The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Department of Linguistics and Modern Languages
1st Term, 2013-14
Course code & title:
Language of instruction:
Time & venues:
LING6901 Contemporary Approaches to Linguistics Analysis
English
3 units
Units:
Lectures Thursday 3:30pm - 6:15pm
ELB 405
Instructor:
Instructor:
JIANG-KING Ping
CHEUNG Candice
Email:
Email:
pjiang@cuhk.edu.hk
candicecheung@cuhk.edu.hk
Course description:
Section 1
The syntax section provides students with a concise and critical introduction to the central issues and
perennial problems in formal syntax. Through exercises, class discussions, and presentations, students will
gain a solid understanding of the fundamentals and new developments in generative grammar. Whenever
relevant, data from Mandarin and other languages will be used to motivate and/or instantiate the analyses
discussed.
Section 2
The phonology section aims to equip students with basic knowledge and analytical skills in theoretical
phonology. Students will gain a solid understanding of the key concepts of Generative Phonology and
Optimality Theory, and learn how to analyze sound patterns in a variety of languages through a number of
exercises.
Learning outcomes:
Section 1



Attain a good understanding of the fundamentals and new developments in generative grammar
Equip students with the analytic skills for analyzing data and tackling syntactic problems
Train students to identify and articulate empirical and theoretical issues in their readings, and relate
them to their native language(s)
Section 2



Understand the major stages of the development of phonological theories in the past 50 years
Understand the current issues in the frontier of theoretical phonology
Be able to tackle phonological problems within the latest theoretical framework
Assessment Method:
Section 1
Participation & presentations
Term paper
Sub-total
Section 2
20%
30%
50%
Participation & presentation
Term paper
Sub-total
Total
20%
30%
50%
100%
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Readings:
Section 1
Background readings:
Haegeman, Liliane. 1994. Introduction to Government and Binding Theory. Blackwell.
Reinhart, Tanya, and Eric Reuland. 1993. Reflexivity. Linguistic Inquiry 24: 657–720.
Supplementary reading:
Ouhalla, Jamal. 2001. Introducing Transformational Grammar: From Principles and Parameters to
Minimalism. Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press/Edward Arnold.
Section 2
Background readings:
Chomsky, Norm, and Morris Halle. 1968. The Sound Pattern of English. Cambridge: MIT Press.
Clements, G. N., and Elizabeth V. Hume 1995. The internal organization of speech sounds. In Goldsmith, John
A. ed. The Handbook of Phonological Theory. Blackwell Publishers.
Kager, Rene. 1999. Optimality Theory. Cambridge University Press.
Odden, David. 2005. Introducing Phonology. Cambridge University Press.
Course syllabus:
Section 1
Week 1 (Sept. 5):
From Transformational Grammar to Government and Binding Theory (Lecture,
presentation & discussion)
Background readings: Haegeman, Introduction, Ch.1-Ch.2; Supplementary readings:
Ouhalla, Ch.1-Ch.4
Presentations of answers to group exercises: Ch.1 (Ex. 1, 4) from Haegeman
-
Week 2 (Sept. 12):
Advanced readings for the group exercises in Ch. 1:
Dowty, David. 1989. On the semantic content of the notion of "thematic role." In
Properties, Types, and Meaning, ed. Gennaro Chierchia, Barbara Hall Partee,
and Raymond Turner, 69-129. Dordrecht: Kluwer.
Dowty, David. 1991. Thematic proto-roles and argument selection. Language 67:
547-619.
Jackendoff, R., 1987. The status of thematic relations in linguistic theory.
Linguistic Inquiry 18, 369-411.
Parsons, Terence. 1995. Thematic relations and arguments. Linguistic Inquiry 26:
635-662.
Bhatt, R. and R. Pancheva. 2006. Implicit arguments. The Blackwell Companion
to Syntax, v. II, Blackwell, 554-584.
Case theory (Lecture, presentation & discussion)
Background readings: Haegeman, Ch.3, Ch.5; Supplementary readings: Ouhalla,
Ch.6-8
Presentations of answers to group exercises: Ch.2 (Ex. 1-3) from Haegeman
-
Advanced readings for the group exercises in Ch. 2:
Bernstein, Judy B. 2001. The DP hypothesis: Identifying clausal properties in the
nominal domain. In The Handbook of Contemporary Syntactic Theory, ed. Mark
Baltin and Chris Collins, 536-561. Malden, Mass.: Blackwell.
Bobaljik, Jonathan David. 2003. Floating quantifiers: Handle with care. In The
second Glot international state-of-the-article book: the latest in linguistics, ed.
Lisa Cheng and Rint Sybesma, 107-148. Berlin; New York: Mouton de Gruyter.
Cinque, Guglielmo. 2010. The Syntax of Adjectives: A Comparative Study.
Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press
Longobardi, Giuseppe. 1994. Reference and proper names: a theory of
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N-movement in syntax and logical form. Linguistic Inquiry 25: 609-665.
Pollock, J.-Y. 1989. Verb Movement, Universal Grammar, and the Structure of IP.
Linguistic Inquiry 20, 365-424.
Sportiche, D. 1988. A Theory of Floating Quantifiers and its Corollaries for
Constituent Structure. Linguistic Inquiry 19, 425-450.
