Syllabus

Course Meeting Times

Lectures: 2 sessions / week, 1.5 hours / session

Course Overview

This course is a continuation of 24.951. The broad issues of interest this semester include movement, phrase structure, and the architecture of the grammar. By longstanding tradition, this semester focuses more on A-bar phenomena than the Fall course. Inevitably, some important topics are neglected so that others can be covered in more depth.

Prerequisite

24.951

Course Requirements

Readings

As always, we have associated readings with most of the topics covered in the class. Some of the readings will be designated as optional. All other readings are obligatory. Most of the readings are available in the readings section.

Assignments

Assignments will be due once a week on a day we will specify (after coordination with the other advanced classes). In addition, there will be a squib requirement, which you should think of as an extended assignment, not a major project. In the unmarked case, the squib consists of critical discussion of a group of related articles which is relevant to the topics covered in this class. It should contain a clear and self-contained presentation of the main claims and arguments, explain why and how they bear on issues discussed in class, and point out problems, possible amendments, or further extensions and applications. We are of course open to other ideas. The squib is due one week after the last class, no exceptions.

Calendar

SES # TOPICS KEY DATES
1-2 Covert movement and logical form  
3-4 Reconstruction and logical form Homework 1 and 2 due in Ses #3
5-7 Wh-movement: Islands, barriers and successive-cyclicity  
8-9 Superiority, probes and goals Homework 3 due in Ses #8
10-11 Remnant movement, derivations, probes and goals  
12-13 Weak islands and relativized minimality Homework 4 due in Ses #12
14-17 Phases, barriers, and spell-out Homework 5 due in Ses#16
18-19 Wh-movement: Pied-piping Homework 6 due in Ses#18
20-22 A vs. A-bar movement and scrambling  
23-24 Gapping  
25-26 Parasitic gaps Squib due one week after Ses #26