LSA.102 | Case, Agreement and the Nature of Syntactic Categories

David Pesetsky and Esther Torrego
MW 2:55-4:35
location: 32-141
course web site: http://lsa.dlp.mit.edu/Class/102

In this class, we will develop an explanation for the distribution and behavior of the various syntactic categories (especially their case and selectional properties). The building blocks of our proposal will be features such as Tense and Person, whose interaction with independently observable properties of agreement yields many of the properties normally attributed to syntactic categories themselves. Reading by Baker, Borer, Brody, Chomsky, Epstein et al, and others.

Prerequisites: Some knowledge of syntax in the Minimalist tradition.