be adept at the kind of grammatical analysis taught in English classes. You do not even have to "speak right". Everybody has a grammar in his or her head which is worthy of study.
Outcomes: For you to demonstrate your understanding of syntactic analysis, you will perform the following tasks:
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Code of Academic Integrity
“The integrity of Newcomb-Tulane College is based on the absolute honesty of the entire community in all academic endeavors. As part of the Tulane University community, students have certain responsibilities regarding work that forms the basis for the evaluation of their academic achievement. Students are expected to be familiar with these responsibilities at all times. No member of the university community should tolerate any form of academic dishonesty, because the scholarly community of the university depends on the willingness of both instructors and students to uphold the Code of Academic Conduct. When a violation of the Code of Academic Conduct is observed it is the duty of every member of the academic community who has evidence of the violation to take action. Students should take steps to uphold the code by reporting any suspected offense to the instructor or the associate dean of the college. Students should under no circumstances tolerate any form of academic dishonesty.” For further information, point your browser at http://college.tulane.edu/honorcode.htm. Violations of the Code of Academic Integrity will not be tolerated in this class. I will rigorously investigate and pursue any such transgression.
Students with disabilities who need academic accommodation should:
Schedule of readings and assignments, Fall 2012Textbook: Andrew
Radford (2009) English Sentence Structure. |
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Date |
Day |
Topic |
Readings, exercises, etc |
Q |
ppt |
mp3 |
Aug. 27 |
1 |
Introduction to the course; taxonomic grammar |
§1.1 - 1.2 | -- |
||
29 |
2 |
university closed due to Hurricane Isaac | (no class) | |||
31 |
3 |
university closed due to Hurricane Isaac | (no class) | |||
Sept. 3 |
-- |
Labor Day | (no class) | |||
5 |
4 |
UG, FL |
§1.3 - 1.5 | |||
7 |
5 |
Parameters, summary |
§1.6 - 1.8 + Ex 1.1 - 1.2 | |||
10 |
6 |
Phrases & clauses | §2.1 - 2.4 | Q1 |
||
12 |
7 |
Testing structure | §2.5, Ex 2.1 |
|
||
14 |
8 |
C-command | §2.6 - 2.7 | |||
17 |
9 |
Bare phrase structure; Null subjects | Ex 2.2; §2.8; 3.1 - 3.2 | Q2 |
-- |
|
19 |
10 |
Null auxiliaries, null tense | §3.2 - 3.4 | |||
21 |
11 |
Null complementizers, Defective clauses | §3.5 - 3.8 | -- |
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24 |
12 |
; Null determiners & null quantifiers | §3.9 | Q3 |
||
26 |
-- |
Yom Kippur | (no class) | |||
28 |
13 |
Exercise §3.1 | Ex 3.1 | -- |
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Oct. 1 |
14 |
Exercise §3.2 | Ex 3.2 | Q4 |
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3 |
15 |
T-to-C & V-to-T movement | §4.1-4 | |||
5 |
16 |
Head movement, Aux-to-T movement | §4.5-6 | |||
8 |
17 |
Negation, do-support, summary | §4.7-9, Ex 4.1 | Q5 |
-- |
|
10 |
18 |
Ex 4.2 on board; | Ex 4.2 | |||
12 |
-- |
Fall Break | (no class) | |||
15 |
19 |
Ex 4.2 on board; WH-questions & WH movement as copy deletion | Ex 4.2; §5.1-3 | |||
17 |
20 |
What triggers movement & Pied-piping | §5.4-5 | |||
19 |
21 |
Pied-piping of superordinate prepositions & Long-distance wh-movement | §5.6-7 | |||
22 |
22 |
Multiple wh-questions | §5.8 - end | Q6 |
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24 |
23 |
Exercise 5.1 | ||||
26 |
24 |
Exercise 5.2 Relative clauses | ||||
29 |
25 |
A-movement. Belfast English, idioms; Argument structure & theta roles | §6.1-4 | Q7 |
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31 |
26 |
Unaccusatives; Passivization | §6.5-7 | -- |
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Nov. 2 |
27 |
Raising, raising vs. control | §6.8-9 | |||
5 |
28 |
Summary, Ex 6.1-2 | §6.10, Ex 6.1-2 | Q8 |
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7 |
29 |
Agreement & feature valuation; Expletives, Uninterpretable features | §7.1-4 | |||
9 |
30 |
Expetive it, expletive there | §7.5-6 | |||
12 |
31 |
More on expletives, Agreement & A movement | §7.6-7 | Q9 |
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14 |
32 |
EPP and control and raising clauses; EPP and person agreement, Defective clauses with expletive subjects | §7.7-10 |
|||
16 |
33 |
Ex. 7.1 | -- |
|||
19 |
34 |
Split projections 1: CP | §8.1-2 | Q10 |
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21 |
-- |
Thanksgiving holiday | (no class) |
|
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23 |
-- |
Thanksgiving holiday | (no class) | |||
26 |
35 |
Split projections 2: CP | §8.2 | |||
28 |
36 |
Split projections 3: TP, VP | §8.3-5 | |||
30 |
37 |
Split projections 4: VP | §8.6-7 | |||
Dec. 3 |
38 |
Split projections 5: summary & exercises | Ex 8.1 | |||
5 |
39 |
*Q11* |
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7 |
40 |
Party, course evaluations |
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17 |
presentation of final project, 8am-12 |