Course announcements in this post:<\/p>\n
24.943<\/a>: Syntax of a Language (Family) — Haitian Creole (“Krey\u00f2l”) syntax<\/strong><\/p>\n I\u0092d like to take as one starting point for this course this quote from a recent Facebook posting by our colleague Kai demystifying \u0093stupidity\u0094:<\/p>\n \u0093… [Y]ou need to become used to feeling \u0093stupid\u0094. I mean this in an entirely non-disparaging sense: obviously, you\u0092re not stupid. What it is is that you\u0092re not completely understanding a complex topic. Of course, that is in fact the permanent condition of science. The whole point of science is to work at things we don\u0092t understand and make some progress towards understanding, but that progress will then result in even more things we don\u0092t understand….\u0094<\/p>\n http:\/\/kaivonfintel.org\/2016\/08\/28\/prerequisites\/<\/a><\/p>\n I’ve taken Kai\u0092s caveat to heart while preparing materials for this class and feeling quite \u0093stupid\u0094 about various puzzles of Haitian Creole syntax that beg for \u0093progress toward understanding.\u0094\u00a0 So I\u0092d like this seminar to take us through the memory lane of some puzzles that I\u0092ve been thinking about for years, decades even. We’ll examine some the data and proposals in my and related publications on Haitian Creole, specifically on: clause structure, (non-verbal) predication, clefts, negation, noun-phrase structure, bare noun phrases, and serial verbs.\u00a0 With the right questions, these old problems may well lead us to improved solutions, with their share of new questions…<\/p>\n We\u0092ll invite participants to present and lead discussion on topics of their liking that may (indirectly) connect with the afore-mentioned areas of syntax and that can include relevant Haitian Creole data.\u00a0 So the formal course requirements will include regular weekly participation, in-class presentations and a short paper\u00a0 (~10 pages) which may well be a draft of something publishable.<\/p>\n My own papers for the course are already available on the \u0093recent publications\u0094 section of my MIT website<\/a>.\u00a0 And we\u0092ll assign readings from other authors as well, of course.\u00a0 As we progress, I’ll make these papers available on the Stellar website for the course.<\/p>\n Toward the end of the semester, we\u0092ll be getting help from a dear friend and co-author, Prof. dr. Enoch Aboh from the University of Amsterdam.\u00a0 His most recent book is The Emergence of Hybrid Grammars: Language Contact and Change<\/em><\/a>, from which we\u0092ll read a couple of chapters\u0097in time for Enoch\u0092s visit, December 7\u00969.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, on Wednesday, September 7, we\u0092ll begin the seminar with a discussion of (very) basic issues, starting with general background about “Creole” languages, word order in Haitian Creole, etc.\u00a0 The relevant paper for that is \u0093Morphology and word order in \u0091creolization\u0092 and beyond\u0094 available here<\/a>.<\/p>\n You may also want to look at another paper of mine that gives a general survey of the language\u0097from John Holm\u0092s 2007 book Comparative Creole Syntax<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n 24.949\/9.601<\/a>: Language Acquisition I<\/strong><\/p>\n The main goal of this course is to review a variety of topics in the acquisition (typical 1st language acquisition) of syntax and semantics. Throughout the course, we will survey various theories and examine their claims in light of empirical data and learnability theory. We will compare different methodologies to study language development and examine what type of information different types of data provide us with. More importantly, we will go over the cool, and puzzling, things children produce that are deviant from the target grammar, as well as interpretations that are available to children even though they are out for adult speakers of the target grammar, and, specifically, how these data inform linguistic theory and\/or learnability theory. Apart from the topics I think are worth reviewing, there is room to discuss topics that participants of the class are particularly interested in.<\/p>\n As part of the course, you (registered students) will be working on your own language acquisition project, which requires you to think about theoretical proposals from an acquisition perspective (considering empirical data as well as learnability). An additional goal to the course is that you will acquire the skill of translating your research questions and related hypotheses into experimentally testable predictions. You will write a paper based on this, which can have the form of a well-developed research proposal (e.g. a way to test a prediction that follows from (your) analysis of a particular phenomenon), or an analysis of existing (production) data for instance, but many forms are imaginable. You will be guided through the process in individual meetings with the instructor at different stages.<\/p>\n Required for this course is that you:<\/p>\n To prepare for the first class, please read Crain\u0092s paper on language acquisition<\/strong> (pp. 597-612). You can download it via Stellar. There is no need to read all the commentaries to it, but you can, of course, if you like.<\/p>\n The required readings will be made available through the Stellar class website (some of them already are). To acquire the relevant background, I can recommend Guasti\u0092s book on language acquisition (Guasti, M. T. (2004). Language acquisition: The growth of grammar. MIT Press.). Purchasing or reading this book is not obligatory for the course, but it is a great book to have as a reference if you\u0092re interested in language acquisition.