+
Week 3 (Sept. 19):
Binding theory (Lecture, presentation & discussion)
Background readings: Haegeman, Ch.4; Reinhart & Reuland 1993; Supplementary
reading: Ouhalla, Ch.9
Presentations of answers to group exercises: Ch.3 (Ex. 2); Ch.5 (Ex. 1, 4) from
Haegeman
-
Week 4 (Sept. 26):
Advanced readings for the group exercises in Ch. 5:
Haegeman, L. 1987. Register variations in English: some theoretical
observations. Journal of English Linguistics 20: 230-248.
Massam, Diane and Yves Roberge. 1989. Recipe Context Null Objects in
English. Linguistic Inquiry 20: 134-139.
Rizzi, L. 1986. Null Objects in Italian and the Theory of pro. Linguistic Inquiry
17: 501-557.
A and A’-movements (Lecture, presentation & discussion)
Background readings: Haegeman, Ch.6-Ch.7, Ch.10-11; Supplementary readings:
Ouhalla, Ch.10-16
Presentations of answers to group exercises: Ch.4 (Ex. 3, 6) from Haegeman
-
-
-
Oct. 3
Advanced readings for the group exercises in Ch. 3:
Bošković, Željko. 1996. Selection and the Categorial Status of Infinitival
Complements. Natural Language & Linguistic Theory 14: 269-304.
Koster, Jan. 1984. On binding and control. Linguistic Inquiry 15: 417-459.
Manzini, Maria Rita (1983) On control and control theory. Linguistic Inquiry 14,
421–446.
Advanced readings for the group exercises in Ch. 4:
Cole, Peter, Gabriella Hermon and C.-T. James Huang. 2001. Long Distance
Reflexives -- The State of the Art. In Long Distance Reflexives, Syntax and
Semantics 33, ed. Peter Cole, Gabriella Hermon and C.-T. James Huang, xiii-xlv.
Academic Press, New York.
Huang, C.-T. James and C.-S. Luther Liu. 2001. Logophoricity, Attitudes and ziji
at the Interface. In Long Distance Reflexives, Syntax and Semantics 33, ed. Peter
Cole, Gabriella Hermon and C.-T. James Huang, 141-195. Academic Press, New
York.
Manzini, Maria Rita. 1983. On control and control theory. Linguistic Inquiry 14,
421–446.
Due date of the abstract
Week 5 (Oct. 3):
Empty categories & relativized minimality (Lecture, presentation & discussion)
Background readings: Haegeman, Ch.8-9, Ch.12; Supplementary readings: Ouhalla,
Ch.17-18
Presentations of answers to group exercises: Ch.6 (Ex. 6); Ch.7 (Ex. 2) from Haegeman
-
Advanced readings for the group exercises in Ch. 6-7:
Burzio, Luigi. 1986. Italian Syntax. Dordrecht: Reidel.
Rizzi, L. 1990. Relativized Minimality. Cambridge: MIT Press.
Week 6 (Oct. 10):
Students’ presentations of their term papers
Week 7 (Oct. 17):
Complete term paper
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The term paper needs to be discussed in advance with the instructor and students are expected to
give a class presentation with the preliminary results. Students have two options for the term paper:
(i) writing a paper on a certain phenomenon of English and/or other languages and providing a
plausible account for it using a Principles-and-Parameters (P&P) approach; (ii) reviewing a
theoretical aspect of the P&P approach, pointing out problems and presenting at least the sketch of
an alternative approach.
For useful advice on picking a topic, presenting your analysis, and formatting your paper, you are
strongly recommended to consult chapters 2-4 (pp. 15-63) of Green & Morgan’s (2001) Practical
Guide to Syntactic Analysis.
Section 2
Week 8 (Oct. 24):
Highlight of the SPE model of Generative Phonology (Lecture & Discussion)
Reading: Chomsky & Halle 1968, 1991, Chapter 7, 8, 9
Week 9 (Oct. 31):
Analyzing complex data within the SPE framework (Lecture & Discussion)
Reading: Odden 2005, Chapter 7
Assignment: the exercises in the Chapter 7 of Odden 2005.
Week 10 (Nov. 7):
Highlight of the Auto-segmental Phonology (Lecture & Discussion)
Reading: Odden 2005, Chapter 10; Clements & Hume 1995
Assignment: the exercises in the Chapter 10 of Odden 2005.
Week 11 (Nov. 14):
Highlight of Optimality Theory (Lecture & Discussion)
Reading: Kager 1999, Chapter 1, 2
Assignment: the exercises in the Chapter 1, 2 of Kager 1999.
Week 12 (Nov. 21):
Syllable, Stress, Reduplication in Optimality Theory (Presentation & Discussion)
Reading: Kager 1999, Chapter 3, 4, 5
Assignment: the exercises in the Chapter 3, 4, 5 of Kager 1999.
Week 13 (Nov. 28):
Correspondence, Learning, Syntax in Optimality Theory (Presentation & Discussion)
Reading: Kager 1999, Chapter 6, 7, 8
Assignment: find a set of data and work out an OT analysis on your own.
Week 14 (Dec. 5):
Complete a term paper based on the assignment from last week.
Attention is drawn to University policy and regulations on honesty in academic work, and to the
disciplinary guidelines and procedures applicable to breaches of such policy and regulations.
Details may be found at http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/policy/academichonesty/. With each
assignment, students will be required to submit a statement that they are aware of these policies,
regulations, guidelines and procedures.
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