Topics in A-Syntax

IGRA 08: Topics in Syntax

Thursdays 11.15-12.45, SR H1 5.16, Beethovenstraße 15

Within the generative framework, structural positions are traditionally distinguished as being A(rgument) vs. A-bar. The former are positions that can be occupied by arguments, thus can be assigned a theta-role; the latter form an Elsewhere or negative category, denoting positions that are not A positions. This binary division has major implications for operations in syntax and the rules that apply to them: e.g. movement (A movement is typically bounded within finite clauses, while A-bar movement is not), Case assignment (only available for A positions), argument structure, agreement, and binding, among others.

This course will focus on the syntax of A positions. We will examine a series of dependencies that affect and involve A positions, such as:

phi-agreement
case
argument-structure
control
(hyper-)raising
EPP
object shift
passivization
binding
certain types of scrambling

We will also look at some recent works that call into question the status (A vs. A-bar) of certain types of syntactic operation and suggest that a hybrid approach may be called for.

Required Readings:

Bhatt, Rajesh. 2016. Minimalist Approaches to the Syntax of South Asian Languages. The Language and Linguistics of South Asia. Eds. Hans Henrich Hock & Elena Bashir. De Gruyter, Mouton.
Bhatt, Rajesh and Stefan Keine. 2018. A secondary crossover effect in Hindi-Urdu. Talk given at FASAL 8. Wichita State University.
Collins, Chris. A smuggling approach to the passive in English. Syntax 8: 2, 81-120.
Deal, Amy Rose. 2017. Covert hyperraising to object. Proceedings of NELS 47. Eds. Andrew Lamont & Katerina Tetzloff.
Halpert, Claire. To Appear. Raising, unphased. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory.
Hartman, Jeremy. 2011b. (Non-)intervention in A-movement: some cross-constructional and cross-linguistic consequences. Linguistic Variation 11.2: 121-148.
Hicks, Glyn. 2009. Tough-constructions and their derivation. Linguistic Inquiry 40:4, 535-566.
Keine, Stefan. To Appear. Selective Opacity. Linguistic Inquiry.
McFadden, Thomas. The position of morphological case in the derivation. University of Pennsylvania Dissertation.
Polinsky, Maria. 2013. Raising and control. The Cambridge Handbook of Comparative Syntax, 577-606. Ed. Marcel den Dikken. Cambridge University Press.
Salzmann, Martin. 2017. Prolepsis. The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Syntax. 2nd Edition. Eds. Martin Everaert and Henk C. van Riemsdijk.
Sigurðsson, Halldór Ármann. On the new passive. Syntax 14:2, 148-178.
Van Urk, Coppe. 2015. A uniform syntax for phrasal movement: A case study of Dinka Bor. MIT Dissertation.
Vikner, Sten. 1994. Scandinavian object shift and West Germanic scrambling. Studies on Scrambling. Eds. Norbert Corver & Henk van Riemsdijk, 487-517. Mouton de Gruyter, Berlin

Additional Readings:

Bobaljik, Jonathan. 2002. A-Chains at the PF-Interface: Copies and `Covert' movement. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 20: 197-267.
Bruening, Benjamin. To Appear. Passive do so. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory.
Cable, Seth. 2012. The optionality of movement and EPP in Dholuo. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 30: 651-697.
Chomsky, Noam. 1981. Lectures on Government and Binding. Mouton de Gruyter. Berlin.
Fox, Danny. 1999. Reconstruction, binding theory, and the interpretation of chains. Linguistic Inquiry 30: 2, 157-196.
Fleisher, Nicholas. 2013. On the absence of scope reconstruction in tough-subject A-chains. Linguistic Inquiry 44:2, 321-332.
Keine, Stefan. 2017. Case vs. positions in the locality of A-movement. University of Southern California.
Longenbaugh, Nick. 2017. Composite A/A' movement: evidence from tough movement.
Polinsky, Maria and Eric Potsdam. 2013. Diagnosing covert A-movement. Diagnosing Syntax, eds. Lisa Cheng & Norbert Corver.
Postal, Paul. 1974. On raising. MIT Press. Cambridge, MA.
Safir, Ken. To Appear. The A-A'-distinction as an epiphenomenon. Linguistic Inquiry.