LINGUIST 601: Introduction to Transformational Grammar

Fall 2004
Herter 214, MF 11.15-12.30

Rajesh Bhatt
bhatt@linguist.umass.edu
124 South College, 545-6840
Office Hours: TTh 2.30-3.30 or by appointment


Syllabus

General Themes:
Universal Grammar, Parameters, Features, Constituency, Displacement, Locality, the model of the grammar
Global Questions:
How are linguistic structures built? Where do linguistic principles apply?
Specific Topics:
X-bar theory, Case, Binding, A-movement, A'-movement, and Head Movement

Useful Texts

Requirements

Lectures

• [1-3]: Implicit Knowledge and test for constituency, Sep. 10, 13, 17
  Reading: Ch. 1 of Aspects by Noam Chomsky (1965).
  Auxiliary Reading: Pgs. 62-69 of Core Syntax by David Adger (2003).
• [4-5]: Building Phrase Structure, X-Bar Theory and the structure of the noun phrase, Sep 20, 24
  Reading: Chs. 1 and 2 from Origins of Phrase Structure by Tim Stowell (1981).
• [6]: Complement Selection and the structure of IP and VP Part 1, Sep. 27
  Reading 1: Complement Selection and the Lexicon by Jane Grimshaw, Linguistic Inquiry 10:2:279-326 (1979).
  Reading 2: A Theory of Floating Quantifiers and Its Corollaries for Constituent Structure by Dominique Sportiche, Linguistic Inquiry:19:425-449 (1988).
• [7-9]: Selection in the IP, do-support, the elementary operations Merge and Agree, Oct. 1, 4, 8
  Reading 1: Subjects Across Categories by Tim Stowell, Linguistic Review, 2:3:285-312 (1983).
  Reading 2: Head Movement by Ian Roberts, in The Handbook of Contemporary Syntactic Theory edited by Mark Baltin and Chris Collins, pgs. 113-147, Blackwell, (2001).
• [10-12]: Case, EPP, and A-Movement, Oct. 13, 15, 18
• [13-14]: Ergatives, Middles, Other Unaccusatives, and Unergatives, Oct. 25, 29
  Reading 1: On the Middle and Ergative Constructions in English by Samuel Jay Keyser and Thomas Roeper, Linguistic Inquiry, 15:3:381-416, (1984).
  Reading 2: Ch. 1 of Unaccusativity by Beth Levin and Malka Rappaport Hovav, MIT Press, (1995).
  Reading 3: Part I (pgs. 1-16) of the Introduction of The Unaccusativity Puzzle edited by Artemis Alexiadou, Elena Anagnostopoulou, and Martin Everaert, OUP (2004).
  Reading 4: Pgs. 137-151 of Unaccusative Syntax and Verbal Alternations by David Embick in The Unaccusativity Puzzle edited by Artemis Alexiadou, Elena Anagnostopoulou, and Martin Everaert, OUP (2004).
• [15-16]: Passives, Nov. 1, 5
  Reading 1: Pgs. 355-368 of On the Structure of Resultative Participles in English by David Embick, Linguistic Inquiry, 35:3:355-392, (2004).
• [17]: The facts of Control, Nov. 8
  Reading 1: Movement out of Control by Idan Landau, Linguistic Inquiry, 34:3:471-498, (2003).
• [18-19]: Control, ECM and Raising, Nov. 12, 15
• [20]: Basics of Binding Theory, Nov. 19
• [21-24]: Wh-Movement, Nov. 29, Dec. 3, 6, 8
  Reading 1: On wh-Movement by Noam Chomsky, in Formal Syntax, edited by Peter Culicover, Thomas Wasow and Adrian Akmajian, pages 71-132, Academic Press, New York (1977).
  Reading 2: Comments on the paper by Chomsky by Emmon Bach, in Formal Syntax, edited by Peter Culicover, Thomas Wasow and Adrian Akmajian, pages 133-156, Academic Press, New York (1977).
• [25-26]: Crossover Phenomena and Variable Binding, Dec. 10, 13

Assignments

• [1]: Exercise on basic constituency, assigned Sep. 13, due Sep. 20, and associated discussion
• [2]: Exercise on the complement-adjunct distinction, assigned Sep. 24, due Oct. 1, and associated discussion
• [3]: Exercise on concealed questions and null complement anaphora, assigned Oct. 1, due Oct. 8, extended to early morning Oct. 10
• [4]: Exercise on do-support and double modals, assigned Oct. 8, due Oct. 18
• [5]: Exercise on Case and Attachment Height, assigned Oct. 18, due Oct. 25
• [6]: Exercise on Passives and Unaccusatives, assigned Oct. 25, due Nov. 1
• [7]: Exercise on Passives, assigned Nov. 1, due Nov. 8
• [8]: Exercise on Control, assigned Nov. 12, due Nov. 22
• [9]: Midterm on Raising, Control, Passives, and Unaccusatives, assigned Nov. 15, due Nov. 22
• [10]: Exercise on Binding, assigned Nov. 29, due Dec. 6
• [11]: Exercise on Wh-Movement, assigned Dec. 6, due Dec. 13
• [12]: Exercise on Comparatives and Reconstruction, assigned Dec. 10, due Dec. 17