LING 602
Advanced Syntax
Fall 2026
Topics
- Movement
- Head movement Constituency of serial
- Movement and islands Serial verbs as arguments or adjuncts
- Diagnostics: -adverbial modification -argument sharing -extraction
- Infinitival complements SVCs and related constructions
- Diagnostics: -iterability -selectional restrictions -size
Readings
- Discussion reading: Davis, H. (1997). Deep unaccusativity. In Theoretical Issues in Syntax
- Functional morphology Further reading: Hale, K. & S. Keyser. (1993). On argument structure and the lexical expression of syntactic relations. In K. Hale & S. Keyser (eds.), The view from building 20 (pp. 53-109). MIT Press
- Discussion reading: McCloskey, J. (1997). Subjecthood and subject positions. In L. Haegeman Argument structure II (ed.), Elements of Grammar:
- Subject-object Handbook of Generative Syntax (pp. 3 9/15/26 asymmetries 197–235). Springer
- Syntax of subjects Reference reading: Santorini & Kroch. (2007). Chapter 4: Introducing the X’ schema of phrase structure
- Santorini & Kroch (2007), Ch. 8 & 11
- Santorini & Kroch. (2007). Chapter 2: Syntactic constituenthood
- Argument structure of Stewart, O. (1998). The serial verb serial verbs construction parameter. Ch. 2: 8 10/20/26 Resultative vs. consequential SVCs, Diagnostics: -adverbial modification and CCs. PhD dissertation, McGill. -argument sharing (Especially 2.1-2.5)
- Santorini & Kroch (2007), Ch. 12
- Further reading: Phillips C. (2013). On the nature of 9 10/27/26 Movement and islands island constraints I: Language processing and reductionist accounts. In: Sprouse J, Hornstein N, eds. Experimental Syntax and Island Effects. Cambridge University Press:64-108
- Uriagereka, J. (1999). Multiple Spell- Out. In S. D. Epstein & N. Hornstein, Working Minimalism (pp. 251–282). MIT Press
- Santorini & Kroch (2007). Ch. 9
- Further reading: Wurmbrand, S. (2014). Tense and aspect in English infinitives. Linguistic Inquiry 45(3): 12 11/17/26 Infinitival complements 403-447
- Wurmbrand, Susi. 2002. ‘Semantic vs. Syntactic Control’, in Jan Wouter Zwart and Werner Abraham, eds. Studies in Comparative Germanic Syntax: Proceedings of the 15th Workshop on Comparative Germanic Syntax, John
- Benjamins, Amsterdam, pp. 93–127
- Cleary-Kemp, J. (2015). Serial Verb Constructions Revisited: A Case Study from Koro. PhD dissertation, Berkeley. Ch. 6: Syntax of serial verb SVCs and related constructions in Koro. constructions Further reading: Johnson, W. 2024. 13 11/24/26 Diagnostics: Event structure and serial verbs in -iterability Hmong Ch 3: Causation and -selectional restrictions Serialization, up to (and including) -size Section 3.3.1
- Ramchand, G. Verb meaning and the lexicon: A first phase syntax. Cambridge UP. Chs. 1–2
Fall 2023 · Syntactic Theory
Topics
- Overview, goals of syntactic analysis, motivation for different approaches
- Building blocks: categories, phrases, and constituency – or constructions?
- Architecture of the systems; doing syntactic Goldberg (2003) or analysis
- Argument structure
- Movement (subject- auxiliary inversion)
- Wh-movement and islands Sportiche & Koopman
- Ditransitives
- Binding
- Acquisition of syntax
- Comparing approaches
- Final squib due
Readings
- Adger, D. 2013. Constructions and Grammatical Explanation: Comments on Goldberg. Mind and Language 28(4):466–478
- Borsley, R. & F. Newmeyer. 2009. On Subject-Auxiliary Inversion and the notion “purely formal generalization”. Cognitive linguistics 20(1)
- Goldberg, A. 2003. Constructions: a new theoretical approach to language. Trends in Cognitive Science 7(5):219–224
- ISBN 9780199268511
- Hauser, M., N. Chomsky, & W. Fitch. The faculty of language: What is it, who has it, and how did it evolve? Science 298(5598), 1569-79
Sources
- Course catalogue ↗2026–2027
- LING 509 LING 602 - Combined Section · Reading-list link; contents not retrieved ↗
- 2023-Fall-LING-509-LECTURE-A1 ↗2023
- 2023-Fall-LING-602-SEMINAR-A1 ↗2023
- 2022-Fall-LING-602-SEMINAR-A1 ↗2022
- 2026-Fall-LING-602-SEMINAR-A01 ↗2026
- Additional readings are supplied through the course LMS. Partial automated extraction.
- Additional readings are supplied through the course LMS. Partial automated extraction.