The Syntax of Edges

Enoch Aboh

In this class, we will study various aspects of those peripheral
syntactic domains which are of significant relevance to current
theories of clause structure. Since Rizzi's (1997) seminal
paper on the C-system, there has been considerable effort
spent mapping out the complementizer layer and studying
the interaction between topic and focus at the clausal level.
Several facts about languages (e.g., dislocations, object shift,
demonstrative reinforcement, DP-internal topic) suggest that
certain generalizations that have been made for the C-system
should extend to other peripheral domains, such as the
NP-periphery (or the D-system) and the VP-periphery. The
empirical focus of the class will be on aspects of the syntax
of Gbe (Kwa) languages. After a brief introduction to the
general aspects of Gbe syntax, we will turn to certain structures
(e.g., OV constructions, complex predicates, noun phrases)
which point to a strong correlation between the C-system, the
D-system, and the VP-periphery.

Prerequisites: background in syntactic theory at the
intermediate or advanced level. length, dates, days, times, sessions