36825
Multifunctionality in Syntax: Wh-type Constructions - רב־פונקציונליות בתחביר: קונסטרוקציות דמויות־שאלה

Office 7812
Office Hours: Wednesdays 14:45-15:30

Semester A 2011-2: Sunday/Wednesday 12:30-14:00 Room 2504
MA Course, Linguistics Department, Generative Program

In wh-type constructions, a single element bears multiple grammatical functions. This multifunctionality is usually modeled formally as movement from the canonical position of one function to the canonical position of the other function. In this course we will explore the properties of these constructions through a direct representation of multifunctionality, without movement. We will explore islands, pied-piping, the existence of empty categories, in-situ questions, externally- and internally-headed relative clauses, accessibility, parasitic gaps, and more.

Course Outline

Wh Constructions and Multifunctionality
Formalism
1. Realization
2. Functional Uncertainty
3. Wh-Path
4. Direction of Licensing
Constituent Structure Issues; Empty Categories
Grammatical Functions
1. Subjects
2. Accessibility
Islands
"In-Situ" Constructions and "Partial Movement"
Relative Clauses
Parasitic Gaps

Course requirements

Final project; see link to reading below
for students taking the course as a seminar: Seminar Paper

Handouts available for downloading in PDF (Adobe Acrobat) format

Note: If these don't print correctly on your printer but display properly in Acrobat, try using the "Print as image" option in Acrobat.

Syllabus [30 October]
Wh-type Constructions [30 October]
Anatomy of Wh-type Constructions [30 October]
A Formal Account [6 November]
Wanna Contraction [16 November]
"In-Situ" [28 December]
Scope Marking [1 January]
Internally Headed Relative Clauses [8 January]

Announcements

The next LFG conference will be held at Udayana University, Bali, Indonesia, 28-30 June 2012.

Readings

Assigned 9 November for 16 November:

Zaenen, Annie (1983) "On Syntactic Binding." Linguistic Inquiry 14: 469-504.
Falk, Yehuda (2009) "Islands: A Mixed Analysis" in Proceedings of LFG 09. Read section 4.2 pp. 275-278 "The Feature [WHPATH]"

Assigned 16 November for 23 November:

Jaeggli, Osvaldo (1980) "Remarks on to Contraction." Linguistic Inquiry 11: 239-45.
Postal, Paul M. and Geoffrey K. Pullum (1982) "The Contraction Debate." Linguistic Inquiry 13: 122-38.

Assigned 20 November for 27 November: Bouchard, Denis (1984) On the Content of Empty Categories. Dordrecht: Foris. Read pp. 47-51

Assigned 23 November for 30 November: Pullum, Geoffrey K. (1997) "The Morpholexical Nature of English to Contraction." Language 73: 79-102.

Assigned 27 November for 4 December: Falk, Yehuda N. (2007) "Do We Wanna (or Hafta) Have Empty Categories?" in Miriam Butt and Tracy Holloway King, eds., Proceedings of LFG07. On-line.: CSLI Publication. 184-97.

Assigned 30 November for 7 December:

Keenan, Edward L. and Bernard Comrie (1977) "Noun Phrase Accessibility and Universal Grammar." Linguistic Inquiry 8: 63-99.
Falk, Yehuda N. (in preparation) "Accessibility to Relativization: A Reassessment"

Assigned 7 December for 11 December:

Kaplan, Ronald M. and Annie Zaenen (1989) "Long-Distance Dependencies,Constituent Structure, and Functional Uncertainty." in Mark R. Baltin and Anthony S. Kroch, eds., Alternative Conceptions of Phrase Structure. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 17-42. sections 1 and 2.
Dalrymple, Mary (2001) Lexical-Functional Grammar. New York: Academic Press. p. 392 ("not all within-clause functions")-398

Assigned 11 December for 14 December: Erteschik-Shir, Nomi and Shalom Lappin (1979) "Dominance and the Functional Explanation of Island Phenomena." Theoretical Linguistics 6: 41-86. Read till p. 76

Assigned 14 December for 18 December: Falk, Yehuda (2009) "Islands: A Mixed Analysis." in Miriam Butt and Tracy Holloway King, eds., Proceedings of LFG09. On-line.: CSLI Publication. 261-81.

Assigned 21 December for 28 December:

Mycock, Louise (2005) "'Wh'-in-Situ in Constituent Questions." in Miriam Butt and Tracy Holloway King, ed., Proceedings of the LFG 05 Conference, University of Bergen. Online: CSLI Publications. 313-333.
Mycock, Louise (2004) "The Wh-Expletive Construction." in Miriam Butt and Tracy Holloway King, eds., Proceedings of the LFG 04 Conference, University of Canterbury. On-line.: CSLI Publications. 370-90.

Assigned 28 December for 4 January:

Falk, Yehuda N. (2001) Lexical-Functional Grammar: An Introduction to Parallel Constraint-Based Syntax. Stanford, Calif.: CSLI Publications. Read pp. 165-169.
Schachter, Paul (1973) "Focus and Relativization." Language 49: 19-46. Read pp. 31-35.

Assigned 4 January for 11 January: Falk, Yehuda N. (2010) "An Unmediated Analysis of Relative Clauses." in Miriam Butt and Tracy Holloway King, eds., Proceedings of LFG10. On-line: CSLI Publications. 207-27.

Assigned 15 January for 22 January: Falk, Yehuda N. (2011) "Multiple-Gap Constructions". in Miriam Butt and Tracy Holloway King, eds., Proceedings of LFG11. On-line: CSLI Publications. 195-214.

Reading for final paper: Falk, Yehuda N. (in preparation) "Superiority Effects"

36825Multifunctionality in Syntax: Wh-type Constructions - רב־פונקציונליות בתחביר: קונסטרוקציות דמויות־שאלה