ANTH 3590/7590, Introduction to Syntax, Fall 2012

ANTH 3590: MWF 12:00-12:50, Dinwiddie 201
ANTH 7590: the above, plus F 1:00-1:50, Dinwiddie 206

Prof. Harry Howard
howard at tulane dot edu
862-3417 (voice mail 24 hours a day)
Newcomb Hall 322-D
Office hours: MW 1-2, T 4-5 and by appointment

Objectives: The purpose of this course is to introduce you to the philosophy and techniques of syntactic analysis as developed by Noam Chomsky and his followers. No knowledge of linguistics is presupposed, nor does one have to be adept at the kind of grammatical analysis taught in English classes. You do not even have to "speak right". Everybody has a grammar in his or her head which is worthy of study.

Outcomes: For you to demonstrate your understanding of syntactic analysis, you will perform the following tasks:

  • take a quiz almost every Monday, during the first 10 minutes of class, covering the material since the previous Monday. No make-up quizzes will be given, but you may drop one. The quizzes numbered between asterisks are not on a Monday. [(11-1) * 7.5% = 75%]
  • present a final project on the final exam day. [25%]
  • participate in an electrophysiological (EEG) experiment. [max 3%]
  • note that there is no credit for class participation.

Code of Academic Integrity

“The integrity of Newcomb-Tulane College is based on the absolute honesty of the entire community in all academic endeavors. As part of the Tulane University community, students have certain responsibilities regarding work that forms the basis for the evaluation of their academic achievement. Students are expected to be familiar with these responsibilities at all times. No member of the university community should tolerate any form of academic dishonesty, because the scholarly community of the university depends on the willingness of both instructors and students to uphold the Code of Academic Conduct. When a violation of the Code of Academic Conduct is observed it is the duty of every member of the academic community who has evidence of the violation to take action. Students should take steps to uphold the code by reporting any suspected offense to the instructor or the associate dean of the college. Students should under no circumstances tolerate any form of academic dishonesty.” For further information, point your browser at http://college.tulane.edu/honorcode.htm. Violations of the Code of Academic Integrity will not be tolerated in this class. I will rigorously investigate and pursue any such transgression.

Students with disabilities who need academic accommodation should:

Schedule of readings and assignments, Fall 2012

Textbook: Andrew Radford (2009) English Sentence Structure.
http://www.tulane.edu/~howard/ANTH3590/

Date

Day

Topic

Readings, exercises, etc

Q

ppt

mp3

Aug. 27

1

Introduction to the course; taxonomic grammar

§1.1 - 1.2  
slides
--

29

2
university closed due to Hurricane Isaac (no class)      

31

3
university closed due to Hurricane Isaac (no class)      

Sept. 3

--
Labor Day (no class)      

5

4

UG, FL

§1.3 - 1.5  
slides
recording

7

5

Parameters, summary

§1.6 - 1.8 + Ex 1.1 - 1.2  
slides
recording

10

6
Phrases & clauses §2.1 - 2.4
Q1
slides
recording

12

7
Testing structure §2.5, Ex 2.1

 

slides
recording

14

8
C-command §2.6 - 2.7  
slides
recording

17

9
Bare phrase structure; Null subjects Ex 2.2; §2.8; 3.1 - 3.2

Q2

slides
--

19

10
Null auxiliaries, null tense §3.2 - 3.4  
slides
recording

21

11
Null complementizers, Defective clauses §3.5 - 3.8  
slides
--

24

12
; Null determiners & null quantifiers §3.9

Q3

slides
recording

26

--
Yom Kippur (no class)      

28

13
Exercise §3.1 Ex 3.1  
slides
--

Oct. 1

14
Exercise §3.2 Ex 3.2

Q4

slides
recording

3

15
T-to-C & V-to-T movement §4.1-4  
slides
recording

5

16
Head movement, Aux-to-T movement §4.5-6  
slides
recording

8

17
Negation, do-support, summary §4.7-9, Ex 4.1

Q5

slides
--

10

18
Ex 4.2 on board; Ex 4.2  
slides
recording

12

--
Fall Break (no class)      

15

19
Ex 4.2 on board; WH-questions & WH movement as copy deletion Ex 4.2; §5.1-3  
slides
recording

17

20
What triggers movement & Pied-piping §5.4-5  
slides
recording

19

21
Pied-piping of superordinate prepositions & Long-distance wh-movement §5.6-7  
slides
recording

22

22
Multiple wh-questions §5.8 - end

Q6

slides
recording

24

23
Exercise 5.1    
slides
recording

26

24
Exercise 5.2 Relative clauses    
slides
recording

29

25
A-movement. Belfast English, idioms; Argument structure & theta roles §6.1-4

Q7

slides
recording

31

26
Unaccusatives; Passivization §6.5-7  
slides
--

Nov. 2

27
Raising, raising vs. control §6.8-9  
slides
recording

5

28
Summary, Ex 6.1-2 §6.10, Ex 6.1-2

Q8

slides
recording

7

29
Agreement & feature valuation; Expletives, Uninterpretable features §7.1-4  
slides
recording

9

30
Expetive it, expletive there §7.5-6  
slides
recording

12

31
More on expletives, Agreement & A movement §7.6-7

Q9

slides
recording

14

32
EPP and control and raising clauses; EPP and person agreement, Defective clauses with expletive subjects

§7.7-10

 
slides
recording

16

33
Ex. 7.1    
--
recording

19

34
Split projections 1: CP §8.1-2
Q10
slides
recording

21

--
Thanksgiving holiday (no class)

 

   

23

--
Thanksgiving holiday (no class)      

26

35
Split projections 2: CP §8.2  
slides
recording

28

36
Split projections 3: TP, VP §8.3-5  
slides
recording

30

37
Split projections 4: VP §8.6-7  
slides
recording

Dec. 3

38
Split projections 5: summary & exercises Ex 8.1

slides
recording

5

39
   
*Q11*
   

7

40

Party, course evaluations

 

 

   

17

presentation of final project, 8am-12

slides slides

     

Go back to Harry Howard's home page

Inception: 8/27/01. Last revision: December 4, 2012 . HH