<\/p>\n The first class is on Monday September 12th.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n 24.960<\/a>: Syntactic Models<\/strong><\/p>\n The course has twin goals:<\/p>\n First, it gives a quick introduction to at least two “frameworks” for syntactic research that compete with the Government-Binding\/Principles & Parameters\/Minimalist tradition in the current syntax world:\u00a0 HPSG and Lexical-Functional Grammar (LFG).\u00a0 We work speedily through much of the HPSG textbook by Sag, Wasow and Bender, and also look at the LFG textbook by Bresnan, Asudeh, Toivonen and Wechsler.<\/p>\n Next, the class turns historical, tracing the development of generative syntax from Syntactic Structures (1957) up to the early 1980s, when HPSG and LFG first separated themselves off from the research program that became GB\/P&P\/Minimalism.\u00a0\u00a0 An overarching theme of the course is the issue of derivational vs. representational views of syntax — a theme that offers some surprising observations about who said what at various points in the history of the field, but also gives the course a focus relevant to the most current work.For a demonstration that the issue is live (including the hotly debated question of whether there even is a question), you need look no further than a 2014 on Norbert Hornstein’s blog, featuring Omer Preminger (who taught this very class in 2011).\u00a0 See this post<\/a>, which begins with links to earlier discussion on the blog that prompted that posting, and continues with millions of comments.<\/p>\n You can get a good sense of what the class will be like from its old Stellar pages — for example here<\/a>.\u00a0 I plan to follow essentially the same structure \u0097 plus the possibility of a guest lecture on \u0093Simpler Syntax\u0094 by Ray Jackendoff (date to be arranged, fingers crossed).<\/p>\n As you may have heard, the sole requirements for the class are:<\/p>\n There is no paper required!<\/strong> (A major attraction in the past.) Many students have reported finding this class both fun and enlightening (and not just because there is no required paper). Ask some of your predecessors for their reviews.<\/p>\n The most important book to order right now is the following one: Sag, Wasow and Bender, Syntactic Theory<\/em> \u0097 second edition (this is crucial).<\/p>\n Please start reading it in advance of the first class.<\/strong> Get as far as you can in it, so you come to the first class already somewhat prepared. This book is intended as an introduction to syntax for undergraduates, so you will find the early chapters go quickly. But the syntax it introduces is HPSG, so fairly soon you will be learning new things and tripping over unfamiliar notations.<\/p>\n The books we will be using later in the semester are:<\/p>\n Bresnan et al., Lexical-Functional Grammar<\/em> \u0097 please note that this too is a second edition, which we\u0092re using for the first time.<\/p>\n Chomsky, Syntactic Structures<\/em><\/p>\n Other readings (papers and excerpts from books) will be downloadable from the Stellar website for the class.<\/p>\n Since this Tuesday is just registration day, the first meeting will be September 13, i.e. next week.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n 24.964<\/a>: Topics in Phonology<\/strong><\/p>\n The main goal of this course is to examine the evidence for syllable-based analyses of metrical weight, computed within and across words, and of segmental phonotactics. We compare these with analyses of metrical weight that rely on V-to-V intervals (units that go from the beginning of the nucleus to the beginning of the next nucleus or to the end of the domain, whichever comes first), supplementing the intervals with hypotheses about cue-based licensing of contrasts for the analysis of segmental phonotactics and correspondence phenomena. The focus is on the evidence, readily available or potential, that distinguishes syllables from intervals.<\/p>\n A secondary goal is to examine the history of earlier ideas about syllables and metrical quantity. Some less well-known earlier hypotheses have inherent interest and are supported empirically. I know of no accessible writings on the history of this subject. Anderson\u0092s 1985 book on the history of phonology starts late (for syllables) and focuses on analyses of other phenomena. Goldsmith\u0092s 2010 historically oriented handbook chapter on the syllable skips most significant writings before 1976 and lists claims without examining the content of arguments. The brief historical part of this course is an exercise in reconstructing linguistic arguments left implicit or formulated in unfamiliar styles, and an effort to avoid reinventing the wheel. It is also a partial answer to the request for a course in the history of phonology made by earlier generations.<\/p>\n Registered students do the readings, write a term paper or present the literature on some topic of interest to the class.<\/p>\n The schedule below is approximate. Participants interested in other syllable- or interval-related topics (e.g. articulatory realization or perception of\u00a0 syllables; syllables in prosodic morphology; rhyming and alliteration and what they suggest about intervals) should let me know.<\/p>\n Current plan for what we do when appears below. Some of the readings, but not all, are up on the course website.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n
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