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2005 LSA Institute Linguistic Society of America
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LSA.230 | To Move or not to Move: What are the Questions?

Robert Levine, David Pesetsky and Ivan A. Sag
TR 4:50-6:30
location: 32-123
course web site: http://lsa.dlp.mit.edu/Class/230

This dialogue seminar will compare alternative approaches to displacement phenomena in syntax. Our starting point will be a critical comparison of work within two research traditions that explain these phenomena quite differently: the Minimalist Program and HPSG. The course will focus on such theoretically central topics as wh-extraction (feature percolation/A'-movement) and inversion constructions (linear precedence constraints/head movement), comparing and contrasting monostratal and transformational treatments of these phenomena. Throughout the course, we will try to identify key questions whose resolution in different directions gives rise to the significant divergences that divide derivational frameworks from monostratal approaches. We will attempt to identify areas where rapprochement between competing perspectives is possible, areas where one particular theory seems preferable to another, and areas where known phenomena seem consistent with competing perspectives (or with no current approach).


Prerequisites: some knowledge of syntactic theory (HPSG, Minimalist, or both) and an open mind.