Seminar Paper

For the final section of this course, students will come into contact with ongoing LFG research. This is accomplished minimally by taking the final exam, which will be a take-home project in which students will read papers from recent LFG conferences and comment on them. A better way to do this is to write a seminar paper; this is described on this page. The seminar paper option is strongly encouraged: Writing a paper on a specific topic is the best way to get to know a theoretical framework.

A seminar paper is a research paper. The paper must show that a student has understood the material and has some personal original insight into the linguistic phenomena under consideration. A paper that simply repeats facts from the literature without critical evaluation is NOT acceptable!

The seminar paper is due at the end of December, but it is recommended that you complete it as soon as possible. In my experience, both as a teacher and (earlier) as a student, postponing the writing of a paper until significantly after the course detracts from the quality of the final product. The best papers are written while the course material is still fresh in your mind.

The first step in writing a seminar paper is picking a topic. Since LFG is a theory of syntax, the analysis of any syntactic construction is a potential topic for the paper. You may deal with English syntax, the syntax of some other language, or a comparison of English and another language. You may examine the issue from a strictly LFG perspective, or you may compare an LFG analysis with an analysis in some other theoretical framework (such as GB). You need not deal with an issue we have touched on in class, although you must (of course) take into account anything we have said in class that is relevant. Whatever your topic, your paper must be based on some question about which there is disagreement. Possible ideas from which topics may be constructed:

• Issues in X-bar theory (functional categories, endocentricity, etc.)
• Exocentric (unheaded) constituent structure
• Nonconfigurationality
• Grammatical functions (e.g. subjecthood)
• Argument selection (e.g. grammatical-function-based vs. category-based)
• Argument mapping (LMT)
• Auxiliaries
• Passivization
• Unaccusativity
• Ditransitive constructions (the dative alternation; the nature of the object functions; etc.)
• Complex predicates (e.g. causatives)
• Control/raising constructions; clausal complementation; extraposition
• Long-distance dependency ("wh movement") constructions
• Relative clauses
• Binding theory
• Existentials and related constructions
• Lexicalism vs. derivationalism
• Interaction between syntax and some other component of language (e.g. pragmatics)
• Analysis of some syntactic phenomenon in Hebrew or some other language

Your topic should be something you are interested in studying in depth. Your teacher will help you define the topic, but the essential choice must come from you.

In finding a topic, and certainly in researching it, you will need to use the professional literature. Good initial sources for LFG analysis are standard LFG references and anthologies:

Your teacher can help you find additional material, especially material that focuses on the specific issues you wish to explore in the paper. Depending on your topic, material based on other theoretical frameworks will probably also be useful (such as your GB textbook).

Material and ideas from the literature should be properly referenced. In the body of the paper, a reference consists of the last name of the author and the year (as in the textbook). DO NOT USE FOOTNOTES FOR REFERENCES! A paper in which referencing is not done correctly may be returned, without a grade or comments, for rewriting.

At the end of the paper there must be a section labeled “References” in which all works consulted in writing the paper are listed in alphabetical order with complete bibliographical information. (For the format, see the above list of references.)

Remember: any idea from any source must be referenced where it is mentioned, even if the original words are not quoted. To do otherwise is plagiarism.

Second Year Students

Since this is the first research paper you are writing, it will be written with the assistance of the teacher. You should meet with the teacher at least at two crucial stages in the writing of the paper. The first meeting, which should be around the middle of the semester (mid May), is when you pick a topic. You need not come to this meeting with a completely-defined topic, but you should have some idea what you want to research and write about. The second meeting, which you are expected to arrange at the appropriate time, is when you have an outline of your paper and are prepared to write the final version. You may, of course, meet with the teacher at any other point that you wish.

More Advanced (mostly Third Year) Students

This year you are expected to show a more advanced ability to do research, and thus to work more independently. (You still may meet with the teacher as you feel necessary, of course, and it is a good idea to consult with him early in the process of writing the paper to make sure that the topic you have picked is acceptable, and for general guidance.) In addition, a seminar paper written by a more advanced student is held to higher standards of sophistication than a second-year seminar paper.