Introduction to Generative Syntax

Instructors: Suzana Fong

This course offers an introduction to the syntax of natural languages as viewed by Generative Grammar. According to this framework, human beings are endowed with the unique capacity for language. Because we are born with this ability, we are able to have robust judgments about sentences that have never uttered before as well as formulate sentences that have never been used by anybody else before. Likewise, this innate capacity accounts for why all children acquire at least one language, even when faced with an incomplete and fragmentary input. In this course, we will delve into the main components of the grammar, including those responsible for establishing the relationship between nominals in a sentence (Binding Theory), for the form and distribution of such nominals (Case Theory), for the combination between predicates and their subjects and objects (Argument Structure). We will also investigate fundamental operations of the grammar, as proposed by current developments of Generative Grammar, i.e. Agree and Merge. At the end of this course, students will have a comprehensive picture of the workings of the grammar that underlie the syntax of natural languages. We will examine data from a diverse set of languages and language families, including English (Germanic), Mongolian (Mongolic), Brazilian Portuguese (Romance), Khanty (Uralic), Korean (Altaic), Lithuanian (Baltic), Acehnese (Austronesian), among others. This course is particularly well-suited to students who drawn to problem-solving and, likewise, to those interested in having first-hand experience analyzing data from different languages.

Keywords: Language Documentation and Description, Syntax, Typology, Theoretical Frameworks

Instructors

Suzana Fong

Memorial University of Newfoundland

I am an assistant professor at Memorial University of Newfoundland. I am a syntactician working on a range of different topics, though focusing on structural relationships that can be established across a main and a subordinate clause, as well as on the morphosytax of nominal licensing and binding. Most of the data I work from is the result of a partnership with native consultants of underrepresented languages. I received a PhD degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an M.A. degree from the University of São Paulo. On my free time, I enjoy reading, some light gaming, and watching or learning olympic weightlifting.