Course: Syntax

Instructor: Jiun-Shiung Wu, Ph.D.

Purpose:

This course is to introduce two important syntactic theories to graduate students. Two of the most important approaches to syntax in contemporary linguistics are the generative-transformational approach and the lexicalist approach. This course familiarizes students with the important concepts in the Minimalist Program and the Lexical-Functional Grammar. In addition, this course also prepares students for taking seminar courses where they will read papers done in one of these two main syntactic theories.

Textbooks:

Radford, Andrew. 1997. Syntax: A Minimalist Introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge

University.

Bresnan, Joan. 2000. Lexical-Functional Syntax. Oxford: Blackwell.

Requirements:

1. Term Paper: 60%

2. Presentation (in class and term paper): 25%

3. Participation and attendance: 15%

Tentative Syllabus                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       .

The first half of the semester will be spent on Radford's book. The second half of the semester will be spent on Bresnan's book. The class will mainly be the instructor's lectures on the textbooks. Questions and linguistic data will be provided in class, whenever necessary, for students to answer and to examine. Students will be asked to present their answers and/or generalizations to the class. Students will be asked to write a 20-page term paper, using one of the theories discussed in class, on any syntactic phenomenon students observe. At the end of the semester, students will be asked to present their papers to the class and the whole class will be asked to comment on the presentations they hear in class.