Qüestions actuals de lingüística formal

Current Issues in Linguistic Theory
(MA UPF 31387 / CCiL 566166)
Departament de Traducció i Ciències del Llenguatge
Universitat Pompeu Fabra
Boban Arsenijević & Josep Quer
UPF, ICREA-UPF
Contact: [email protected] / [email protected]

 

CLASSES
Dates: 2nd quarter 2011-12 (January-March)
Language: English

Brief description
This course focuses on the connection between language description, typological variation, and linguistic theory by approaching a series of concrete language phenomena from the traditional grammar modules and their interfaces. One of the most important goals of linguistic theory is to explain the range of variation attested across languages, which is not
unlimited or random. In order to reach this goal it is necessary to come up with accurate descriptions of individual languages that will allow us to compare them with the differring properties of other languages. Linguistic typology, the study of language universals or parametric approaches from a Universal Grammar perspective address this central issue with different analytical tools and theoretical assumptions, which we will try to grasp through the review of several case studies with a strong crosslinguistic component.

Outline

The course will be organized around the following topics:

1. Introduction
2. Interrogatives: crosslinguistic approaches to their syntax
3. Event semantics and the syntax of the VP
4. Comparative syntax and information structure: topic and focus
5. The role of non-manual features in sign language grammars
6. Syntax of argument structure
7. Creole grammars. Language genesis and variation.
8. Strategies of relativization
9. Mechanisms of nominalization and the semantic ontology
10. Negative structures: syntactic and semantic variation

Methodology

Each unit will focus on a given subject. The "grup gran" classs will be devoted to a general presentation of the empirical and theoretical aspects of the topic under study, and the "seminari" class will consist of student presentations on a specific piece of work related to the topic of the week and a group discussion on the bibliography papers (specific readings will be recommended).

Evaluation

The final grade will be based on the following. First, 30% of the grade will be based on continuous assessment of class participation and assignments, plus a class presentation of an article related to the issues under discussion. The remaining 70% of the grade will be based on a final exam that students will take home at the end of the quarter, for a period of 7-10 days. Alternatively, this 70% of the grade can be achieved by working on a squib-like research essay that must be submitted by the end of the quarter. The work must be necessarily related to the topics discussed during the course and will be carried out under the continuous supervision of one of the two teachers.

Basic Bibliography

Cinque, Guglielmo & Richard S. Kayne. 2005. The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Syntax. Oxford: Oxford University
Press.
Freidin, Robert (ed.). 1991. Principles and parameters in comparative grammar. Cambridge, Mass.: The MIT Press.
Gussenhoven, C. 2004. The Phonology of Tone and Intonation. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, ch. 4 and 5.
Haegeman, Liliane (ed.). 1997. The new comparative syntax. Londres: Longman.
Haspelmath, Martin / König, Ekkehard / Oesterreicher, Wulf / Raible, Wolfgang (eds.). 2001. Language Typology and
Language Universals. An International Handbook. 2 vols. Berlin / New York: Walter de Gruyter.
Mairal, Ricardo & Juana Gil (eds.). 2006. Linguistic universals. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Snyder, William (2007). Child Language. The Parametric Approach. Oxford: Oxford University Press.