Syntax
Professor Shi Baohui
MA General and Applied Linguistics
School of Foreign Languages
Beijing Forestry University
Summer 2006
1. Lecture List
Week General
Readings
1
Introduction
Radford: Chs. 1-2; Heageman: Ch. 1
2
Structure
Radford: Ch. 3; Heageman: Ch. 2
3
Null elements
Radford: Ch. 4
4
Head movement
Radford: Ch. 5; Heageman: Ch. 3
5
Wh-movement
Radford: Ch. 6
6
A-movement
Radford: Ch. 7; Heageman: Ch. 4
7
Agreement & case
Radford: Ch. 8; Heageman: Ch. 5
8
Split projection & phase
Radford: Chs. 9-10
2. Essential Readings
 The main text relating the minimalist program is:
Radford, Andrew. 2004. Minimalist Syntax: Exploring the Structure of English.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

An important supplementary text is:
Haegeman, Liliane. 2006. Thinking Syntactically: A Guide to Argumentation and
Analysis. Oxford: Blackwell.
(A full list of references is found overleaf.)
3. Assessment
This is by coursework and an essay on an assigned topic, both carrying equal weight
towards the final score. The essay topics will be available later in the course.
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4. References
Abraham, Werner, Samuel David Epstein, Höskuldur Thráinsson & C. Jan-Wouter Zwart. (eds.) 1996.
Minimal Ideas: Syntactic Studies in the Minimalist Framework. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Adger, David. 2003. Core Syntax. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Baltin, Mark & Chris Collins. (eds.) 2000. The Handbook of Contemporary Syntactic Theory. Oxford:
Blackwell. (FLTRP)
Botha, Rudolf P. 1989. Challenging Chomsky: The Generative Garden Game. Oxford: Blackwell.
Büring, Daniel. 2004. Binding Theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Chomsky, Noam. 1966. Cartesian Linguistics: A Chapter in the History of Rationalist Thought. New York:
Harper & Row.
Chomsky, Noam. 1981. Lectures on Government and Binding. Dordrecht: Foris.
Chomsky, Noam. 1985. Knowledge of Language: Its Nature, Origin, and Use. New York: Praeger. (FLTRP)
Chomsky, Noam. 1988. Language and the Problems of Knowledge: The Managua Lectures. Cambridge, Mass.:
MIT.
Chomsky, Noam. 1995. The Minimalist Program. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT.
Chomsky, Noam. 1998. Minimalist Inquiries: the Framework. Ms. MIT.
Chomsky, Noam. 2000. New Horizons in the Study of Language and Mind. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press. (FLTRP)
Chomsky, Noam. 2002. On Nature and Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (PUP)
Cook, Vivian & Mark Newson. 1996. Chomsky’s Universal Grammar: An Introduction. Oxford: Blackwell.
(FLTRP)
Culicover, Peter W. 1997. Principles and Parameters: An Introduction to Syntactic Theory. Oxford: Oxford
University Press.
Haegeman, Liliane. 1994. Introduction to Government and Binding Theory. 2/e. Oxford: Blackwell.
Haegeman, Liliane. 1999. English Grammar: A Generative Perspective. Oxford: Blackwell.
Haegeman, Liliane. 2006. Thinking Syntactically: A Guide to Argumentation and Analysis. Oxford:
Blackwell.
Huang, C.-T. James. 1996. Introductory Syntax. Lecture Notes. Harvard University. (Chs. 1-8 can be
downloaded from the author’s web page at Harvard)
Johnson, Kyle. 2004. An Introduction to Transformational Grammar. Ms (downloadable pdf document).
University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
Kasher, Asa. (ed.) 1991. The Chomskyan Turn. Oxford: Blackwell.
Lightfoot, David. 1982. The Language Lottery: Toward a Biology of Grammar. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT.
Lyons, John. 1991. Chomsky. 3/e. London: Fontana.
Matthews, P. H. 1993. Grammatical Theory: From Bloomfield to Chomsky. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
Murray, Stephen O. 1994. Theory Groups and the Study of Language in North America: A Social History.
Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Newmeyer, Frederick J. 1996. Generative Linguistics: A Historical Perspective. London: Routledge.
Ouhalla, Jamal. 1999. Introducing Transformational Grammar: From Principles and Parameters to Minimalism.
2/e. London: Arnold. (FLTRP)
Piattelli-Palmarini, Massimo. (ed.) 1980. Language and Learning: The Debate between Jean Piaget and Noam
Chomsky. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Radford, Andrew. 1988. Transformational Syntax: A First Course. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
(FLTRP)
Radford, Andrew. 1997a. Syntax: A Minimalist Introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
(FLTRP)
Radford, Andrew. 1997b. Syntactic Theory and the Structure of English: A Minimalist Approach. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press. (PUP)
Radford, Andrew. 2004a. English Syntax: An Introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Radford, Andrew. 2004b. Minimalist Syntax: Exploring the Structure of English. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Smith, Neil. 1999. Chomsky: Ideas and Ideals. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (FLTRP)
石定栩，2002，
《乔姆斯基的形式句法——历史进程与最新理论》
。北京：北京语言文化大学出版社。
温宾利，2002，
《当代句法学导论》
。北京：外语教学与研究出版社。
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