Syntax 3

 

Introduction to the Minimalist Program

 

           

 

 

 

 

Course description

 

Introduction to the Minimalist Program

This course provides an introduction to the current stage of the theory of generative syntax, the so-called Minimalist Program. Reading material includes (parts of) chapters 3 and 4 of N. Chomsky, The Minimalist Program (MIT Press, Cambridge, 1995). The following subjects are discussed: the development from Government and Binding Theory to Minimalism; the operations Merge and Move; phrase structure theory; the notion of Minimal Domain; the relation between morphology and syntax; movement and feature checking; economy conditions; parametrization.

 

 

 Schedule

Week 1, 4/9: Introduction

Week 2, 11/9: Word Order

Reading: Zwart, 1997, The Germanic SOV Languages and the Universal Base Hypothesis, in: L. Haegeman, ed., The New Comparative Syntax, Longman, pp 246-267. 

Week 3, 18/9: Phrase Structure

Reading: Chomsky, 1995, The Minimalist Program, pp 241-249, MIT Press.

Week 4, 25/9: Mirror Symmetry and Parallel Structure

Reading: Koster, 2001, The Mirror Symmetry of Syntax (Links en Rechts van het Werkwoord). Mss. (in MS Word: Mirror Symmetry, Links en Rechts)

Week 5, 2/10: Overt vs. Covert Movement

Reading: Kayne, 1998, Overt vs. Covert Movement, pp 128-145 + 182-183, Syntax 1, 128-191.

Week 6, 9/10: Feature Checking 1, Head Movement

Reading: Pollock, 1989, Verb Movement, Universal Grammar, and the Structure of the IP.  Linguistics Inquiry 20, 365-424.
Chomsky, 1995, The Minimalist Program, pp 194-199, MIT Press.

Week 7, 16/10: geen college

Week 8, 23/10: Feature Checking 2, XP-Movement

Reading: Koster, 1999, The Word Orders of English and Dutch: Collective vs. Individual Checking, ms., University of Groningen. (for MS Word version click here).

Week 9, 30/10: Expletives in Germanic

Reading: Koster &  Zwart), 2001,  Transitive Expletive Constructions and the Object Shift Parameter. (for MS Word version click here).

Week 10, 6/11: Imperatives

Reading: Ziegler, 2001, Dutch Imperatives and Parallel Construal. MA Thesis, University of Groningen.

Week 11, 13/11: Extra

   

Assignments

 

Bibliography