3

rd
year English Minors

Introduction to Generative Grammar

Instructor: Adriana Todea Fall 2011
atodea@yahoo.com
Office hours: Friday 2-3 p.m., Alpha Centre room

Syllabus

Description: We can only understand the subtleties of syntactic structures if we understand the architectonic
principles and blueprints of natural language, the rules that govern the ways in which words combine to build
phrases, and phrases are combined into larger phrases or sentences. It is also necessary to understand that syntax is
multi-layered, that phrases, after being built, can be moved or deleted in order to satisfy the correlation with the
Semantic or Phonetic modules of the language faculty. Movements and deletions take place under certain
restrictions, and speakers, without being specifically taught these conditions, have an unconscious knowledge of
them. All natural languages share the same fundamental structural properties of one universal language faculty,
property of the human brain. But these principles are broad enough to allow considerable differences among specific
languages, which enables both language variation and foreign language acquisition.

Objectives:
To present and discuss evidence that supports the idea that language is a human biological endowment;
To explain how phrases and sentences are constructed;
To explain the notions language faculty and Universal Grammar;
To give a generative description of the English syntax;
To explain the differences in sentence structure among languages from around the world in terms of
universal principles and parameters.

Bibliography: Steven Pinker (1995) The Language Instinct, Penguin;
Blake, Barry J. (1990) Relational Grammar, Routledge;
Vivian Cook & Mark Newson (1996) Chomskys Universal Grammar, second edition, Blackwell;
Haegeman, Liliane (1991) Introduction to Government and Binding Theory, Basil Blackwell.
(You can find selected chapters in the Generative Grammar dossier at the library.)

Requirements & assessment: One final written exam, testing both theoretical knowledge (1 theoretical subject=3
points) and practical application of theoretical knowledge (+ 2 exercises = 6 points).
The printed outlines of the courses are available for you to photocopy at the library in the Generative Grammar
dossier. You are required to bring the appropriate outline at every course. You find in the outlines the content of the
slides I project, which contain the main topics and also structures and diagrams which may be difficult and time
consuming for you to copy during my lecture. They are made available to you to save time and to make note-taking
easier, but not unnecessary!
The outlines as such (without your notes covering the detailed explanations that I give during the course) cannot
constitute a sufficient source of information when preparing for the exam. If you miss a class, it is strongly
recommended that the outline be used as a guide to the bibliography covering the topics discussed.

Schedule:
DATE TOPICS
WEEK 1: 7/10 Course 1: Language as an Instinct
WEEK 2: 14/10 Course 2: Unaccusativity and unergativity. Multistratal syntax. The Final 1 Law.
WEEK 3: 21/10 Course 3: Chomskys theory of language
WEEK 4: 28/10 Course 4: Argument structure and theta-roles. Syntactic valence. Mappings
between syntax and semantics: The Universal Alignment Hypothesis; the Little
Alignment Hypothesis
WEEK 5: 4/10 Seminar 1: Argument structure and theta roles (exercises)
WEEK 6: 11/11 Course 5: The structure of phrases. The X-bar theory
WEEK 7: 18/11 Seminar 2: X-bar theory (exercises)
WEEK 8: 25/11 Course 6: D-structure. S-structure. Movement: Interrogatives in English. Subject
movement. Wh-movement. Head-to-head movement. V-movement.
WEEK 9: 2/12 Seminar 3: Movement (exercises)
WEEK 10: 9/12 Course 7: Structural relations: Dominance, precedence, c-command, m-
command, government.
WEEK 11: 16/12 Course 8: Case theory
WEEK 12: 6/01 Seminar 4: Structural relations & case assignment (exercises)
WEEK 13: 13/01 Course 9: Binding theory
WEEK 14: 20/01 Seminar 5: Review and tutoring