LSA.116 | Language Universals and Grammatical Theory: From Generalizations to Explanation

Maria Polinsky
MW 1:00-2:40
location: 56-114
course web site: http://ling.ucsd.edu/~polinsky/LSA_Summer_05/

This course confronts the goal of discovering language universals - characteristics common to all languages - with the more complex and less predictable patterns we find when we look across languages. How can language universals be established? We will compare top-down and bottom-up approaches to universals and examine cases where the two approaches complement each other. The top-down approach seeks to constrain the potential range of variation based on articulated theoretical predictions. The bottom up approach focuses on the relationship between language-internal and general phenomena and derives universal principles by determining which aspects of grammar are motivated by independent principles. Both approaches deal with macro- and micro-variation, but often differ in the way this variation is motivated. We will examine competing explanations for language universals: the general structure of the language faculty; principles of processing; diachronic change/grammaticalization. These fundamental issues in language universals will be explored through the prism of several linguistic phenomena. We will begin with the classical material of language universals (word order, headedness, alignment) and will then analyze less studied phenomena: lexical categories, BE vs. HAVE language types, and sentence focus constructions.

Professor Polinsky's office hours are:
Week 1: Thursday 9-10am
Weeks 2 and 3: Tuesday 9-10 am